#namely Adam Driver's incredible performance

[lovelytsunoda]

F1 DRIVERS AS CHARACTERS FROM MAGIC MIKE

aka the best shitpost that has ever shitposted from lovelytsunoda on tumblr

JENSON BUTTON as DALLAS

He’s been around the block a few times. The seasoned veteran that holds our group together. Semi-retired, Jenson is now the touring MC and the owner of the club where our favourite boys perform. He’s still got it though, and that’s evident by the women that hang off him like shirtless white dudes are going out of style and they’re desperate to grab the last one. He knows exactly what he’s doing, and just how to please a woman. Looks incredible in a cowboy hat.

LEWIS HAMILTON as MIKE

He's got dreams, visions of a life where he can put his male stripper days behind him. Despite himself, he takes a new young talent under his wing, while he prepares to leave and create a humble new life for himself. Ladies everywhere know his name, and he's always the title performer. The other dancers are jealous of his street cred and wish they could all be him. There will never be another Lewis.

LANDO NORRIS as ADAM

He’s young, he’s eager and he’s attracted by the idea of swimming dollar bills and all the chicks he could possibly want. Lando Norris is green in the gills and needs someone to take him under their wing. Enter Lewis Hamilton. Lewis teaches the kid everything he knows, and eventually The Kid becomes a bigger star than he is.

CARLOS SAINZ JR. as BIG DICK RICHIE

Do I really need to explain this one? Ladies man with two sides: romantic and scandalous. Insecure about the size of his package, as it tends to scare the ladies away. Lover of MILFs. The ideas man of the group, tired of doing the same routines over and over again. No fashion sense at all. when he finally gets laid, you know damn well everybody is going to hear about it (and it might be with a middle aged mom).

CHARLES LECLERC as TITO

He's like a hyperactive puppy with a heart of gold. Brings a certain kind of swagger to the stage, but is easily distracted offstage. Has tried (and failed) to create different products and startups, but thinks whatever hairbrained idea he has come up with next is the one. Wants to go on Shark Tank. I love him your honour.

FERNANDO ALONSO as TARZAN

He's been in the game longer than some of the younger dancers have been alive. Nobody is sure why, but the ladies love him. A sweet and gentle soul who would do anything to go back in time and settle down with the one who got away, Fernando has more depth than expected.

OSCAR PIASTRI as KEN

Thinks they should 'stop giving women what men think they want' and start 'asking women what they want'. Certified sweetheart, the ladies love him. Will give you a lap dance while serenading you with love songs that stopped being popular in 1986. The baby of the group, sometimes it takes a few tries to be taken seriously. And did I mention women love him?

VALTTERI BOTTAS as TOBIAS

He may not be a good stripper, but he's the number one supporter (and the driver, and the DJ). When Jenson fucks off to Monaco, it's Valtteri who takes over as MC. Will totally win an impromptu drag race because he is just that bitch.

YUKI TSUNODA as ANDRE (magic mike xxl)

Certified sweetheart. Will put on his little fedora and suit jacket and make up a song about how wonderful you are. Because sometimes, the shy girls in the audience need a bit of love and attention as well. Even if his music career were to take off, he'd probably still keep stripping because he loves making pretty girls smile.

[maritimeseabeasts]

Maritime beasts: Night crawler

Name: Nightcrawler

Gender: ???

Alliance: none

Threat level: (high)

Biography:

Tossed away in the swamps by a washed up deadbeat careless driver and left for scrap near an old junkyard, nightcrawler came to life and learned how to live in the shadows, fend for itself and make friends with the creatures of the night. Years of crouching in the darkest corners of the swampy wetlands permanently changed this long forgotten monster truck into a crawling monster that only emerges at night when the sun doesn't burn its reptilian skin, and Nightcrawlers's beady eyes can find its feast for the night. Lock up your pets – and yourself!

Abilities/powers:

Extendable Tongue: Similar to a chameleon's tongue, it has a long, sticky tongue that can snatch objects or enemies from a distance.

Camouflage: Nightcrawler can blend into its surroundings like a chameleon, making it nearly invisible when stationary.

Night Vision: Nightcrawler can see perfectly in the dark, giving it an advantage during nighttime battles.

Terrain Adaptation: Nightcrawler can adapt to any terrain it encounters, whether it's mud, sand, or rugged mountains, making it versatile in different environments.

Super Speed: It possesses incredible speed, allowing it to zip through traffic or traverse challenging terrain effortlessly.

