#my favorite portrayal of naomi EVER
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L. Lawliet is a gifted photographer who believes he has understood the light and its secrets. Light Yagami is a young, unstable and slightly crooked model. Together, they kill time.
I had a bookcover design assignment so obviously I chose @devilinthebox's literary masterpiece of a fanfic Our Bodies, Possessed by Light
#I actually hate this already but its mostly because nothing I could ever draw couldnt even begin to describe the beauty of this fic#The way this fic is EVERYTHING to me#It literally tore me to pieces split in my face made me cry then cradled me and gave me a forehead kiss then threw me into cold water#over and over again#I could talk about it for hours#I love every single character so so much#my favorite portrayal of naomi EVER#also the fact that Beyond is turkish and speaks of his turkish mother missing İstanbul so dearly#literally made me cry#I love him so much#sorry Beyond is canonically turkish now and its my whole personality#anyway maybe I'll ramble more about how much I love this fic on another post sometime later#the photos on the wall are mostly my old art#I thought about doing an A portrait but I have no idea what she looks like#anyway yea#my art#lawlight#l lawliet#light yagami#our bodies possessed by light#obpl#lawlight fic#lawlight fanart
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Real-Life Royalty - Disney Princesses in Live-Action Spectacle
By Harshita Verma
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Every girl fantasises about meeting her beloved Disney princess in person, but is it ever the case that your favourite princess actually differs from your actual image of her? In this following article, I will compare the live-action films of two of my all time favourite characters - Cinderella and Jasmine.
Casting and Authenticity
Aladdin (2019) starred Naomi Scott as Jasmine, Mena Massoud as Aladdin. Naomi Scott, who is of British and Indian origin, gave the character of Jasmine a broad and cosmopolitan flavour. Furthermore, she resembled the cartoon character in appearance, just like Mena Massoud and his athletic ability aided the action sequences. This was well received by spectators, who saw it as a positive step towards more diverse casting in Hollywood. The casting of Will Smith as the genie, however, sparked great debate, following Robin Williams' renowned performance in the cartoon version.
The movie, overall, gathered a favorable reception from viewers and critics.
Cinderella (2021) casted Camila Cabello as Cinderella and Nicholas Galitzine as Prince charming. The reviews were mixed, but mostly leaning on the negative side. Camila Cabello is a Cuban woman, contrary to the original Cinderella, who was Caucasian. People immediately compared Cabello's casting to past Cinderella actors, such as Lily James in Disney's 2015 live-action remake. Some debates centred on how Cabello's portrayal differed from earlier interpretations. Additionally, Camila Cabello is a singer by profession, lacking some of the crucial skills an actor must posses.
Overall, the movie received mixed responses, as some people did not like the alteration of plot.
Plot and script
Aladdin sticks to the original storyline of the film. However, In order to further explore and provide depth to the characters and their motivations, the movie incorporates new songs.
A famous dialogue, recited by Jasmine, "How dare you. All of you. Standing around deciding my future. I am not a prize to be won," is kept unchanged, which brought the animated movie to my mind; It felt as if I was present in the scene.
On the contrary, due to Camila Cabello's personal perception of the movie and the message she wants to convey to young girls, the live-action "Cinderella" differs significantly from the animation version of the classic tale. The main alterations included Cinderella's appearance, her behaviour towards her family, and her fashion style. While a few phrases were modified, the well-known "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" remained unaltered. I liked the message the movie gave and how the changed scenes made it unpredictable and not repetitive, but the overall modernization of my favorites princess movie did not sit right with me.
Music and quality
Most of the tunes from the animated movie, such as "A Whole New World," "Friend Like Me," and "Prince Ali" are still present in "Aladdin". Fans are familiar with these tunes, providing them with nostalgia.
A few new songs are included in the live-action adaption, notably "Speechless," which Princess Jasmine sings. This song develops Jasmine's persona and explores her desire for autonomy and an identity.
In contrast to the traditional Disney melodies, "Cinderella" features modern pop songs. Some of the songs on the soundtrack are "Million to One" and "Dream Girl."
The directors' intentions for the adaptations and the tone they want to express have an impact on the music choices in both movies.
Conclusion
To sum up, I would prefer it if Princess Tales kept to the original storyline and used actors that fit the roles. With that said, I think "Aladdin" is better than "Cinderella" because I feel more at ease with the characters' original conceptions than I do with a modernised rendition. The only alterations I like would be the songs featured in the movie, as it does not take away the essence of the plot line. Which one would you prefer?
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Ewan McGregor: My Serotonin Booster
[P.S: Upon the time of writing, I have yet to watch most of his films including The Island, Beginners, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Trainspotting along with some of his series/documentaries including Fargo, Long Way Round and Long Way Up]
I have known many celebrities who has given me happiness these past few years, but it was during quarantine when I needed someone the most. Don’t get me wrong though, many of the people whom I discovered during the start of quarantine still provides me happiness until now, the only difference being that there is a specific someone who really provides me the dose of serotonin that I really hunt and yearn for, that specific someone being Scottish actor Ewan McGregor.
Before I get to the cheesy part (I guess), let me narrate the timeline on how I found my happiness in him.
I first saw him as the debonair bronze candelabra Lumiere who sang the iconic song “Be Our Guest” in 2017’s live-action Beauty and the Beast. I instantly found Lumiere charming and cute in that film and him being head over heels in love for Plumette (played by the gorgeous Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is so cute and adorable, not gonna lie. Also, a moving candelabra singing and dancing in the middle of your dinner table is such a cute visualization, don’t you think?
A year later, Ewan then brought me back to childhood nostalgia through the lens of Christopher Robin, where he played the titular character. Seeing that film for the first time and watching him interact with Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and the other characters in the Hundred-Acre Wood has awakened the child in me. I honestly melt everytime I hear Pooh’s voice (voiced by Jim Cummings) since that voice was what made Pooh one of the cutest bears in the world of cartoons. Also if you observe in the film, there was a scene where he (Christopher) twirled his umbrella like a lightsaber when trying to "kill" a “Heffalump”. That scene kinda made me giggle and also made me think if it was just Ewan’s muscle memory or not.
Fast forward 3 years later to the current year of 2021, I have made a galactic discovery through Star Wars (yes, I know, I’m so late to the rave but hey, better late than never, right?) and through this galactic discovery, I met the sassiest, kindest, strongest and iconic Jedi warrior Obi-Wan Kenobi. I honestly applaud both Ewan and Sir Alec Guinness for their portrayals of the live-action versions of Obi-Wan as well as James Arnold Taylor and Stephen Stanton who voiced Obi-Wan in the animated series The Clone Wars and Rebels.
Now, believe me when I say that I fell in love with the animated Obi-Wan first because of The Clone Wars. Falling in love with the animated version then made me fall for the live-action version which Ewan portrayed flawlessly. It was really obvious in Ewan’s performance as Obi-Wan how much he paid homage to the Obi-Wan of Sir Alec Guinness and I really admired that. Plus, the iconic (and meme-worthy) lines are utterly unforgettable and it made me so happy to hear that he’s coming back as Obi-Wan in his own series on 2022. It was honestly through the character of Obi-Wan where I really started to love Ewan and because of this, I started to dig and binge some of his past and recent work.
Now armed with the yearning to look for and watch more of his movies, I scoured the internet and I found Birds of Prey among the list of his movies. First of all, I was utterly surprised when I found out he was involved in an all-female movie, but I was even more surprised when I found out that he was playing Roman Sionis, a.k.a Black Mask, who is the main villain in the movie. Truth be told, I have a history of loving villainous characters and he was no different. I honestly found him convincing as a villain, egotistical at best and was kind of saddened when he *spoiler alert* died at the end. I was hoping he would come back in a somewhat miraculous way, but I could accept if that’s how his story ends.
After watching Birds of Prey and witnessing him play a villain, I delved into the world of fashion design through the lens of Halston which is a Netflix series about Roy Halston, a famous fashion designer back in the 70s. Ewan played Halston flawlessly, and while some scenes made me cover my eyes because of explicit content, I still enjoyed the show overall not only because of Ewan but because I got to understand what Halston was really like behind the curtain, if you’d like.
Now, I am not the biggest horror movie fan but I faced my fear when I met Doctor Sleep himself, Danny Torrance. Considering that this is the sequel to “The Shining” which is deemed the scariest horror film ever made, I braced myself for it to be horrifying and I would be jumping out of my skin while watching it, and I did in several scenes. I applaud Ewan for playing the grown-up version of Danny and making me understand his story through this film.
After that horror experience, I decided to watch something that speaks to my heart and that is a movie with music, and Moulin Rouge was the perfect one. Now, this movie is highly recommended for every Ewan McGregor fan, because he showcases both his acting chops and his powerful vocals in this movie. I instantly fell in love with the penniless writer Christian, his sweet smile, kind spirit and utter obsession with the idea of love. Also, those songs he sang with Satine (played by the angelic soul that is Nicole Kidman) are automatic auditions to my playlist. Also, that drama at the end when Satine died and Christian was grieving, it made me tear up indeed.
After drama comes more drama, I went into a real-life story and that is The Impossible where he played Henry who is the husband to Maria (played by Naomi Watts) and father to 3 kids, one of them being my favorite Spiderman Tom Holland. Believe me when I say that the movie pulled at my heartstrings, especially after the tsunami hit and the family got separated as well as the scene where Henry (Ewan) was at this one camp and he was speaking on the phone while crying. I really felt the “dad” emotions there, knowing that he is a dad in real-life. This movie, even though you are a fan of Ewan and Tom, is not for the faint of heart.
The latest addition to my list is the knight-in-shining armor that is Elmont from Jack the Giant Slayer. He is a feisty one, let me tell you that. He does not give up easily and boy, does he look hot with that crossbow. Anyways, him as Elmont was a fantastic casting, showcasing the selfless persona of a knight who was willing to protect his kingdom above all else. The mini swordfights in between serve as bonuses.
Please do know that I will be watching more of his work as the days progress, but while writing this, this is all that I have seen.
Finally, I’m done with that lengthy timeline narration and now, onto the chessy-ish part, because it depends on perception if you are willing to think of my love for him as obsession or just dedication.
For the most part, I can’t really describe how happy he makes me. It’s as simple as me hearing him talk in interviews with that lovely Scottish accent of his, hearing him sing covers of songs and seeing his pictures on Pinterest (I have about a hundred of him on a board on the app, along with a few Star Wars characters) and the internet in general or it’s as bizarre as me smiling when I see a photo of him with a silver hoop piercing on his left ear or as scenic (I don’t even know if that’s the right word) as when I see a clip/GIF of him running his hand through his hair. I don’t really know and therefore can’t describe what is this feeling I feel when I see him.
Recently, I’ve been binge-watching his interviews on Graham Norton, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and other outlets and I can’t help but smile amidst him repeating stories and saying the same spiels and all, there’s just something about his presence that makes me feel happy. I’ve also been listening to his covers of songs and him playing the guitar and I melt. I mean, even with his mundane fashion sense, his charisma just stands out for me. Also, his point of views on career and why he chooses the projects that he does is inspirational. I just love, adore and admire him, amidst all the controversy (which I’m not gonna go deep into because that’s all in the past) that happened.
At the end of the day, all I can takeaway from all of these, is that Ewan really makes me happy. With his expressive blue eyes, charming smile, melodic voice, and sweet personality, he can easily lift up my spirits as high as the galaxies can reach. If only I could tell him all of these, but I would just faint and stutter if I were to see him face-to-face. But seriously, given the chance to speak with him, I would tell him how much he means to me and how much brighter the world is because of him.
I’ll just end this lengthy narration with a line from “Your Song”, which is originally sang by Elton John and Ewan sang it beautifully in Moulin Rouge and is now one of my favorite songs.
“How wonderful life is, now you’re in the world”
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Tag 9 people you want to get to know better 💖
Tagged by: @thenoaidi Tack! :D
Favorite colour: Yellow! It reminds me of happiness and the sun. I miss the sun. I also really like to pair it with either purple or green. Yellow/purple is my favourite combo, but yellow/green is summery and happiness and reminds me of laying inside a juniper tree (they're prickly unless you know what you're doing) one summer at school. It also reminds me of the fields and forests here. Everything is so grey this time of year, it gets me really down.
Currently reading: I'm one of those people who read a ton as a kid, and then suddenly found themselves unable to read. Because of that, I'm currently reading 4 books (I havent touched any of them in a long time). Oldest is the first Raven Cycle book. I got a few chapters in. Next one the list is You will get through this night by Dan Howell. Yes, I mainly bought it for nostalgia (watched Dan's vids as a teen/kid), but also because a self help guide seemed like a good idea. I could probably really use it right now, tbh. Haven't been feeling well for quite a while. Next I have 2 books that maybe shouldn't even be on this list, because I only bought them at the end of october, and I haven't actually started them. One is Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (Of AO3 founder fame). I really really really loved Temeraire, and I recognized the fannishness of the writing in Uprooted (while reading Temeraire I didn't know she was Astolat, even though book 8 is very much amnesia fic lol). Because it reminded me of fandom I needed to look her up and lo and behold, she has played a big part in my online life without either of us being aware of it. (If you like dragon go read Temeraire. Most libraries will probably have it. They are So Good.) The last book is the third in a series, where I've read the last two previously. It's The winter of the witch by Kathrene Arden. The first two were really good, lots of fun Russian folklore!
Last series: Not sure is Critical role counts, so Midnight Mass. It was really good, and gave a realistic portrayal of people, good and bad. But it is set in a very Christian town and the first half of the whole show had me hissing in discomfort. If you have some sort of trauma/beef with Christianity be aware of that before starting to watch.
Last movie: Hmm... It might have been Dr. Doolittle? I had two friends over, and one of them wanted to watch it. It was a fun time, very much a movie for the whole family. Kinda made me feel like when I was a kid, hoping magic was real.
Sweet, savoury or spicy: I like all three, but I'm a sucker for sweet. I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't use snuff, I don't drink coffee... But candy, that's my addiction. I can easily eat several kilos of candy in a day. If I have some at home I usually can't stop myself. The only way past it is simply not buying any. That way, if the night is young and I want some, I at least get a walk in before stuffing my face.
Craving: Recently I've been having issues with eating enough, and in general liking food has never been my thing. So as to not be boring and just say candy, I'm gonna as my grandparents cooking. As a kid I also had issues with food (someone really should have figured out I was autistic a log time ago), but at my grandparents place I would stuff myself. I think one reason is that they make everything from scratch, and another is that they actually season their stuff properly. I'm okay with stuff that doesn't taste, and I'm also okay with really spicy stuff. But everything that in-between, that just kinda tastes, it's really just ewwww to me. I can force myself to eat, but not much and I always feel like it got stuck in my throat afterwards.
Currently working on: Learning to crochet. My sister is having a baby (unplanned, and she's young, and I dislike the dad, so that's one reason to my bad mental health currently), and I want to make stuff for it when it comes out. I'm gonna be the best aunt ever and love the baby very much. So far I've made a tiny duck, but it's really tiny, and so my mom suggested i make one of those hanging mobile things. That way, I can make more in different shapes, and they wont go to waste.
I tag... Hmm...
@thefollow-spot, @acindra, @comp-lady @seriously-a-dragon @yharnamsnewslug, @perskuiskaaja @punalippulaiva and uuuh anyone who sees this and feels they wanna do it!
Also, people tagged, no need to do it if you don't want too :D
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The DC live-action multiverse: which movies and shows are part of it?
As a longtime DC Comics fan, I am so glad to see my favorite heroes, villains and so on sharing one giant and cohesive multiverse where they can interact with one another despite coming from different stories set in different realities. That does feel like I’m diving deep into the actual DC Multiverse, the one you can read inside comic books.
However, things are now so big that I have to admit I am too confused about which and TV shows are actually part of this multiverse, hence why I am writing this post, just in case other people may feel the same way about it.
When the CW aired Crisis on Infinite Earths, it helped connecting many separate franchises with one another, with some of them being classic movies and TV shows from yesteryear. As such, I will be using that as a reference for canonicity, especially since there haven’t been so many new products that aired since.
I will divide the movies and TV shows into their franchises, but with three specific categories:
· Movies and shows that have aired since Arrow (2012) and Man of Steel (2013) since debuted and are connected thanks to Crisis
· Movies and shows that were included into the multiverse by Crisis despite the fact they aired before Arrow
· Movies and shows that could be part of this multiverse, but there are no confirmations yet
I used both Arrow and Man of Steel because they are the starting point of DC’s largest TV and movie franchises yet, respectively the Arrowverse and the DC Extended Universe.
Now, without further to do, let’s see what is canon within this multiverse!
“Modern” movies and shows in the multiverse
While some of these started out as being their own thing, with the intention of forming their own franchise, they have since merged into one big multiverse.
Arrowverse
The network where most of these TV shows air (or aired) is The CW, hence why there is also the term CWVerse connected to it, even though fans still prefer to call it Arrowverse, after the show that started it all.
Some of the shows weren’t supposed to be part of the franchise from the start, but have since united into one cohesive multiverse.
· Arrow (2012-2020)
· Constantine (2014-2015)
· The Flash (2014- )
· Supergirl (2015-2021)
· Legends of Tomorrow (2016- )
· Black Lightning (2018-2021)
· Batwoman (2019- )
· Stargirl (2020- )
· Superman & Lois (2021- )
· Naomi (TBD)
DC Extended Universe
DC’s largest movie franchise yet in terms of installments, it was connected to the Arrowverse thanks to Crisis on Infinite Earths. I won’t list down all the announced projects, because this franchise is somewhat infamous for announcing movies and then not making all of them. By the way, these are all the movies that have been released or are in production as of right now.
· Man of Steel (2013)
· Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
· Suicide Squad (2016)
· Wonder Woman (2017)
· Justice League (2017)
· Aquaman (2018)
· Shazam! (2019)
· Birds of Prey (2020)
· Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
· The Suicide Squad (2021)
· The Flash (2022)
· Aquaman 2 (2022)
· Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)
· Black Adam (TBD)
· Wonder Woman 3 (TBD)
· Blue Beetle (TBD)
The Conjuring Universe
This horror franchise shares some production elements with the DCEU (such as producers, directors and even actors), and some small links have been made to connect the two, so they can be considered canon.
· The Conjuring (2013)
· Annabelle (2014)
· The Conjuring 2 (2016)
· Annabelle: Creation (2017)
· The Nun (2018)
· The Curse of La Llorona (2019)
· Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
Titansverse (aka the former DC Universe shows)
DC Universe was a streaming service that tried to create its own multiverse. It included four shows, which have since joined the Arrowverse (Stargirl being the most prominent case, which is why it is listed as part of it). The shows are:
· Titans (2018- )
· Doom Patrol (2019- )
· Swamp Thing (2019)
HBO Max movies and shows
HBO Max is planning to release movies and shows set across the multiverse, even tying them with other franchises like the Arrowverse and the DCEU. The shows in question are:
· Peacemaker (2022- )
· Green Lantern (TBD)
· Gotham City Police Department (TBD)
· Justice League Dark (TBD)
There are also other projects, but information about them is still scarce, so, maybe, this post will become updated soon if they announce something about them.
As for the movies, well, there are two particular cases.
· The Batman (2022) is linked to this multiverse because the Gotham City Police Department show will be a spin-off of that movie
· Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) is actually an alternate version of another film, Justice League. They could both be considered canon, due to this being a multiverse.
In reality, these shows weren’t connected through Crisis, having been announced afterwards, but they are still confirmed to be part of the multiverse.
Past movies and shows included in the multiverse
Crisis on Infinite Earths managed to pay homage to past DC franchises by including some of them in the crossover event, thus tying them all together. In chronological order, these are:
· Fleischer Superman cartoons (1941-1943), included by the comic book tie-in
· Batman (1966-1968), its companion movie (1966) and, by extension, The Green Hornet (1966-1967). Adam West and Burt Ward reprised their role in Legend of the Super Heroes (1979) which sees them in a comedic special with other members of the Justice League, as well as in two animated movies released in 2016 and 2017). There is a comic book that crosses over with the Wonder Woman show (1975-1979), which may actually be included twice, since a version of it does appear in the comic book tie-in of Crisis of Infinite Earths.
· Superman movie series (1978-1987) due to Brandon Routh reprising his role from Superman Returns (2006) which is supposed to be an alternate sequel to Superman II. However, due to him mentioning events of Superman III, it may not be so clear which movies are supposed to be canon in this multiverse. Supergirl (1984) is supposedly included
· Batman movie series (1989-1997) which could also include Catwoman (2004)
· The Flash (1990-1991) which was also included as part of the multiverse as far back as 2016
· Smallville (2001-2011). Tom Welling does reprise his role as Clark Kent, but there are canon issues between his portrayal in the crossover and the show’s proper, which suggests he didn’t play the Smallville Superman, but a version from that multiverse
· Birds of Prey (2002-2003)
· Green Lantern (2011) due to footage from that movie shown at the end of the crossover. However, it is not clear yet if that was supposed to indicate that the movie was now canon or if that was simply archive footage to connect it to the announced HBO Max show
· Lucifer (2016-2021) is the only show that was included while being concurrent with the Arrowverse (Black Lightning may count as well, since the crossover is what brought it to the franchise)
Movies and shows that could be part of the franchise
With one exception, those movies and shows were released at the same time as the Arrowverse and the DCEU, but either there haven’t been plans to connect them together or there is no indication if they are already part of the franchise.
· The Dark Knight trilogy (2005-2012). Props from that franchise have appeared in the Arrowverse, whose version of Gotham City even resembles the one of the films
· DC Animated Movie Universe (2013-2020). The Arrowverse has aired three animated shows. While Vixen and The Ray (both lasting two seasons) were included as canon with the actors voicing the main characters appearing in the live-action shows, “Constantine: City of Demons” doesn’t seem to be connected to the franchise except for Matt Ryan voicing him. In fact, that version of Constantine is more consistent with that of the DC Animated Movie Universe, so, maybe, that world is connected
· Gotham (2014-2019) and its prequel Pennyworth (2019- ) aren’t connected within the Arrowverse as of right now
· iZombie (2015-2019) is curious in that it is a show that aired on The CW for its entire run, but no attempts have ever been made about tying it into the Arrowverse
· Preacher (2016-2019) is based on a DC imprint, but it always tried to be its own thing
· Powerless (2017) tried to be its own thing from the beginning. They jokingly consider it to be set on “Earth-P” as part of the multiverse, but that isn’t considered as canon
· Krypton (2018-2019) could count due to the fact that they planned its inclusion in the crossover, but was scrapped. Also, this show started as a DCEU prequel, so some connectivity could still be there
· Joker (2019) is set in its own universe, and there are no plans to include it in any place as of right now
· The Boys (2019- ) does adapt a comic from a DC imprint, but it is not considered as part of the multiverse, at least not yet
As you can see, this franchise is so enormous that it makes sense why some could be confused about what belongs where.
I do hope that my post managed to help you understand something about it. Meanwhile, see you next time!
#DC#DC Multiverse#DC Universe#DC fan#Arrowverse#Titansverse#DCEU#The Conjuring#Joker#shared universe#multiverse#confusion#DC canon
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Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian-born American actor during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Considered the natural successor to Douglas Fairbanks, he achieved worldwide fame for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films, as well as frequent partnerships with Olivia de Havilland. He was best known for his role as Robin Hood in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938); his portrayal of the character was named by the American Film Institute as the 18th-greatest hero in American film history. His other famous roles included the eponymous lead in Captain Blood (1935), Major Geoffrey Vickers in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), as well as the hero in a number of Westerns, such as Dodge City (1939), Santa Fe Trail (1940) and San Antonio (1945). Flynn also stirred controversy for his reputation as a womaniser and hedonistic personal life.
Errol Leslie Flynn was born on 20 June 1909 in Battery Point, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. His father, Theodore Thomson Flynn, was a lecturer (1909) and later professor (1911) of biology at the University of Tasmania. His mother was born Lily Mary Young, but shortly after marrying Theodore at St John's Church of England, Birchgrove, Sydney, on 23 January 1909, she changed her first name to Marelle. Flynn described his mother's family as "seafaring folk" and this appears to be where his lifelong interest in boats and the sea originated. Both of his parents were Australian-born of Irish, English and Scottish descent. Despite Flynn's claims, the evidence indicates that he was not descended from any of the Bounty mutineers.
Flynn received his early schooling in Hobart. He made one of his first appearances as a performer in 1918, aged nine, when he served as a page boy to Enid Lyons in a queen carnival. In her memoirs, Lyons recalled Flynn as "a dashing figure—a handsome boy of nine with a fearless, somewhat haughty expression, already showing that sang-froid for which he was later to become famous throughout the civilized world". She further noted: "Unfortunately Errol at the age of nine did not yet possess that magic for extracting money from the public which so distinguished his career as an actor. Our cause gained no apparent advantage from his presence in my entourage; we gained only third place in a field of seven."
From 1923 to 1925, Flynn attended the South West London College, a private boarding school in Barnes, London.
In 1926, he returned to Australia to attend Sydney Church of England Grammar School (known as "Shore"), where he was the classmate of a future Australian prime minister, John Gorton. His formal education ended with his expulsion from Shore for theft, although he later claimed it was for a sexual encounter with the school's laundress.
After being dismissed from a job as a junior clerk with a Sydney shipping company for pilfering petty cash, he went to Papua New Guinea at the age of eighteen, seeking his fortune in tobacco planting and metals mining. He spent the next five years oscillating between New Guinea and Sydney.
In January 1931, Flynn became engaged to Naomi Campbell-Dibbs, the youngest daughter of Robert and Emily Hamlyn (Brown) Campbell-Dibbs of Temora and Bowral, New South Wales. They did not marry.