Hydraulic Limbs: Nightcrawlers chassis contains powerful hydraulic limbs that enable it to perform astonishing acrobatic maneuvers and scale obstacles.

Shapeshifting: The monster truck can transform into various vehicles, mimicking their abilities and appearances.

Weaknesses:

Vulnerability in Direct Sunlight: The chameleon camouflage is less effective in direct sunlight, making nightcrawlers more visible and easier to spot during the day.

Vulnerable Joints: Nightcrawlers have specific vulnerable joints and connection points that, if damaged, can hinder its mobility.

Extreme Temperatures: Extreme heat or cold can hinder its performance.

Noise Sensitivity: Loud noises can disorient and immobilize it temporarily.

Water Vulnerability: It's susceptible to damage when submerged in water.

Vulnerable Core: The monster truck has a vulnerable core that, if damaged, weakens its abilities.

Limited Shapeshifting: While it can mimic vehicles, it can't replicate their full functionality.

Interactions with humans/other creatures:

Night crawlers often lurk alone or in a group with other beasts

Habitat:

There usually found in swamps, city’s (rare), or forests

Facts:

Voice actor:

Theme Song: the sewers by Adam skorupa

When threatened by something bigger nightcrawler may try to scare them off by moving its body side to side and camouflaging to look like something moving in the wind before popping up to give a frightening scare

[engagemachine]

@valyriansword and I have been talking about TLJ and it’s been the most rewarding/validating conversation and I’M SO GRATEFUL to have someone who is able to express how they feel (AND HOW I ALSO FEEL) so articulately. I’m just so excited because walking out of that theater was such a conflicting experience and I didn’t know how I felt or how I was supposed to feel or what to make of what I’d just seen, but I feel more at “peace” after discussing so thoroughly the film’s high and low points. I’ve also just come back from seeing the film for a second time and feel that I’m better able to express a lot of my thoughts.

So with all of that being said, SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF THINGS KATRINA SAID and then my own additions added on at the end (spoilers ahead):

“what I really disliked was the little “oh I feel the force” joke, mostly because it felt like I was seeing Daisy Ridley and Mark Hamill fooling around then actual Rey and Luke. I don’t know, the humor did not work for during a lot of parts.” –This is something I echoed several times to different people after seeing the film, because there were a couple points in the film where the humor felt entirely misplaced and even inappropriate at times. The scene where Rey is meditating on the rock and thinks she is feeling the Force (when in actuality it is Luke waving a plant over her hand) was one of those scenes that felt overtly comical. I don’t appreciate humor when it feels so forced. There were moments meant to be funny that simply did not feel genuine. Maybe the humor felt oddly placed at times because there wasn’t really time to properly laugh over it before the characters were moving on and were back into serious mode. The “reaction time” felt cut short, in a sense, and I’ve never seen that happen in a film before.

“Yeah the pulling her [Rey] around the room stuff was weird. He [Snoke] was the most one-dimensional character in TFA but I liked him so much better back then? I liked how mysterious he was? But here he was SUCH a twirling-mustache villain in this movie, and he talked way too much. Actually, everyone in this movie talked too much. what made TFA so great was the subtext, the things /not/ said, like the interrogation room scene, peppered with so many ambiguous moments “don’t be afraid I feel it too” “I see it, I see the island”…so ripe with tension because of that, and so magical. But this movie kinda broke the fourth wall a few times and was very self-aware and I was not a fan of that.” –I firstly wanted to address Snoke, because I agree full-heartedly with what Katrina said about him being such a mustache-twirly villain in TLJ. He was mysterious in The Force Awakens, and while I don’t think anyone really liked him much in TFA, he was, at least, much more threatening and scary than he ever was in TLJ; I think there was some initial disappoint in seeing him in non-hologram form—before, he was only this crackly, large shadow figure. Now we’re seeing him in all of his full glory, and not only is he wearing this sparkly, gold bathrobe, (which: what the FUCK?) but he’s talking way too much. The speech he delivers moments before he is killed probably bothers me more than anything else he said. He goes on and on about how he sees everything, that nothing surprises him… and then is killed by the lightsaber sitting next to him. It was too easy. I also thought him pulling Rey around the room was very strange, perhaps it was the way it was filmed, but there was just something off about it to me.  