Australian filmmaker Charles Chauvel was making a film about the mutiny on the Bounty, In the Wake of the Bounty (1933), a combination of dramatic re-enactments of the mutiny and a documentary on present-day Pitcairn Island. Chauvel was looking for someone to play the role of Fletcher Christian. There are different stories about the way Flynn was cast. According to one, Chauvel saw his picture in an article about a yacht wreck involving Flynn. The most popular account is that he was discovered by cast member John Warwick. The film was not a strong success at the box office, but Flynn’s was the lead role, and his fate was decided. In late 1933 he went to Britain to pursue a career in acting.
Flynn got work as an extra in a film, I Adore You (1933), produced by Irving Asher for Warner Bros. He soon secured a job with the Northampton Repertory Company at the town's Royal Theatre (now part of Royal & Derngate), where he worked and received his training as a professional actor for seven months. Northampton is home to an art-house cinema named after him, the Errol Flynn Filmhouse. He performed at the 1934 Malvern Festival and in Glasgow, and briefly in London's West End.
In 1934 Flynn was dismissed from Northampton Rep. after he threw a female stage manager down a stairwell. He returned to London. Asher cast him as the lead in Murder at Monte Carlo, a "quota quickie" made by Warner Brothers at their Teddington Studios in Middlesex. The movie was not widely seen (it is currently a lost film, but Asher was enthusiastic about Flynn's performance and cabled Warner Bros. in Hollywood, recommending him for a contract. Executives agreed, and Flynn was sent to Los Angeles.
On the ship from London, Flynn met (and eventually married) Lili Damita, an actress five years his senior whose contacts proved valuable when Flynn arrived in Los Angeles. Warner Bros. publicity described him as an "Irish leading man of the London stage."
His first appearance was a small role in The Case of the Curious Bride (1935). Flynn had two scenes, one as a corpse and one in flashback. His next part was slightly bigger, in Don't Bet on Blondes (1935), a B-picture screwball comedy.
Warner Bros. was preparing a big budget swashbuckler, Captain Blood (1935), based on the 1922 novel by Rafael Sabatini and directed by Michael Curtiz.
The studio originally intended to cast Robert Donat, but he turned down the part, afraid that his chronic asthma would make it impossible for him to perform the strenuous role.[19] Warners considered a number of other actors, including Leslie Howard and James Cagney, and also conducted screen tests of those they had under contract, like Flynn. The tests were impressive and Warners finally cast Flynn in the lead, opposite 19-year-old Olivia de Havilland. The resulting film was a magnificent success for the studio and gave birth to two new Hollywood stars and an on-screen partnership that would encompass eight films over six years. The budget for Captain Blood was $1.242 million, and it made $1.357 million in the U.S. and $1.733 million overseas, making a huge profit for Warner Bros.
Flynn had been selected to support Fredric March in Anthony Adverse (1936), but public response to Captain Blood was so enthusiastic that Warners instead reunited him with de Havilland and Curtiz in another adventure tale, this time set during the Crimean War, The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936). The film was given a slightly larger budget than Captain Blood, at $1.33 million, and it had a much higher box-office gross, earning $1.454 million in the US and $1.928 million overseas, making it Warner Bros.' No. 1 hit of 1936.
Flynn asked for a different kind of role and so when ill health made Leslie Howard drop out of the screen adaptation of Lloyd C. Douglas' inspirational novel, Flynn got the lead role in Green Light (1937), playing a doctor searching for a cure for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.[22] The studio then put him back into another swashbuckler, replacing Patric Knowles as Miles Hendon in The Prince and the Pauper (1937). He appeared opposite Kay Francis in Another Dawn (1937), a melodrama set in a mythical British desert colony. Warners then gave Flynn his first starring role in a modern comedy, The Perfect Specimen (1937), with Joan Blondell, under the direction of Curtiz. Meanwhile, Flynn published his first book, Beam Ends (1937), an autobiographical account of his experiences sailing around Australia as a youth. He also travelled to Spain, in 1937, as a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War.
Flynn followed this with his most famous movie, The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), playing the title role, opposite de Havilland's Marian. This movie was a global success. It was the 6th-top movie grosser of 1938.[25] It was also the studio's first large-budget color film utilizing the three-strip Technicolor process. The budget for Robin Hood was the highest ever for a Warner Bros. production up to that point—$2.47 million—but it more than made back its costs and turned a huge profit as it grossed $2.343 million in the U.S. and $2.495 million overseas.
It also received lavish praise from critics and became a worldwide favorite that has endured for generations. In 2019, Rotten Tomatoes summarizes the critical consensus: "Errol Flynn thrills as the legendary title character, and the film embodies the type of imaginative family adventure tailor-made for the silver screen." In 1995, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation by the National Film Registry.
The scene in which Robin climbs to Marian's window to steal a few words and a kiss has become as familiar to audiences as the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet.[citation needed] Years later, in a 2005 interview, de Havilland described how, during the filming, she decided to tease Flynn, whose wife was on set and watching closely. De Havilland said, "And so we had one kissing scene, which I looked forward to with great delight. I remember I blew every take, at least six in a row, maybe seven, maybe eight, and we had to kiss all over again. And Errol Flynn got really rather uncomfortable, and he had, if I may say so, a little trouble with his tights."[30]
The final duel between Robin and Sir Guy of Gisbourne is a classic, echoing the battle on the beach in Captain Blood where Flynn also kills Rathbone's character after a long demonstration of fine swordplay, in that case choreographed by Ralph Faulkner. According to Faulkner's student, Tex Allen, “Faulkner had good material to work with. Veteran Basil Rathbone was a good fencer already, and Flynn, though new to the school of fence, was athletic and a quick learner. Under Faulkner's choreography Rathbone and Flynn made the swordplay look good. For the next two decades Faulkner's movie list as fencing double and choreographer reads as a history of Hollywood's golden years of adventure yarns [including Flynn's] The Sea Hawk (1940),[31]
The success of The Adventures of Robin Hood did little to convince the studio that their prize swashbuckler should be allowed to do other things, but Warners allowed Flynn to try a screwball comedy, Four's a Crowd (1938). Despite the presence of de Havilland and direction of Curtiz, it was not a success. The Sisters (1938) a drama showing the lives of three sisters in the years from 1904 to 1908, including a dramatic rendering of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, was more popular. Flynn played alcoholic sports reporter Frank Medlin, who sweeps Louise Elliott ( Bette Davis) off her feet on a visit to Silver Bow, Montana. Their married life in San Francisco is difficult, an Frank sails to Singapore just hours before the catastrophe. The original ending of the film was the same as the book: Louise married a character named William Benson. But preview audiences disliked that ending, and a new one was filmed in which Frank comes to Silver Bow to find her and they reconcile. Apparently audiences wanted Errol Flynn to get the girl, or vice versa. (Bette Davis preferred the original ending.)
Flynn had a powerful dramatic role in The Dawn Patrol (1938), a remake of a pre-code 1930 drama of the same name about Royal Flying Corps fighter pilots in World War I and the devastating burden carried by officers who must send men out to die every morning. Flynn and co-stars Basil Rathbone and David Niven led a cast that was all male and predominantly British. Director Edmund Goulding's biographer Matthew Kennedy wrote: “Everyone remembered a set filled with fraternal good cheer.... The filming of Dawn Patrol was an unusual experience for everyone connected with it, and dissipated for all time the legend that Britishers are lacking in a sense of humor.... The picture was made to the accompaniment of more ribbing than Hollywood has ever witnessed. The setting for all this horseplay was the beautiful English manners of the cutterups. The expressions of polite and pained shock on the faces of Niven, Flynn, Rathbone et al., when (women) visitors were embarrassed was the best part of the nonsense.”
In 1939, Flynn and de Havilland teamed up with Curtiz for Dodge City (1939), the first Western for both of them, set after the American Civil War.[34] Flynn was worried that audiences would not accept him in Westerns, but the film was a big hit, Warner Bros.' most popular film of 1939, and he went on to make a number of movies in that genre.
Flynn was reunited with Davis, Curtiz and de Havilland in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), playing Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex. Flynn's relationship with Davis during filming was quarrelsome; Davis allegedly slapped him across the face far harder than necessary during one scene. Flynn attributed her anger to unrequited romantic interest, but according to others, Davis resented sharing equal billing with a man she considered incapable of playing any role beyond a dashing adventurer. "He himself openly said, 'I don't know really anything about acting,'" she told an interviewer, "and I admire his honesty, because he's absolutely right." Years later, however, de Havilland said that, during a private screening of Elizabeth and Essex, an astounded Davis had exclaimed, "Damn it! The man could act!"
Warners put Flynn in another Western, Virginia City (1940), set near the end of the Civil War. Flynn played Union officer Kerry Bradford.
In an article for TCM, Jeremy Arnold wrote: "Ironically, the Randolph Scott role [as Captain Vance Irby, commandant of the prison camp where Bradford was a prisoner of war] was originally conceived for Flynn.... In fact, Virginia City was plagued with script, production and personnel problems all along. Shooting began without a finished script, angering Flynn, who complained unsuccessfully to the studio about it. Flynn disliked the temperamental Curtiz and tried to have him removed from the film. Curtiz didn't like Flynn (or costar Miriam Hopkins) either. And Humphrey Bogart apparently didn't care for Flynn or Randolph Scott! Making matters worse was the steady rain that fell for two of the three weeks of location shooting near Flagstaff, AZ. Flynn detested rain, and was physically unwell for quite some time because of it. As Peter Valenti has written, 'Errol's frustration at the role can be easily understood: he changed from antagonist to protagonist, from Southern to Northern officer, almost as the film was being shot. [This] intensified Errol's feelings of inadequacy as a performer and his contempt for studio operation.'" Despite the troubles behind the scenes, the film was a huge success, making a profit of just under $1 million.
Flynn’s next film had been planned since 1936: another swashbuckler taken from a Sabatini novel, The Sea Hawk (1940). However, in the end, only the title was used, and a completely different story was created.
A reviewer observed in Time Aug. 19, 1940, "The Sea Hawk (Warner) is 1940's lustiest assault on the double feature. It cost $1,700,000, exhibits Errol Flynn and 3,000 other cinemactors performing every imaginable feat of spectacular derring-do, and lasts two hours and seven minutes.... Produced by Warner's Hal Wallis with a splendor that would set parsimonious Queen Bess's teeth on edge, constructed of the most tried-&-true cinema materials available, The Sea Hawk is a handsome, shipshape picture. To Irish Cinemactor Errol Flynn, it gives the best swashbuckling role he has had since Captain Blood. For Hungarian Director Michael Curtiz, who took Flynn from bit-player ranks to make Captain Blood and has made nine pictures with him since, it should prove a high point in their profitable relationship." It was indeed: The Sea Hawk made a profit of $977,000 on that budget of $1.7 million.
Another financial success was the Western Santa Fe Trail (1940), with de Havilland and Ronald Reagan, and directed by Curtiz, which grossed $2,147,663 in the US, making it Warner Brothers' second-biggest hit of 1940.
In 1940, at the zenith of his career, Flynn was voted the fourteenth most popular star in the U.S. and the seventh most popular in Britain, according to Motion Picture Daily. According to Variety, he was the fourth-biggest star in the U.S. and the fourth-biggest box-office attraction overseas as well.
Flynn consistently ranked among Warner Bros.' top stars. In 1937, he was the studio's No. 1 star, ahead of Paul Muni and Bette Davis.[43] In 1938, he was No. 3, just behind Davis and Muni.[44] In 1939, he was No. 3 again, this time behind Davis and James Cagney.[45] In 1940 and 1941, he was Warner Bros.' No. 1 top box-office draw. In 1942, he was No. 2, behind Cagney. In 1943, he was No. 2, behind Humphrey Bogart.
Warners allowed Flynn a change of pace from a long string of period pieces in a lighthearted mystery, Footsteps in the Dark (1941). Los Angeles Times' Edwin Schallert wrote: "Errol Flynn becomes a modern for a change in a whodunit film and the excursion proves eminently worth-while... an exceptionally clever and amusing exhibit …" However, the film was not a big success. Far more popular was the military drama Dive Bomber (1941), his last film with Curtiz.
In later years, Footsteps in the Dark co-star Ralph Bellamy recalled Flynn at this time as "a darling. Couldn't or wouldn't take himself seriously. And he drank like there was no tomorrow. Had a bum ticker from the malaria he'd picked up in Australia. Also a spot of TB. Tried to enlist but flunked his medical, so he drank some more. Knew he wouldn't live into old age. He really had a ball in Footsteps in the Dark. He was so glad to be out of swashbucklers."
Flynn became a naturalized American citizen on 14 August 1942. With the United States fully involved in the Second World War, he attempted to enlist in the armed services but failed the physical exam due to recurrent malaria (contracted in New Guinea), a heart murmur, various venereal diseases and latent pulmonary tuberculosis.
Flynn was mocked by reporters and critics as a "draft dodger,” but the studio refused to admit that their star, promoted for his physical beauty and athleticism, had been disqualified due to health problems.
Flynn started a new long-term relationship with a director when he teamed with Raoul Walsh in They Died with Their Boots On (1942), a biopic of George Armstrong Custer. De Havilland was his co-star in this, the last of 12 films they made together. The movie grossed $2.55 million in the U.S. alone, making it Warner Bros.' second-biggest hit of 1942.
Flynn's first World War II film was Desperate Journey (1942), directed by Walsh, in which he played an Australian for the first time. It was another big hit.
The role of Gentleman Jim Corbett in Walsh's Gentleman Jim (1942) was one of Flynn’s favorites.[54] Warner Bros. purchased the rights to make a film of Corbett's life from his widow, Vera, specifically for their handsome, athletic and charming leading man.
The movie bears little resemblance to the boxer’s life, but the story was a crowd pleaser. Despite—or perhaps because of—its departure from reality, “Gentleman Jim” packed the theaters. According to Variety, it was the third Errol Flynn movie to gross at least $2 million for Warner Bros. in 1942.
Flynn eagerly undertook extensive boxing training for this film, working with Buster Wiles and Mushy Callahan. Callahan's remembrances were documented in Charles Higham's Errol Flynn: The Untold Story. "Errol tended to use his right fist. I had to teach him to use his left and to move very fast on his feet...Luckily he had excellent footwork, he was dodgy, he could duck faster then anybody I saw. And by the time I was through with him, he'd jab, jab, jab with his left like a veteran."
Flynn took the role seriously, and was rarely doubled during the boxing sequences. In The Two Lives of Errol Flynn by Michael Freedland, Alexis Smith told of taking the star aside: "'It's so silly, working all day and then playing all night and dissipating yourself. Don't you want to live a long life?' Errol was his usually apparently unconcerned self: 'I'm only interested in this half,' he told her. 'I don't care for the future.'"
In fact, Flynn collapsed on set on July 15, 1942, while filming a boxing scene with Ward Bond. Filming was shut down while he recovered; he returned a week later. In his autobiography, My Wicked, Wicked Ways, Flynn describes the episode as a mild heart attack.
In September 1942, Warners announced that Flynn had signed a new contract with the studio for four films a year, one of which he would also produce.
In Edge of Darkness (1943), set in Nazi-occupied Norway, Flynn played a Norwegian resistance fighter, a role originally intended for Edward G. Robinson. Director Lewis Milestone later recalled, "Flynn kept underrating himself. If you wanted to embarrass him, all you had to do was to tell him how great he was in a scene he'd just finished playing: He'd blush like a young girl and muttering 'I'm no actor' would go away somewhere and sit down."[63] With a box office gross of $2.3 million in the U.S, it was Warner Bros.' eighth biggest movie of the year.
In Warners' all-star musical comedy fund-raiser for the Stage Door Canteen, Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), Flynn sings and dances as a cockney seaman boasting to his pub mates of how he's won the war in "That's What You Jolly Well Get," the only musical number that was ever performed by Flynn on screen.
In late 1942, two 17-year-old girls, Betty Hansen and Peggy Satterlee, separately accused Flynn of statutory rape at the Bel Air home of Flynn's friend Frederick McEvoy, and on board Flynn's yacht Sirocco, respectively. The scandal received immense press attention. Many of Flynn's fans founded organizations to publicly protest the accusation. One such group, the American Boys' Club for the Defense of Errol Flynn—ABCDEF—accumulated a substantial membership that included William F. Buckley Jr.
The trial took place in late January and early February 1943. Flynn's attorney, Jerry Giesler, impugned the accusers' character and morals, and accused them of numerous indiscretions, including affairs with married men and, in Satterlee's case, an abortion (which was illegal at the time). He noted that the two girls, who said they did not know each other, filed their complaints within days of each other, although the episodes allegedly took place more than a year apart. He implied that the girls had cooperated with prosecutors in hopes of avoiding prosecution themselves. Flynn was acquitted, but the trial's widespread coverage and lurid overtones permanently damaged his carefully cultivated screen image as an idealized romantic leading player.
Northern Pursuit (1943), also with Walsh as director, was a war film set in Canada. He then made a film for his own production company, Thomson Productions, where he had a say in the choice of vehicle, director and cast, plus a portion of the profits. This picture had a modest gross of $1.5 million. Uncertain Glory (1944) was a war-time drama set in France with Flynn as a criminal who redeems himself. However, it was not a success and Thomson Productions made no more movies. In 1943, Flynn earned $175,000.
With Walsh he made Objective, Burma! in 1944, released in 1945, a war film set during the Burma Campaign. Although popular, it was withdrawn in Britain after protests that the role played by British troops was not given sufficient credit. A Western, San Antonio (1945), was also very popular, grossing $3.553 million in the U.S. and was Warner Bros.' third-biggest hit of the year.
Flynn tried comedy again with Never Say Goodbye (1946), a comedy of remarriage opposite Eleanor Parker, but it was not a success, grossing $1.77 million in the U.S. In 1946, Flynn published an adventure novel, Showdown, and earned a reported $184,000 (equivalent to $2,410,000 in 2019).
Cry Wolf (1947) was a thriller with Flynn in a seemingly more villainous role. It was a moderate success at the box office. He was in a melodrama, Escape Me Never (1947), filmed in early 1946 but not released until late 1947, which lost money. More popular was a Western with Walsh and Ann Sheridan, Silver River (1948). This was a hit, although its high cost meant it was not very profitable. Flynn drank so heavily on the set that he was effectively disabled after noon, and a disgusted Walsh terminated their business relationship.
Warners tried returning Flynn to swashbucklers and the result was Adventures of Don Juan (1948). The film was very successful in Europe, grossing $3.1 million, but less so in the U.S., with $1.9, and struggled to recoup its large budget. Still, it was Warner Bros.' 4th-biggest hit of the year. From this point on, Warner Bros. reduced the budgets of Flynn's films. In November 1947 Flynn signed a 15-year contract with Warner Bros. for $225,000 per film. His income totaled $214,000 that year, and $200,000 in 1948.
After a cameo in Warner Bros.' It's a Great Feeling (1949), Flynn was borrowed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to appear in That Forsyte Woman (1949) which made $1.855 million in the U.S. and $1.842 million abroad which was the 11th-biggest hit of the year for MGM. He went on a three-month holiday then made two medium budget Westerns for Warners, Montana (1950), which made $2.1 million and was Warner Bros.' 5th-biggest movie of the year, and Rocky Mountain (1950), which made $1.7 million in the U.S. and was Warner Bros.' 9th-biggest movie of the year. He returned to MGM for Kim (1950), one of Flynn's most popular movies from this period, grossing $5.348 million ($2.896 million in the U.S. plus $2.452 million abroad) making it MGM's 5th-biggest movie of the year and 11th biggest overall for Hollywood. It was shot partly in India. On his way home he shot some scenes for a film he produced, Hello God (1951), directed by William Marshall; it was never released. For many years this was considered a lost film, but in 2013 a copy was discovered in the basement of the surrogate court of New York City. Two of seven cans of the movie had deteriorated beyond hope, but five survived and are at the George Eastman House film archive for restoration.
Flynn wrote and co-produced his next film, the low-budget Adventures of Captain Fabian (1951), directed by Marshall and shot in France. (Flynn wrote articles, novels and scripts but never had the discipline to turn it into a full time career. Flynn wound up suing Marshall in court over both movies.
For Warners he appeared in an adventure tale set in the Philippines, Mara Maru (1952). That studio released a documentary of a 1946 voyage he had taken on his yacht, Cruise of the Zaca (1952). In August 1951 he signed a one-picture deal to make a movie for Universal, in exchange for a percentage of the profits: this was Against All Flags (1952), a popular swashbuckler. As early as 1952 he had been seriously ill with hepatitis resulting in liver damage.[80] In England, he made another swashbuckler for Warners, The Master of Ballantrae (1953). After that Warners ended their contract with him and their association that had lasted for 18 years and 35 films.
Flynn relocated his career to Europe. He made a swashbuckler in Italy, Crossed Swords (1954). This inspired him to produce a similar movie in that country, The Story of William Tell (1954), directed by Jack Cardiff with Flynn in the title role. The movie fell apart during production and ruined Flynn financially. Desperate for money, he accepted an offer from Herbert Wilcox to support Anna Neagle in a British musical, Lilacs in the Spring (1954). Also shot in Britain was The Dark Avenger (1955), for Allied Artists, in which Flynn played Edward, the Black Prince. Wilcox used him with Neagle again, in King's Rhapsody (1955), but it was not a success, ending plans for further Wilcox-Flynn collaborations. In 1956 he presented and sometimes performed in the television anthology series The Errol Flynn Theatre that was filmed in Britain.
Flynn received an offer to make his first Hollywood film in five years: Istanbul (1957), for Universal. He made a thriller shot in Cuba, The Big Boodle (1957), then had his best role in a long time in the blockbuster The Sun Also Rises (1957) for producer Darryl F. Zanuck which made $3 million in the U.S.
Flynn's performance in the latter was well received and led to a series of roles where he played drunks. Warner Bros. cast him as John Barrymore in Too Much, Too Soon (1958), and Zanuck used him again in The Roots of Heaven which made $3 million (1958). He met with Stanley Kubrick to discuss a role in Lolita, but nothing came of it.
Flynn went to Cuba in late 1958 to film the self-produced B film Cuban Rebel Girls, where he met Fidel Castro and was initially an enthusiastic supporter of the Cuban Revolution. He wrote a series of newspaper and magazine articles for the New York Journal American and other publications documenting his time in Cuba with Castro. Flynn was the only journalist who happened to be with Castro the night Batista fled the country and Castro learned of his victory in the revolution. Many of these pieces were lost until 2009, when they were rediscovered in a collection at the University of Texas at Austin's Center for American History. He narrated a short film titled Cuban Story: The Truth About Fidel Castro Revolution (1959), his last-known work as an actor.
Flynn developed a reputation for womanising, hard drinking, chain smoking and, for a time in the 1940s, narcotics abuse. He was linked romantically with Lupe Vélez, Marlene Dietrich and Dolores del Río, among many others. Carole Lombard is said to have resisted his advances, but invited him to her extravagant parties. He was a regular attendee of William Randolph Hearst's equally lavish affairs at Hearst Castle, though he was once asked to leave after becoming excessively intoxicated.
The expression "in like Flynn" is said to have been coined to refer to the supreme ease with which he reputedly seduced women, but its origin is disputed. Flynn was reportedly fond of the expression and later claimed that he wanted to call his memoir In Like Me. (The publisher insisted on a more tasteful title, My Wicked, Wicked Ways.
Flynn had various mirrors and hiding places constructed inside his mansion, including an overhead trapdoor above a guest bedroom for surreptitious viewing. Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood toured the house as a prospective buyer in the 1970s, and reported, "Errol had two-way mirrors... speaker systems in the ladies' room. Not for security. Just that he was an A-1 voyeur." In March 1955, the popular Hollywood gossip magazine Confidential ran a salacious article titled "The Greatest Show in Town... Errol Flynn and His Two-Way Mirror!" In her 1966 biography, actress Hedy Lamarr wrote, "Many of the bathrooms have peepholes or ceilings with squares of opaque glass through which you can't see out but someone can see in."
He had a Schnauzer dog, named Arno, which was specially trained to protect Flynn. They went together to premieres, parties, restaurants and clubs, until the dog's death in 1941. On 15 June 1938 Arno badly bit Bette Davis on the ankle in a scene where she struck Flynn.
Flynn was married three times: to actress Lili Damita from 1935 until 1942 (one son, Sean Flynn, 1941 – c. June 1971); to Nora Eddington from 1943 to 1949 (two daughters, Deirdre, born 1945, and Rory, born 1947); and to actress Patrice Wymore from 1950 until his death (one daughter, Arnella Roma, 1953–1998). Errol is the grandfather to actor Sean Flynn (via Rory), who starred in Zoey 101.
While Flynn acknowledged his personal attraction to Olivia de Havilland, assertions by film historians that they were romantically involved during the filming of Robin Hood[97] were denied by de Havilland. "Yes, we did fall in love and I believe that this is evident in the screen chemistry between us," she told an interviewer in 2009. "But his circumstances [Flynn's marriage to Damita] at the time prevented the relationship going further. I have not talked about it a great deal but the relationship was not consummated. Chemistry was there though. It was there."
After quitting Hollywood, Flynn lived with Wymore in Port Antonio, Jamaica in the early 1950s. He was largely responsible for developing tourism to this area and for a while owned the Titchfield Hotel which was decorated by the artist Olga Lehmann. He popularised trips down rivers on bamboo rafts.
His only son, Sean (born 31 May 1941), was an actor and war correspondent. He and his colleague Dana Stone disappeared in Cambodia in April 1970 during the Vietnam War, while both were working as freelance photojournalists for Time magazine. Neither man's body has ever been found; it is generally assumed that they were killed by Khmer Rouge guerrillas in 1970 or 1971.