About characters saying too much—I’ve never agreed with a comment more. There was so much dialogue that was just flat-out bad, so many moments that felt so strangely out of character. I think my biggest grievance with the dialogue was that a lot of it felt so circular. (The whole film felt circular, but I’ll save that for later) in that it never actually accomplishes anything or establishes a theme that we didn’t already know. Certainly the most revealing dialogue came from Kylo and Rey’s shared moments. But I’m still scratching my head over some of the dialogue between Rey and Luke, and the scene on Ahch-to where we’re led to believe that Rey’s parentage is about to be revealed, and then… isn’t. What was the point of the multiple reflections of Reys? Even the moment between Yoda and Luke wasn’t as impactful as it could have been—the piss-poor dialogue being the causative factor, in my opinion.

There are several other moments where I wished the actors had been given the ability to just act—this is one of the most talented ensembles of actors in a single film, and their freedoms to do what they do best have been stripped from them, and they’re instead forced to spout all this useless dialogue that doesn’t really advance the plot, and that doesn’t reveal to us anything we don’t already know.

Yoda’s speech wasn’t all bad—what he said about failing to teach your failures, and how that can be just as harmful as hiding them completely was very poignant, I thought. 

“Rian just seemed weirdly obsessed with the Resistance storyline when it was a much simpler, off-to-the-side thing before. I came in ready to see a movie about Rey’s growth as a person, learning the ways of the force, learning about balance, having mixed feelings about Kylo. instead it was more like… “you’re a MONSTER… but I forgive you and I want to save you and I’ll recklessly give myself up to the first order just to be with you, baby” which. was so. out of character. I had way more issues with that than with the force bond itself. And then the rest of the movie was a cheesy story about how heroic the resistance is and a tiny subplot about Rey bickering with retired Luke. Who apparently disconnected from the force but then reconnected with no issues?” –I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: there was no forward momentum in this film, no real advancement in the plot beyond what happens to Kylo, and I’m so baffled as to why. The Resistance spent the entire film running away from the First Order (all on the premise that their fuel supply was running low, which… what???), a storyline that could have been effectively told in under 15 minutes.

I’m also crushed by what was done with Finn. Such a central character in TFA, in TLJ, he was reduced to completing some side quest that ended up having no relevance to the film. And why the fuck did Rey and Finn NEVER EVEN SPEAK? They hugged, yes, but the fact that no dialogue was shared between them practically kills me. If Poe and Rey can share a split-second of dialogue, surely that same courtesy could have been extended to Finn and Rey, who share one of the most beautiful friendships in the Star Wars universe.

Katrina pointed out something else that I would have loved to of seen, which is more of an internal struggle within Rey, specifically her growth as a Jedi, and my desire to see more conflict between her and the Dark side. There was so much conflict driving her in TFA, and in TLJ it felt as if her conflict was presented and then solved within an hour into the film, tied off with a neat little bow on top, and that was that. I just feel very sad for her character. I wanted more for her story.

As for Luke, which I’ll get to more in a minute—it goes without saying that I am sad about what became of him in this film as well, everything from his portrayal to his subsequent death. (Which, by the way: WHY MUST THIS NEW TRILOGY KILL OFF EVERY SINGLE TRIO MEMBER FROM THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY. W H Y.)

“Yeah Luke was extra and I feel like that Fashion statement was the only truly in-character moment for him. I feel like they did not do him justice, certainly not enough justice for him to be offed in the end like that. It’s weird because with Han I felt his death so, so deeply, even when I didn’t know anything about him, but with Luke I was just way too “the FUCK” to really react emotionally.” –This is exactly how I felt about Luke’s death, which was so jarring in a way that’s difficult to even put into words. Luke deserved a proper burial, something commemorative, something honorable, something more than just a split second scene of him disintegrating into dust, and his Jedi robe mystically blowing off into the wind. Darth Vader got a proper burial, it just stands to reason that Luke should have gotten one too. I felt like I’d been robbed of the moment to properly mourn Luke’s loss, Luke—the character who is arguably the centerfold for the entire Star Wars universe.

Some of my other grievances include whatever the fuck that casino scene/subplot was supposed to be, which was just so messy and jarring inside the Star Wars universe that I didn’t feel like I was watching a Star Wars film at all. I hate admitting to experiencing boredom in a Star Wars film, but both times I’ve watched that scene, I found my thoughts drifting to ways they could have better utilized that time and space in the film. It’s such a tragedy to me.