After a decade-long search financed by his mother, Sean was officially declared dead in 1984. Sean's life is recounted in the book Inherited Risk: Errol and Sean Flynn in Hollywood and Vietnam.
By 1959, Flynn's financial difficulties had become so serious that he flew to Vancouver, British Columbia on 9 October to negotiate the lease of his yacht Zaca to the businessman George Caldough. As Caldough was driving Flynn and the 17-year-old actress Beverly Aadland, who had accompanied him on the trip, to the airport on 14 October for a Los Angeles-bound flight, Flynn began complaining of severe pain in his back and legs. Caldough transported him to the residence of a doctor, Grant Gould, who noted that Flynn had considerable difficulty navigating the building's stairway. Gould, assuming that the pain was due to degenerative disc disease and spinal osteoarthritis, administered 50 milligrams of demerol intravenously. As Flynn's discomfort diminished, he "reminisced at great length about his past experiences" to those present. He refused a drink when offered it.
Gould then performed a leg massage in the apartment's bedroom and advised Flynn to rest there before resuming his journey. Flynn responded that he felt "ever so much better." After 20 minutes Aadland checked on Flynn and discovered him unresponsive. Despite immediate emergency medical treatment from Gould and a swift transferral by ambulance to Vancouver General Hospital, he did not regain consciousness and was pronounced dead that evening. The coroner's report and the death certificate noted the cause of death as myocardial infarction due to coronary thrombosis and coronary atherosclerosis, with fatty degeneration of liver and portal cirrhosis of the liver significant enough to be listed as contributing factors. Flynn was survived by both his parents.
Flynn was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California, a place he once remarked that he hated.
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6 & 50
6. Top 5 performances of your favorite actor and actress.
Oh God, this one is difficult. As far as favorite actor, over the course of my lifetime, it’s a toss up between Denzel Washington and Will Smith. So I’m answering top 5 for both of them:
Denzel Washington - first off, let me say I don’t know that I’ve ever seen Denzel in a bad role, even if the movie itself sucked. But here are my top 5, in no particular order (because I cannot distinguish from such awesomeness haha):
1. Man on Fire - I cannot watch this movie and not cry. Not even really because of the story, but because of how Denzel plays Creasy. He’s distant, raw, and yet you can tell how much he actually cares about Dakota Fanning’s character.
2. John Q - not only is this so relevant in our healthcare system today, but this is genuinely one of my ALL TIME favorite movies. I own it on VHS AND DVD, which should tell you something.
3. Remember the Titans - again, another favorite movie for me and one that is still relevant. Tackling race relations in the American South in the 70s (hell, even today!) can be very difficult for a film to portray and still feel true to the times. This movie does that, and Denzel’s performance is phenomenal here.
4. American Gangster - yes! Give me ruthless crime lords! And yet still humanizing them!
5. Training Day - this is a CLASSIC! If you have not seen this, GO WATCH IT RIGHT NOW! Although be warned, it has A LOT of violence.
Will Smith - again, another amazing actor whose greatest blunder was trying to do a movie with his son, Jaden, after he was older than . Top 5, in no particular order:
1. I Am Legend - this movie WRECKS ME! Like full on, I am a sobbing mess by the end of it, over a scene between Will Smith and HIS DOG!!!! If you watch this movie and don’t cry, you have no soul. Literally.
2. The Pursuit of Happyness - again, this movie destroys me. Go watch it. It’s so DAMN GOOD and SO RELEVANT.
3. The Legend of Baggar Vance - I blame my dad for this one, because the only bonding we did was over golf and movies. Still a very good performance by Smith.
4. Independence Day - also a classic for me. I mean, the overall plot is “eh”, but Smith’s performance is phenomenal!
5. Seven Pounds - this is raw and emotional and again, I cannot watch it without crying. One of the things that really impacts me watching a performance is how the actor/actress makes you feel, and Will Smith makes me feel EVERYTHING in this movie. Go watch it, and bring tissues.
Favorite Actress-Sandra Oh (technically, not all of these are movies, but GOOD GOD this woman gives a performance! Christina Hendricks is a close second for me, but I’m not doing 4 people’s worth of work for this because that’s too hard to choose)
1. Grey’s Anatomy - Christina Yang is quite literally one of my favorite characters of all time, and Sandra Oh’s portrayal of her is PHENOMENAL! This woman is bad ass, driven, and confident in her own abilities. She is funny and witty and sexy and still makes you FEEL ALL THE THINGS. And once she left the show, it just wasn’t the same.
2. Killing Eve - again, not a movie, but this show is FUCKING AMAZING and Sandra Oh’s character is delicious! Devious, cunning, human, just a lil crazy as the series progresses. And her obsession with Villanelle makes my bisexual heart flutter.
3. Last Night - One of her earlier movies, and still one I LOVE. It’s dark and yet still somewhat funny, but her performance is *chef kissy hands*
4. Sideways - she’s in a supporting role here, but her character’s performance and the reflection on the flaws of the main character’s “friend” (think Dean, but before he and Beth got married) are ones I love. All around it’s a film I enjoyed, though the pacing can be somewhat slow.
5. The Diary of Evelyn Lau - this one is HEAVY, and a role Sandra Oh played as a teenager. Still one of her best, IMO.
50. A book you really, really, really don’t want to see made into a film.
Literally almost every book-to-film franchise I can think of (Harry Potter, Hunger Games, The Fault in Our Stars, Ella Enchanted, etc.) I didn’t want to see made into a movie because books are so much more descriptive and allow more room for plot building and world building than almost ANY movie can do justice. For example, the 3rd Harry Potter movie, Prisoner of Azkaban, is one of my all time MOST HATED FILMS. The movie is rushed, clunky, and lacks a lot of the background details that I loved about the book. Also, I believe this was when they switched directors, so that may be part of the reason I hate it so much.
Another book I don’t want to see made into a movie (for reasons listed above) is Uprooted by Naomi Novak. It’s a book based on Polish folktales, and I love the premise, but I don’t think it would fit well into a movie format.
#movie asks#this was so FUN#but also#SO DIFFICULT#man the top 5 performances one made me have to think lol
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All my thoughts on Aladdin 2019 Live Action Remake
I'll never give up on the animated version, it's my favorite movie of all time. But this was an absolute gift, I loved it so much. All the feels. Must rewatch.🤩
TL:DR version:
Aladdin - hot
Jafar - hot
Jasmine - hottt
Arabian Nights - hotter than hot (in a lot of good ways)
5 stars. Go see it in the theater.
**Spoilers ahead***
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Cultural Updates
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PASSING THE BECHDEL TEST
People sometimes try to shrug off why movies fail Bechdel by saying that they are era appropriate. News flash: women have existed for a very long time. A story passes Bechdel because the artist made a decision that women are an important part of it, and the roles they play are valuable. Adding Dalia's character gave Jasmine a friend, which makes her much more of her own person, rather than "a prize to be won." The women are suddenly their own people and not just props.
PASSING POC BECHDEL TEST
Hats off to Disney for making the effort to cast this movie authentically. I've heard a few gripes about Naomi Scott as Jasmine being Indian, when the story is about the Middle East. Peeps, I live in the Middle East and I have to say that the most authentic representation of our region is not in a cast where everyone is one single ethnicity - rather the diverse cast represents this part of the world much more accurately. The Middle East is an ethnically heterogeneous place. It actually makes more sense to me that they are not all the same.
#representationmatters
It was nice to see the removal of the disturbing lyrics from the original, although I don't think I can ever unhear "where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face." Also, to be fair, "Barbaric but hey, it's home," is both not politically correct and also a kind of endearing and accurate statement about the Middle East.
"Friday Salaam" This is a cute gesture but I'm not sure Islam's Friday and Christianity's Sunday are entirely comparable. It would be nice to hear from someone who knows if "Friday Salaam" means anything.
Jasmine 1992 calls the Sultan "Father," and in the LAR she calls him "Baba," which is the Arabic would for Dad.
Characters
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GENIE
Don't go in expecting Will Smith to be Robin Williams. Those are impossible shoes to fill. Will Smith knew this going into the role. I Loved how he put himself into the genie, giving it a hip hop twist. The genie's story ending is also much more satisfying than the animation.
The live action movie emphasized the relationship between Aladdin and the Genie much more than the animated version, not that it wasn't there, just not as much. It felt to me like Aladdin/Genie was actually the central relationship of the film, following the classic boy-meets-girl formula where Aladdin/Jasmine doesn't.
The live-action genie has a clear race and gender, as opposed to animated genie, who is just blue. This makes it stronger to see drag!genie and flamboyant!genie and black!genie.
JAFAR
Jafar getting a backstory and more rational, human motives deepened our understanding of the villain and made his motives much more clear and realistic. It also made him wanting to marry the princess a much less cringey scene to watch - I just think his reasons made more sense than in the animation.
Marwan Kenzari's Jafar is not the distastefully feminized Jafar of the animation, which perpetuates negative stereotypes about feminine men. Nope. Hot Jafar completely drops this aspect of the beloved villain. However - we lost the Prince Ali Reprise in the remake - I wonder if singing!Jafar is too feminine?
Jafar calling the Sultan "Baba" :)
The relationship between Jasmine and Jafar is also much more appealing and makes much more sense in the LAR. It even makes me wonder if they have any kind of unresolved courtship. Why wouldn't he have just tried to go for it if he could become Sultan that way? Why doesn't Jafar try to hypnotize Jasmine? He knows he can't, which means he has tried it before, or doesn't consider her a significant threat (more likely.) But why wouldn't he just try to marry her? He wanted to be Sultan, seems like an easy fix. There must be a reason they never just opted for that. How does Jasmine think of Jafar?
"Baba" - Is Jafar a lovechild of the Sultan with a servant, thereby being born into poverty even though he could have been born for the throne? This would also make him and Jasmine siblings. I should check the book.
ALADDIN
LOVE LOVE LOVE Mena Massoud's embodiment of Aladdin as much more humble/embarrassed by all the attention even as Prince Ali - The animated character kind of magically became cocky and I don't like that as much in comparison.
Aladdin is such a good listener. Wow. What a guy. Not just this, also his awareness of other people's needs (although this came to light in the animation.)
It's much more obvious this time what makes him "a diamond in the rough."
It doesn't seem era appropriate or even possible at all that Aladdin would just totally believe Jasmine should be the Sultan if it's never been done in 1000 years. And yet, this portrayal of Aladdin as a woke 3rd-wave feminist is adorable and inspiring and a much more suitable partner for ambitious Jasmine, as well as a better role model for men and boys. Love it.
Note that Aladdin describes Jasmine to the genie as: 1) smart 2) kind 3) so beautiful. In that order. This is true for the animation as well but I never noticed it until the LAR.
Aladdin and Jasmine's courtship is a most appealing love story. They listen to each other, they understand each other deeply. Aladdin is such a good listener! And it's only when he starts to lose himself in the power rush that the genie gets upset with him. Aladdin has no ego, he just wants to hang out with Jasmine because he likes her. He sees other people around him. He's sensitive to others' needs. He's good with animals. And Jasmine really is not a prize to be won. Her journey towards winning over Aladdin is just because she likes him and wants to be with him. Of her own merit she wants to be Sultan and has the wisdom and leadership skills to go with it.
JASMINE
Jasmine's character actually having ambition and getting to show her leadership abilities takes Jasmine as the iconic feminist Disney princess to the next level.
"Speechless" is the new third-wave anthem. It resonates with #metoo vibes, speaking out against injustice and refusing to just look pretty and stay silent. It also speaks to breaking traditions like religious practices and men's leadership just because that's what has always been done.
Then again, the animation is not so era appropriate either - I don't think it's era appropriate for Jasmine to even think she could have a chance of marrying for love - or for the idea to cross her mind in the first place. Love and marriage were not mixed until much later.
In the animation, when Jasmine choose Prince Ali, her father then declares that he will become Sultan. Aladdin's facial expressions reflect that he is not prepared for this. Did he not know that this would be a package deal with courting the princess? Like what did he think was going to happen? Still, I felt the lack of his leadership experience in that declaration, and that doesn't resolve at the end. The remake patches up this hole perfectly. Aladdin is not prepared for leading a country, but Jasmine is, and this comes to light beautifully. It's not just a nice feminist twist, it's a much better solution.
IAGO
Iago wasn't funny at all. Disappointment. His lines in the original are the most quotable of all time. This part was missing for me.
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VISUALS
Other Stuff
The glittery colorful costumes! The set! It's beautiful. I loved all the things that looked similar to the animation but were updated and look better in the LAR.
MUSIC
The new score, sounds much more authentic, I could actually hear the traditional Arabic drumming patterns in some of the songs, in a much more prominent way than the original. (Although the new score still has that western-disney twist on it holding it back from sounding 100% authentic.)
FINALLY
The LAR is not as scary as the animated version. This is a good thing.
Even during the underwater scene, I was more confident that Aladdin would survive because the dialogue had hinted at it. I didn't miss the snake-crush scene or the hourglass in the finale.
#aladdin#aladdin live action#jafar#Jasmine#jafar x jasmine#hot jafar#mena massoud#naomi scott#marwan kenzari#will smith#nasim pedrad#disney#review#movie#thoughts#feminist#feminism#representation matters#diversity#poc bechdel#bechdel test#genie#princess Jasmine#my sultan
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REPLIES TO JOËL, ROY, ANITA AND BRUTUS
@windermeresimblr
I honestly wonder if Roy has any self-preservation skills at all. I know most men don't have to think about "what if someone roofied my drink," but I'm still aghast and agog remembering him just merrily chugging down someone else's drink at the club! Roy, even if you are a manchild who needs a slap across the face and a series of lectures on how horrible a person you are, your children might miss you--maybe behave more sensibly next time!
Roy normally does have excellent self-preservation skills, but they all fly out the window when he is in party animal mode. His party animal trait is his Achilles heel. Sonia used to keep him in check but of course he’s not with Sonia any more. And yes, he is a complete fool to be drinking other people’s drinks at nightclubs...he deserved that kick from Naomi if you ask me. Wake up to yourself, Roy!
@muses-circle
This is a serious conversation that shows good characterization of both Roy and Anita, but literally the only thing I thought was, "Holy crackers, Anita, how are you standing in those shoes!?" 🤣
@justanothersimsblog
im with @muses-circle on the shoes thing! Anita, HOW?
@sweetnovember77
Same here. Alcohol is the only drug I fux wit, and I rarely fux wit dat. My money is funny.
@shhhushhh
Oouuuh! You better get that pills back from Saff now or that throbbing will look pleasant to you any time soon 😬 I relate to JoJo too. Good I didn't become a bartender though - I don't think I would have made it that far 😅😅
lololol Mirena!! Yeah Roy Boy, that kick in the groin was probably just a teaser! Better start nailing down/ hiding all those heavy objects around the house!
@miraakles
Roy shouldn't be in denial after these phonecalls he made.. Ugh. Don't do drugs kids! Unless they're hot cheetos! Those have to be a drug cause they're so damn addicting!
@streetlightaurora
Go with the red pantsuit, Anita - it's very flattering and red is definitely your color 👌
@lilsisterg
Dang Roy you never disappoint; always you no matter the circumstances. I got a good chuckle, but I honestly believe that whatever you said to Sonia was your honest truth.
I believe that too...whatever it was!
@phoenixfg
Aaaand he's back!! Freakin Roy!! 🤣🤣 And Joel thinking the same thing I was!
@sweetnovember77
Roy talks a good game
@wannabecatwriter
Is there ever a time when Roy doesn't want to show someone his favorite body part?
@streetlightaurora
That's a gorgeous couple right there... 🤤
@kscriba
"Dying alone" I've missed their banter so much and I didn't realize it until now
@shhhushhh
😂😂 I live for their interactions - I will never get enough of your perfect portrayal of friendship. About that new honesty routine Roy is trying to establish... They say "Can't teach an old dog new tricks"
Thank you Beautiful Mirena! Roy was being really genuine in his gratitude...he does appreciate Joël being there, and whenever he’s tired and emotional he always has the urge to express his bro love! And the jury is still out as to whether Roy’s honesty routine will last or not, lolol! But at least his intentions are good, right???
@miraakles
He feels bad for hurting Sonia's feelings, but not bad enough to go be a M-A-N and apologize to her F-A-C-E!!!! Ahhh.. I wish Naomi would kick in again, tbh. Also, why he's talking about doing everything right but he can't stay committed, for one. He'll just sleep with everyone and their mother.
@miraakles
Btw, the fact that Joel even had to say, "Please don't show me." *sigh* .. lmfao
@muses-circle
HAHA their interaction here is wonderful and hilarious! Can't see Roy sticking with the "being honest" schtick, though. He just doesn't seem the type to commit.
He will give it a red hot go! But yeah...I’m pretty sceptical as well...
@muses-circle
Also the look passing between Joel and the dog is priceless 😂
That was one of those unscripted moments that was pure gold!
@skyburned
Make me a sammich...you go Roy
Mmmmmm....wouldn’t mind me a Roy/ Joël sammich...
@simcatcher Shut up-you, shut up !
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Quarterly reading highlights for January - February - March
Not gonna give summaries because I don’t feel like it. Click on the Goodreads link asfhdoauefhi
Crier’s War by Nina Valera - This is such a fun mix of fantasy and Scifi. A call back to classic YA, without any of the uncomfortable parts of that, and with a few unique spins. The stars of this book are its main characters, Crier and Ayla
Blood Countess by Lana Popović - I kind of feel guilty putting this on my list, because it feels self-indulgent to do so. Which is kind of a silly thought on a list of *my* favorite books of the first quart. It’s just that this book is precisely my overly specific shit, in so many ways. The main character is a midwife who also does medicine, there’s a dark and complicated f/f romance, it’s about Elizabeth Bathory, AND the protagonist is flawed in a way where it’s her fear and hesitation that make her flawed. Like... what more could I ever want?
Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer - In this house we love Artificial Intelligence that have emotions, awareness, and caring connections to other people. As well as found families and internet friendships, hell yeah!
So You’ve Been Publically Shamed by Jon Ronson - This was such an interesting book. While I don’t fully agree with everything that was being said here and sometimes the tone rubbed me the wrong way, I still believe that everyone should still give this book a read and think about the principles that are being discussed in here.
DIE, Volume Two: Split the Party by Kieron Gillen - The first volume of this almost made it on my post for favorite books of 2019. It was so good! It has a really fun concept and is like, indulgently edgy, while it also retains its humanity as it explores those darker themes. And I just love the art of it. This is the same team that is behind The Wicked and the Divine, which is my favorite comic series!
All the Things We Do in the Dark by Saundra Mitchell - This is a very quiet and character exploration about a girl who is still very traumatized from being raped when she was a child (nothing is explicitly shown, it’s about the emotional impact the trauma has had on her) being forced to deal with her past and her feelings again after she discovers a body in the woods. It’s well done and emotional.
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado - A moving and powerful memoir about Machado’s experience in an abusive relationship But at the same time, this book is much more ambitious than being just a recounting of her experience. It’s a literary experiment, with different layers forms, and structures. It’s brilliant.
The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh - historical vampires in New Orleans, baby. Need I say more? Give me that extravagance.
The Devil You Know by K.J. Parker - Here you have just a very fun, very plot-twisty novella about a philosopher who makes a deal with a demon, told from the point of view of the demon. Lots of mind games, lots of intrigue, very entertaining!
Black Iris by Elliot Wake - This is a thriller revenge story about a bunch of fucked-up, edgy young women, who do drugs and destroy people’s lives. It’s not without it’s problems (oof, the portrayal of mental illness & addition) but it’s very well written and extremely compelling.
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The Mosley Review: Aladdin
I've said it before and I'll say it again: in animation you have the freedom to deliver true magic and wonderment, but in live action you have to ground it and it strips away the fun. The live action adaptations of the Disney animated classics like Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast were the perfect examples of how they failed to capture what you love about the originals. The magic gets sucked away and the power of the story is almost destroyed...until now. I can finally say that for the first time, this was actually a surprisingly really good adaptation of a very beloved classic. The film was absolutely gorgeous from the visuals to the costume designs. I will say that the story is the same, but with a great deal alterations. The first half of the film felt very rushed and then once we get to the Cave of Wonders sequence, the film finally stops running and begins to walk us through the story. The musical numbers were fun and cool to watch and the film had a lot to live up to and for the majority it delivered.
Mena Massoud as Aladdin was a good choice, but at times I felt he was wooden and didn't have the fun charm I hoped for. It also felt like in the beginning he was still figuring out how to play the character and line deliveries fell flat, but later in the film he finds his footing. Naomi Scott was outstanding as Jasmine. She was powerful and had a lot more to do than her animated counterpart. She has a power house of a singing voice and I'm not for adding new songs to an already establish soundtrack, but her song stole the film. I loved her handmaiden Dalia who was portrayed by the scene stealing and hilarious Nasim Pedrad. I liked Marwan Kenzari as Jafar and the more grounded and less creepy depiction of the character. You see his ambition and you understand it, but he still is evil. I liked the portrayal of The Sultan by Navid Negahban because he wasn't as clueless and he carried more weight. Now I had the most reservations about a live action version of one of the most iconic characters Disney has ever had. Baloo the bear is my favorite character and the Genie is my second favorite. Will Smith stepped up to the near impossible task and he did a fantastic job by making it his own and not stepping on the legacy that Robin Williams left behind. He respected it and captured the charm and the heart of the character. It was jarring at first and I thought his version of Friend Like Me was alright, but by the time the brake down section of Prince Ali hit, I was sold.
The score and music was all fantastic and of course was once again led by the man behind almost all of the most iconic Disney songs, Alan Menken. The only problems I truly had were the story pacing and some of the visual effects on the Genie because it was sometimes very awkward. Overall, I did really enjoy this live action adaptation and it is the best so far and Guy Ritchie's best directed film in a long time. My advise, don't go into this film judging or trying to compare it to the animated original. I know it will be very hard to do that, but it is not fair to the film nor is fair to deprive yourself of a good time. Just sit back enjoy.
#aladdin#mena massoud#naomi scott#marwan kenzari#navid negahban#nasim pedrad#billy magnussen#will smith#Disney#robin williams#guy ritchie
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Beyond for the character meme!
BEYOND:
How I feel about this character:
I love B way more than should be allowed!! Thinking about him realistically he is a horrible and unsettling person and certainly not someone I’d ever want to hang out with irl, but I usually feel nothing but enormous affection for him. I think it’s a combo of: (1) how much he perfectly encapsulates everything I am most afraid of being and most afraid of admitting I am, (2) what a weird outlier he is in this cast of attractive and cool characters, he’s just hilariously bizarre and I can’t believe he actually exists, and (3) what a funny addition he is to the fandom and how versatile his character can be. It’s also kind of an “only 2000s teenagers will understand” thing to remember the immense lameness of Beyond Birthday culture back in its super early days… god it brings back the most vivid memories of that edgy emo/myspace/creepypasta/terrible fanfic millennial adolescent times like nothing else. I have so much dumb nostalgia for him because of that. I’m very glad his character’s portrayal has evolved for the better in the fandom since then, but lol goooood times…
Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: Mostly L because it just really amuses me and I’ve actually seen it done well a few times before, but also I’m a big sucker for some fluffy/angsty AxB Wammy’s drama! I also like him with Light and think he’d be fun with Mello. I’d probably read B shipped with pretty much anyone, he’s just great to drop into any situation and see what kind of weirdness ensues.
My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Ohh most definitely his uncomfortable dynamic with Naomi. It still makes me laugh out loud to see her reacting to his idiocy with such disgust and bewilderment. Very much deserved.
My unpopular opinion about this character: Hmmm… I think just recently I’ve been contemplating my own characterization of B a bit, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I myself and other fans are probably not making him nearly self-absorbed and passive-aggressive and annoying and mopey enough in our portrayals of him. The default fanon B is kind of this aggressive and cocky and confident guy, but he’s actually much more of a sneaky, self-pitying, cowardly Eeyore-like dude most of the time.
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:
I wish that the weird narrative issues and plot holes were fixed in the Another Note novel! It makes it way more of a brainteaser than it probably should be trying to sort out how and why Mello knows the things he does. It’s definitely not intentionally unreliable narration so much as just something that should’ve been fixed by the writer and the editor before it was published, I would say.
Favorite friendship for this character:
I don’t think B had too many friends, but I think it’s kind of cute that Mello sympathized with him from afar.
My crossover ship:
Hahah hmmm… let’s put him with Pennywise the clown. I’m sure there would never be a dull moment between them.
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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 3 Ep 5: “I Never Want to See Josh Again” review
[My other Crazy Ex-Girlfriend reviews here]
(Trigger Warning: Suicide)
I’m going to eschew my normal style for this episode, because I don’t know where to start. This isn’t going to be a structured plot breakdown like usual because this episode deal with a very sensitive topic and I don’t know how to discuss it. All that’s left is for me to try my best.
I’m not going to embed the videos for this episode’s songs, even though they were both funny and excellent as usual.
I’m not going to discuss the subplots of Rebecca’s co-workers dealing with her absence in West Covina, even though it was an entertaining respite from the heavier material in the episode. Bayne Gibby as Cornelia, Rebecca’s temporary replacement at the office that everyone projects their feeling for Rebecca onto was fun.
I’m only going to be discussing the story as it leads to Rebecca’s suicide attempt at the end of the episode as best as I can.
[Full review under the cut]
Rebecca starts this episode with the things she said to all her friends and what Josh said to her still reeling around in her head. She’s completely shut down from her life to the point where she’s not even trying to fight back against her mother’s usual overbearing insults and insistence at taking the reins of her life. It was while watching these scenes on my second viewing of the episode that I realized I couldn’t talk about this episode like normal, because they build up to the end throughout and that couldn’t leave my mind. Smaller moments in the episode hit a lot harder knowing where they’d eventually go. The moment where Naomi finds the articles on Rebecca’s laptop about painless ways to commit suicide is one of the most heartbreaking moments I’ve ever seen on a television show.