Another thing that I strongly disliked—and I wasn’t able to put my finger on this until the second viewing—but some of the transitions are so poorly done, I couldn’t help but notice how much they stand out, and not in a good way. There’s something very clunky and awkward about how the scenes cut from one to the next, it doesn’t feel smooth and organic like in TFA. I felt as if I was being tugged from one storyline/set of characters to the next and then back again, leaving me with a sensation that felt almost like whiplash.

Which brings me to my final point, which is that TLJ is simply not a cohesive film within the Star Wars universe. It doesn’t feel like a Star Wars film to me, and that perhaps is what saddens me more than anything else. I know a lot of fans criticized J.J. for what they assumed to be his apparent lack of imagination, or his lack of risk-taking within the Star Wars universe when it came to TFA, but what I appreciated were his subtle nods to the previous SW films, I appreciate him reinventing the Star Wars universe while still maintaining the feel and tone of the previous films. It felt honorary and appropriate.

To me, TLJ falls into a pitfall that I’ve seen too many times before, which is that it is extremely difficult to carry on a story and trilogy of films that is cohesive when you have different directors overseeing them. Regardless of the decisions that were already predetermined at the time that the plans for this new trilogy were mapped out, there’s no doubt that the director oversees and greatly affects the overall tone and feel of the film.

And look, this isn’t a totally awful film—I think we can all agree, collectively, that while the prequels are pretty bad, we like them because they’re Star Wars films, because we grew up watching them and there’s a pretty strong sense of nostalgia we’ve tacked onto them. Maybe in some years’ time, The Last Jedi will acquire that same sense of nostalgia. One can only hope. 

[these-are-the-first-steps]

Here’s a random reylo ask for ya- did you ever have any theories/HCs early on in shipping reylo (cuz I believe you’ve said you were shipping since TFA) which you didn’t end up being into as much, or at all anymore as TST progressed?

Hello! Sorry it's taken me so long to get to this.

Story Time

So I saw TFA the second day it came out. I left rather bewildered- one, because a new actor I'd never seen before in my life (adam driver) gave such an unorthodox performance I couldn't stop thinking "The fuck does this guy think he's doing???" namely the interrogation scene where I don't think any other actor would have, nor could have, played it the way he did. I'm still shocked by the choices he made with his line delivery in that scene but in the best way possible. It's hard to explain. Anyway, that's one. Two also goes back to that scene. In middle school, back with Tokyo Pop was big, they held their very first manga contest for us regular american people to try our hand at Japanese style manga. Well, I felt like I could write, and my good friend at the time (she still is- we keep in touch!) could draw like a crazy person. So we decided to try for it. The only problem was, being middle schoolers, motivation and scheduling wasn't our forte. I did manage to write a short script excerpt of a story that had been brewing in my head for awhile at the time, and while I think I did eventually hand it over to her (I was suffering from perfectionism), the art never happened. We tried again in high school but then high school angst got in the way and it still didn't happen. Regardless, I still now had the only real concrete piece of writing for this story I had been sitting on for a couple years now.

Eventually....well, time moved on.

Cue "Star Wars: The Force Awakens", a sequel film I was INCREDIBLY skeptical about. I'd been watching star wars my entire life. My dad took me as a little kid to the big deal re-screenings of the original trilogy they did nationwide before the prequels came out. I had a lot of Opinions on this movie series. I had just moved to NYC and was out for a walk when I passed by Bloomingdales and saw, a bit to my shock, that their store windows were full of (allegedly) screen-used costumes and props from the upcoming TFA movie. I crept closer, had a look. Han Solo was the only thing I recognized. The rest? Unfamiliar. Alien. I had seen zero promotional images for this movie before encountering these windows and had only heard some things. I made guesses as to what everything was, before rounding the corner and being confronted with an irrationally tall costume. "Oh, is this the darth vader rip-off? lmao" (the only thing I had concretely heard about). "This guy had to be on stilts surely??" Kylo Ren. Funny at first, but the longer I stared at it, I shit you not, the more unsettled I got. I actually got *scared* staring at this costume. I took one very poor, very shaky picture, and basically ran away. (I regret not taking a better photo but oh well). I run into an article the next day at work about the movie and it happens to have the trailer and I decide, sure, ok, I'll give it a watch. Those windows were interesting at least. I basically had my tickets bought by the end of the day. So here we are, back to the theatre, sitting here as this audacious actor delivers the most ballsy performance I've seen the whole film as he interrogates the heroine, and I listen to what he's saying, and then, it hits me.