Tovah Feldshuh as Naomi Bunch and her relationship with Rebecca has been presented throughout the show as a key source in Rebecca’s stress, depression and anxiety. There have been glimpses into why her mother is that way before, feeling like she always needed to push her daughter so that she can survive out in the world. This episode starts off seeming like it’s going to be more of that from her as she tells Rebecca that she sent in her resignation at the West Covina office and will help put her resumé together to get her old job in New York back. From that moment she looks on Rebecca’s laptop, there’s an immediate shift in her attitude. She starts making food for Rebecca (“This is the first time you’ve ever encouraged me to eat”) and being overall kindhearted. She’s clearly trying to take some pressure off Rebecca’s mind without letting on that she knows what she does. Feldshuh has been a fun presence on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend since her first appearance in “My Mom, Greg’s Mom and Josh’s Sweet Dance Moves”, but in this episode, she gives her best dramatic performance on the show yet.
It’s clear that what Naomi is trying to do is working for Rebecca up until the moment a seed of doubt is planted in her mind by her old rival, Audra, that something’s suspicious about the way Naomi is acting. She searches the house for any signs that something’s afoot and ends up coming across Naomi’s anxiety pills. Rebecca looks at the bottom of one of the milkshakes her mom’s been making for her recently and finds the crushed-up residue of those pills. When she confronts Naomi about this, her mom admits that she’s been doing this. During every similar instance in Rebecca’s life, she always refused help unless forced to get it. Naomi felt that if she could do this to calm Rebecca’s mind, she could get her to agree to go get help somewhere. Rebecca sees this as her mother being another person who want her out of their life by trying to commit her. How Naomi went about this wasn’t right, but it’s as close to trying to help her daughter as we’ve seen her do in the series.
Rebecca ends up running out on her mother and leaving a note saying “I know you tried your best. Don’t worry. I’m ok.” She boards a flight back to California, but she realizes that she doesn’t feel like she has a home anywhere after alienating everyone in her life. This is where she’s left with her mother’s anxiety pills in one hand and a cup of wine in the other. The sequence of Rebecca taking those pills one-by-one trying to overdose herself was hard to watch. It feels very understated compared to the show’s usual tone. By the time she pressed the “Help” button above her seat and tells the flight attendant “I need help” while holding up the empty pill bottle on the verge of unconsciousness, I was sobbing during both my viewings of this episode.
“I Never Want to See Josh Again” feels like a moment Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has been building to since the beginning. Rebecca’s anxiety and depression have been apparent since the first episode of the show and she’s officially hit her absolute lowest point. We know that she hasn’t alienated her friends the way she thinks she has thanks to their subplot back in West Covina this episode that’s all about how much they miss her and are worried, but why she wouldn’t be able to see that is understandable. The portrayal of depression and suicidal tendencies on this musical comedy are more thoughtful and considerate than many dramas that revolve around the same topics. The most tasteful thing they did this episode was how after it ended, they put the number for the American Suicide Hotline on screen.
I’ve considered Crazy Ex-Girlfriend to be one of my favorite currently airing shows since I started watching it, but with this episode it’s easily managed to become one of my favorite shows of all time. I look forward to seeing what Rebecca’s path to recovery looks like starting next episode in “Josh Is Irrelevant.”
#Crazy Ex Girlfriend#Crazy Ex Girlfriend season 3#Crazy Ex Reviews#TV Review#tw: suicide#Wit's Writing#Rachel Bloom#Aline Brosh McKenna#Rebecca Bunch#musicals
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Emily interviewed for The Last Magazine
“My muse is not a horse and I am in no horse race and if indeed she was, still I would not harness her to this tumbrel…” It is the end of a four-day press run in New York for the new Starz series American Gods and Emily Browning is reciting to her castmates, the show’s developers—Michael Green and Brian Fuller—and the story’s original creator, English author Neil Gaiman, the infamous rejection letter penned “to all those at MTV” by fellow Australian and rock music’s ‘Prince of Darkness’ Nick Cave. “It’s incredible—he was nominated for an MTV Award for Murder Ballads and he wrote MTV a letter saying, ‘Thanks but no thanks,’ and essentially that art is not a competition,” says Browning over coffee the following morning.
As Browning recalls it, her dinnertime recitation of Cave’s letter emerged from news that episodes of American Gods would be screened in front of a panel to determine whether the series might qualify for Emmy consideration. “I was telling them how scary that is to me and I ended up reading them the letter that Nick Cave wrote,” she explains.
In the hours before Browning journeys back to her adopted home of Los Angeles, the young star appears understated and authentic, her dry, self-deprecating humor ringing true to the country she called home for some twenty-plus years, the country where at just eight years old she got her start in the television movie The Echo of Thunder and where over the following five years, she would hold her own alongside Billy Connolly in the comedy The Man Who Sued God, Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom in the retelling of the life of the infamous Australian bushranger Ned Kelly, and Julianna Marguiles in the Australian-filmed, American-released horror flick Ghost Ship. But her big break came in 2004 in the shape of A Series of Unfortunate Events, which saw Browning share screen time with Hollywood heavyweights Jim Carrey, Jude Law, Meryl Streep, and Connolly for the second time.
Yet despite her two decades in front of the camera racking up an impressive list of IMDB credits spanning myriad genres including everything from crime dramas (Legend, in which Browning plays Tom Hardy’s wife) to musicals (the British drama God Help the Girl, for which she took the lead), the young star speaks frankly and openly about the fears that go hand-in-hand with a burgeoning acting career.
There is the wavering skepticism surrounding award ceremonies—”If our show won awards that would be really exciting and wonderful, and yet I’ve always had a weird feeling about awards. I really don’t understand how every year there is one person from each category who is the best person at the art that they do”—but equally, if not more so, Browning’s uneasiness stems from a lingering and very real apprehension towards the ostensibly public nature of fame itself. “I have a feeling that if this show is big, it won’t be long before there are stories about me being an asshole because I wouldn’t take a photo with someone—but it is so often because it makes me panic and I don’t know how to respond,” she says. “I’m such a socially inept person in general that I’m like, How am I going to deal with it?” she concedes with a laugh.
Needless to say, with the series’ premiere last night—and a substantial pre-existing fan base by virtue of Gaiman’s award-winning novel of the same name about a clutch of Old Gods pulled from ancient mythology who confront New American Gods who represent some of the more complicated aspects of our modern society like Media and the stock market—Browning’s fear may soon become a reality. It’s a gamble the 28-year-old actress says she is willing to take in support of the series and her character, the enigmatic and pivotal Laura Moon, for whom Browning developed a profound appreciation. “I fell in love with Laura immediately,” she explains. “I had never read a character like her before who is not built to be likable, which is wonderful and really freeing.”
In many ways, Browning’s gritty portrayal of the “unapologetically crass and complicated and flawed” Laura inadvertently opens up an important conversation about what it means to be a woman in today’s Hollywood. “We’ve been having this discussion about strong, female characters and I think that a lot of people misinterpret that to mean girls who kick ass and independent women who don’t need a man, but really the strength is about characters being written in a complex and interesting way,” Browning says. “That’s what I mean when I say I want to play strong characters, I mean characters that are written well and fleshed out well. I want to play horrible people and lovely people and weak people and stupid people. I think that’s what it’s about—we just want as much range available to us as men have had forever.”
Furthermore, the series comes at a time of unprecedented change and trepidation harnessing both the current political and social landscapes, which in effect has instigated an expansive and perhaps long overdue conversation around what it means to be “American.” Throughout the eight-episode first season, questions surrounding faith, sexuality, sacrifice, loyalty, belief, and love are a guts-and-all affair, the camera’s focus holding steady during scenes that in the industry by and large are deemed too provocative to be shown in their entirety. Take for instance the gay love scene between characters Salim and Jinn, two Muslim men, which Browning cites as a favorite moment. “If you ever see a gay love scene, so often there’s a moment early on when the camera decides to look away, and I like the fact that we don’t look away from it,” she says, “and that it’s tender and awkward and emotional and lovely, and it’s also a really hot scene. I think that there’s not enough of that.”
Additionally, the series addresses such contentious issues as America’s obsession with guns and gun control, along with the ongoing immigration debate. “I definitely don’t want it to sound like the show is liberal preachiness in any way because I don’t believe that it is,” Browning explains. “I don’t think that we’re prescribing any set of beliefs. I really think that if there is a message, the message is that all faith is relevant and whatever it is that you believe in, you should be able to believe in that thing no matter what it is. The show is naturally, effortlessly diverse, which is how I think it should be. It makes me really proud to be a part of it, especially right now.”
Indeed, for someone who has “never really had a plan,” relying instead on sheer gut instinct when it comes to the projects she has pursued, Browning’s trajectory to date cuts a singular path that above all champions multiplicity over certainty. “I’m not the kind of person that wants to work nonstop—I want something special,” she says. Something like Golden Exits, for instance, which premiered at Sundance and cast Browning alongside Jason Schwartzman, Chloë Sevigny, and Mary-Louise Parker in the artfully defiant independent feature from writer-director Alex Ross Perry. “I’ve been playing a few awful characters lately, it’s great,” says Browning of her Golden Exits character, Naomi, an Australian girl whose arrival in Brooklyn sets off a train of events that, in true Perry style, depict the more cantankerous side of human behavior. “Alex thinks that that character is me,” says Browning with a laugh. “We’ve essentially talked about the fact that the character is the worst possible version of me. I mean there were a few times when I had to say to him, ‘This isn’t me, though, I’m not this horrible, I don’t actually treat men this way.’ But a lot of that character came out of stories that we shared with one another about people that we knew respectively and about ourselves, so I knew her very well from the beginning.”
As for now, Browning is taking some well-earned time to catch her breath after a grueling six months of four AM starts on set for American Gods. “I’m just having a moment to gather inspiration and ideas, and to just gather my energy before season two as well.” And of the future, no matter the course her career may take, Browning resolves to never lose her pure, unconstrained love of the craft—despite the anxiety it instills time and time again. “I still absolutely have the feeling of being a huge fan of performers and of movies,” she says. “I don’t ever want to lose that. I don’t ever want to be jaded, because I think then you’re screwed.”
American Gods continues on Sundays on Starz.
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"PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST" (2006) Review
"PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST" (2006) Review Not long ago, I had watched the second movie in the "PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN" franchise for the umpteenth time, namely "DEAD MAN'S CHEST". First of all, I would like to say that originally, I had not been that keen on the idea of a sequel or two to "PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: Curse of the Black Pearl". I simply did not think that the 2003 movie needed a sequel. It had ended just fine, as far as I was concerned. And I suspect that many "PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN" fans still feel this way. In end, I am glad that Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski had went ahead and forged a trilogy out of the franchise. To my surprise, "PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST" has become my favorite of the three movies. That said, here are my thoughts on the film. At first I had thought that the first movie was better. Which is not surprising to me. Sequels are rarely better than the first movie - with the STAR WARS, X-MEN and SPIDER-MAN franchises being the exceptions. But upon second viewing, I will add that DMC also became amongst the exceptions. In fact, I now have a higher opinion of this movie than I do of the 2003 film. Due to the more complex characterizations and darker storyline, I simply found it more appealing. And it has, I believe, one of the best cliffhangers in Hollywood history. I must congratulate the two screenwriters, Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio, along with director Gore Verbinski for taking the franchise in a new direction, instead of rehashing the success of the first movie. At first, I did not care for the sequences featuring the cannabalistic Pelegostos. I did not like the idea of Jack Sparrow being some kind of god to them, or even the idea of them being cannibals. It seemed to smack of old Hollywood cliches regarding whites' encounters with "non-white savages". Yet, upon repeated viewings, one could see that Verbinski, Elliot and Russio took this cliche and turned it on its heels with the portrayal of the Pelegostos being more than just savages. The director and two screenwriters showed that despite their status as cannibals, the Pelegostos were just as human as anyone else, thanks to the comic acting of the cast members portraying them. On the other hand, I really enjoyed the Black Pearl crew's escape from the Pelegostos. It was filled with excitement, great humor and good acting. In fact, it is one of my favorite sequences in the entire trilogy. As I had earlier hinted, I have to congratulate Elliot and Russio for allowing the characters to develop even more since the first movie – especially Will Turner (portrayed by the very underappreciated Orlando Bloom), Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightly), and James Norrington (Jack Davenport). Even dear old Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp in all his glory) had managed to develop somewhat by the end of the film. All of them became slightly darker and more complex. And all of the major supporting actors - including Kevin McNally as Joshamee Gibbs; and Lee Arnberg and MacKenzie Crook as Pintel and Rigetti - were excellent. Not much of a surprise, really. "DEAD MAN'S CHEST" also introduced four new characters to the franchise - the perceptive and charming Vodou priestess, Tia Dalma (Naomi Harris); the vindictive and deadly Captain Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) who commanded the ghost ship, the Flying Dutchman; Will's gloomy father, Bootstrap Bill Turner (Stellan Skarsgård); and the ruthless and manipulative representative of the East India Trading Company, Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander). Skarsgård gave a solid performance as Bootstrap. But the other three actors - Harris, Nighy and Hollander - were absolutely fabulous. In fact, Tia Dalma's introduction into the saga happens to be my second favorite scene in the entire franchise. Many fans had expressed dislike of Elizabeth Swann for what she had done to Jack, when she manipulated him into remaining on board the Black Pearl long enough to chain him to the wheel and leave him at the mercy of Davy Jones' pet, the Kracken. What many fans had forgotten was that Will had more or less done the same thing to Jack - leave him for dead - in the first film. Mind you, Will probably had a better excuse. He feared that he would become a victim of Jack's manipulations. And Elizabeth's excuse was understandable. The Kracken was only after Jack. But a part of me suspects that malice played a part in Elizabeth's actions. She was very angry when she learned that Jack had left Will to the no-so-tender mercies of Davy Jones as a means to square his debt with the latter. Despite my original low expectations of the movie, I am surprised that I grew to love it so much. Even more surprising was the fact that it became my favorite in the "PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN" franchise. However, the movie's final scene featuring the resurrection of Captain HectorBarbossa (Geoffrey Rush), who had been shot dead by Jack in "CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL" was "BRILLIANT". It had one of the best endings I have ever seen on film, let alone cliffhangers. On the whole, I would give "PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST" an "A". I would have given it an "A+", but I took points off for the Pelegostos sequence. I may be more tolerant of it, but I do not love it. If there was one "PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN" movie I would watch over again without any hesitation, it would be "DEAD MAN'S CHEST".
#pirates of the caribbean franchise#Gore Verbinski#pirates of the caribbean dead man's chest#johnny depp#orlando bloom#Keira Knightley#kevin r. mcnally#jack davenport#bill nighy#Stellan Skarsgård#naomie harris#tom hollander#david bailie#martin klebba#potc#lee arenberg#mackenzie crook#jonathan pryce#david schofield#british empire#jack sparrow#hector barbossa#will turner#elizabeth swann#joshamee gibbs#james norrington#tia dalma#davy jones#pintel#ragetti
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My Favorite Performances of 2016
These are the 15 movie roles this year I most felt deserved highlighting. Man, there were some great roles this year, introduction, introduction, introduction, how many words does this have to be? You don't care and I certainly don't. On to the list!(Note: except for the top two, this list is in no particular order).
Glen Powell (Everybody Wants Some!!) The entire cast of Richard Linklater’s spiritual follow-up to "Dazed and Confused" is one riotous bundle of joy (and a cure for the usually cliche portrayal of college kids), but Glen Powell's Finnegan is by far the standout. The scene that makes his character comes at a party for the "artsy fartsy" crowd when, after encouraging a freewheeling spirit of sex, booze, drugs and rock 'n' roll throughout the film, he actually gets for real hurt when his proteges crash his chances with a girl he happens to like. Finnegan is on the cusp of adulthood and leadership heading into one of the most tumultuous decades of American history, but he's not quite there yet...and it's the leftover, subtle vulnerabilities of the kid during his last days of youth that make him so unbelievably endearing. If there's any justice in the world, EWS!! will do for him what Dazed and Confused did for...well, most of the cast.
Tilda Swinton (A Bigger Splash) The (in my opinion, overblown) controversy over Swinton's Doctor Strange role sadly overshadowed her performance in this Fellini-esque story of beautiful people behaving in decidedly un-beautiful ways. Playing a major, David Bowie-esque popstar who has gone near-mute from the stress of living in public, Swinton has few lines but somehow manages to steal the show from a simmering Matthias Schoenaerts and a manic Ralph Fiennes. Being mostly robbed of the ability to speak, Swinton has to convey a massive range of emotions largely with body language---a task she accomplishes with all the skill you'd expect from one of the world's greatest actresses.
Natalie Portman (Jackie) Frail and tough, honest and veiled, open and censoring---Portman's portrayal of the most famous First Lady in American history is riddled with contradictions that, in her hands, become a coherent character. She can sink to the depths of unbearable anguish at a moment's notice, and five minutes later it is as if nothing very bad had happened. Yet, there's always something boiling under the surface...perhaps an understanding that history will forever place "JFK's wife" next to her name, whatever else she may do with her life. At times, Portman seems to barely hold it all in, yet when we leave the theater she is still a mystery. Maybe that's how it should be.
Joel Edgerton (Loving) Rarely does more go unsaid or understood than passes behind the face of Joel Egderton as Richard Loving, one half of the married couple whose simple wish to live in their home state of Virginia dealt a death blow to laws banning interracial marriage in the United States. Edgerton says little, and when he does it is in as few words as possible...every one of which speaks his entire mind. Key to the performance, though, are scenes of him simply sharing intimate moments with wife Mildred. At a time when the stereotype of the traditonal American husband and father of yesteryear is often held up for all the wrong reasons, Edgerton's performance is crucial.
Emma Stone (La La Land) Until near the end, the music is the driving force of La La Land. Then someone asks the character of Mia to "tell a story", and Emma Stone delivers one of the best scenes of her career. The strength of the "Audition" number redefines what has come before for the character, and solidifies her as both someone we can really root for, and the personification of dreamers, however hopeless they might be. The final look she gives Ryan Reynolds in the film speaks more than a page of dialogue ever could.
Viola Davis (Fences) Before the era of feminism, there was an unspoken agreement between married couples in the U.S.: a wife was to put up with her husband's shit, even when he was full to bursting with it. It was hard to pick one of the two main performances in "Fences" to single out, but ultimately Davis's simmering cauldron is the heart of the story, enabling her to both survive and love life with her deeply, deeply flawed husband. Unlike Denzel Washington, who gets to vomit forth an endless stream of anger throughout the film, Davis is tasked with saving her one great outburst for when it is most needed and has the most impact, creating a scene the trailers should not have featured; it should have been allowed to burst on audiences like water from a broken dam, rolling over everything in its path. Five minutes later, she's calm again, but she's also a different woman...or maybe just another woman who was hiding behind the first all along.
Sunny Pawar (Lion) The trailers all emphasize the adult Saroo's search for his home, but the bulk of the movie is taken up with a young Saroo getting lost in the first place, and Dev Patel is overshadowed by 8-year-old Sunny Pawar...not an easy feat. Like Quvenzhane Wallis and Jacob Tremblay, Pawar takes a role that could easily have been phoned in (since we have natural sympathy for kids) and makes little Saroo into an enormously relatable character, a lost boy whose stomping ground is no Neverland. It isn't any wonder the filmmakers keep coming back to him in flashbacks after his character is grown. He's the heart of the film.
Hailee Steinfeld (Edge of Seventeen) I swear, my generation moons over the era of John Hughes High School comedies so much they seem to forget that being awkward, out-of-place and unable to wait for the day after graduation day isn't unique to them. Every year we get a handful of largely unheralded comedies about that very topic, and Hailee Steinfeld's performance as a morbid, confused and, yes, aggressive (bad female! bad!) teen who openly discusses her sex life, alcohol habits and dark, dark, dark humor elevates "Edge of Seventeen" to the top of the pack. With acerbic wit, pinpoint aim, and unflinching pessimism, Nadine Franklin manages to skewer not just every aspect of High School life but many of life in general. The only target she routinely misses? Herself.
Kate Beckinsale (Love & Friendship) It is exceedingly rare that a woman in the movies can be aggressive and acidic at the same time. Kate Beckinsale's Lady Susan is such a character. It is impossible for all but the most ardent feminists to actually like her, and you'd never want to be drawn into her poisonous circle of rumor, manipulation, innuendo and life-destroying gossip, but you have to admire her for taking charge of her own life at a time when women were tasked with hosting guests, looking pretty and shutting up. These days, she'd almost certainly be described as a sociopath, wrecking lives for her whim and amusement, yet you can't look away. She's the year's best villain...or is she?
Ben Foster (Hell or High Water) Chris Pine's well-meaning father is our anchor to this story of two desperate brothers in hard times, but Ben Foster is the anarchic, destructive force that keeps our eyes glued to the screen. Whereas Pine's dad doesn't think of himself as criminal and Jeff Bridges's sheriff has spent far too much time watching old westerns, Foster knows exactly what he is: a violent criminal whose psycopathy he might be able to turn to his brother's aid in one last blaze of glory. There's never really a question of him surviving the story; he's not a man, he's a storm, and he's here to rage harder than he ever has before blowing himself out.
Naomie Harris (Moonlight) Talk about embodying multiple people in one role. Harris plays mother to a young, gay black man at three different stages of his life, but she's not the kind of perfect mom the movies prefer. She's a drug addict at a time when the War on Drugs refused to treat such people with any sort of humanity, and she's got a temper to match the times; when she screams hurtful words at her own son, the decision to remove the audio from the scene makes her come off as near-demonic. Simplicity, though, isn't really what Moonlight deals in, and there are layers and regrets to her revealed as the film goes on. Her final scene asks a rather important question: should any time be too late to be forgiven?
Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch) For the most part, horror will forever be considered beneath the notice of those who hand out accolades, which means even if you turn in one of the most startling performances of the year, it doesn't really count if it's in this genre. That's a shame, because unless you count a tiny, uncredited role from 2014, Taylor-Joy makes the most impressive film debut of any actress this year. Called upon to do things involving animal blood and demonic possession that a more image-concerned person might spurn, she handles the role of a teenage girl whose family is being assailed by the forces of hell by taking it all absolutely seriously, which is essential; any hint that she thinks anything she's doing is silly, and the film falls apart. There's reason to question whether anything supernatural is really happening in the New England wilderness of the late 1600's, but no reason to doubt the strength of Taylor-Joy's performance.
Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) Not everything has to be so serious, something Deadpool would probably remind you of right before delivering a kick straight to your kibbles and bits. As the star, producer and driving force behind the hilariously raunchy R-rated superhero flick, Reynolds is the most eminently watchable and entertaining a comic hero has been outside the suit since Robert Downey Jr. swaggered into the Iron Man armor. Mel Brooks once famously described his films as rising below vulgarity, and whether Reynolds is taking time out to break the fourth wall or making incredibly lewd comments at his blind, elderly, female roommate, he's bringing the spirit of "Blazing Saddles" to a genre that sometimes really needs to get over itself. In a year where "Batman vs. Superman" took itself more seriously than a second heart attack, Reynolds's Merc with a Mouth is the filthy, over-the-top cure the doctor ordered.
And my top two performances, starting with my choice for Best Actress:
Isabelle Huppert (Elle)
In arguably the most challenging role this year, which comes in certainly the most challenging film, Huppert plays a woman who, after being raped, plays a cat-and-mouse game with the rapist. Whether she is trying to catch him or get caught again is another question. The role was turned down by multiple more well-known actresses, before being taken by Huppert, who deserves to be more well-known outside her native France. Key to her performance is that her character is not altogether very likable, and if she were not a victim of a heinous crime, you'd have a real difficult time feeling empathy for her. That takes far more guts, I think, than playing out brutal scenes of assault, since we tend to demand our heroines be pure as the driven snow.
Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)
He's been turning in the best work he possibly can in every role he's had, big or small, for two decades, always overshadowed in fame by his older brother, but this year is Casey's. Angry, violent, adrift and bereft, Lee Chandler is a man with no purpose in a world that demands every man have one, not that he grasps himself on that level: he's simply a man who has been struck over and over until nothing but armor remains. Forced to deal with the issue of custody for his nephew after his brother dies, he portrays a truth no man wants to face: not all of us are cut out for responsibility. Despite this, Affleck walks a fine line, making Lee simultaneously a jerk and someone you'd really like to see come out on top. Unfortunately, as Lee well knows, the world just isn't that simple.
Honorable mentions: I limited my list to 15, and even after expanding from ten it was still difficult. There are lots of great roles that didn't make the cut, and here are the ten that really gave the winners a run for their money, in one big list. If you don't see your favorite, remember: it doesn't necessarily mean they weren't good, just that I can't possibly list them all.
Kristen Stewart (Cafe Society) The Cast of Don't Think Twice Royalty Hightower (The Fits) Meryl Streep (Florence Foster Jenkins) Lou de Laage (The Innocents) Ruth Negga (Loving) Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea) Jessica Chastain (Miss Sloane) Pretty much everybody in Moonlight (Moonlight) Katie Holmes (Touched With Fire)
#lou de laâge#katie holmes#Jessica Chastain#Meryl Streep#ruth negga#royalty hightower#kristen stewart#lucas hedges#isabelle huppert#casey affleck#The Innocents#manchester by the sea#touched with fire#cafe society#Don't Think Twice#the fits#florence foster jenkins#loving#miss sloane#Viola Davis#fences#denzel washington#deadpool#marvel#ryan reynolds#anya taylor-joy#the witch#emma stone#la la land#Naomie Harris
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