This. Is my story. These are my lines. I wrote this exact same exchange in middle school.

What the fuck??

This meant a lot of things to me. This meant that I knew where this story was going, and where it was going I liked very much. I went back to see the movie again a second time about a week or two later. I had to be sure-- I wasn't just imposing what was already inside my brain all these years onto a totally different story on the screen, was I? I watched, and waited. And sure enough....no, no it had to be it. These two? I know exactly how this is going to go down.

A few months later I visited back home and even managed to dig through a box and find my old script. I read through it, sort of shaking a little. My heroine- Light- had also been captured- by the Dark- and the song and dance were the same- Where am I? Does it matter? I can see everything. I'm not giving you anything. A summary, and as some years have passed again I have lost the print out in a box again, but some of the dialogue was ver batum.

I knew exactly where this new star wars story was going because I already wrote the damn thing in middle school, word for word, and if you thought for one second I wasn't going to tune in and defend this arc, that I never managed to get published myself at 13, with swords and shields and knives for my own personal middle school catharsis then you were dead wrong, my friend.

This may have seemed like a very round-about way of answering this question, but I wanted to give context, substance, because all of this ^^^^^ up here? It defines, explicitly, why I'm even here to begin with, and why I fought so hard from day one. There was nothing to abandon, or question, or shed. Because I already knew this story by heart. I had already written it!! And I still think ants and DLF and JJ Abrams and Terrio and the rest of those bastards can pry it from my cold dead hands, because truly they butchered my baby and while I may live with that, I'll never forget it.

Thank you for the ask, friend.

[arabian-bloodstream]

I saw ‘Annette.’ I haz thoughts.

This movie was brilliant. I can't wait to watch again because the brilliance of it didn't really truly hit until the final scene. It was in that final scene when it all came together. Leos Carax didn't waste a single frame, a single line of dialogue, music, etc.

There are MAJOR SPOILERS!!

The performances were brilliant all around. Adam was fantastic. Simon Helberg's stand-out scene with his solo was absolutely stellar,  at turns funny and heartbreaking. Marion Cottilard was beautiful and haunting. Devyn McDowell as the (finally) human Annette was wonderful, holding her own against Adam Driver while singing!

Henry McHenry truly is a monster. I mentioned above that Carax didn't waste a line. Henry mentioned in his comedy act early on that he became a comedian to say things he could say without being hated/judged. He says awful things. And there are so many little things that point to that he IS a monster so that...

* When Ann dies it's a little ambiguous. There *is* a storm. He is drunk. He isn't in full control of his facilities. * When Baby Annette begins singing, it's less ambiguous, he *is* using her, but it's still a miraculous thing and Simon Helberg's character, the Conductor, is in on it because sharing the miracle of Baby Annette with the world is amazing. * When Henry finds out that the Conductor could likely be Annette's father and that the knowledge of it could take away his free ride, he murders him. Yeah, no ambiguity there.

So after Henry has been outed and is in prison, Annette comes to visit. Up to this point, Annette has been varying aged up freaky looking puppets (like a female version of Chucky, but less malevolent like).  Henry points out she looks different, the puppet-Annette sitting in from of him agrees, but the voice comes from across the room and lo and behold! It's an actual little girl standing there.

The rest of the scene continues between Henry and this real girl and I was astounded. Everything fell into place. Annette told him it was good he was in prison because he couldn't kill anymore. She also told him he couldn't love anymore. He tried to tell her he could love her. But she wouldn't let him love her. They began to sing. She wanted to forget, couldn't forgive both of her parents. He didn't want Ann blamed. It was a back and forth, beautifully done. Young Devyn held her own so well opposite Adam. He again tried to tell her he could love her, but no, no, she would not let him.

What was so incredibly powerful about this scene, how this scene and how it ended once Annette left  -- which I will not describe  -- is that it brought the entire film into focus. Everything made sense. Prior to this scene, Annette was a puppet because the entire film up until this scene was from HENRY's POINT OF VIEW.

Remember when I said that at the top that "Leos Carax didn't waste a single frame, a single line of dialogue, music, etc. " That's where this really comes into play.

The film begins with the director, Sparks, cast and crew singing "So May We Start," let's break a few things down in there. First of all, Adam is the first actor who sings, and more importantly the first character that is addressed is his character, Henry McHenry... meaning it is HIS story that we're watching unfold.  And almost every single scene includes Henry, focuses on Henry, but if you look at the scenes that don't... ah! That's when the latter scenes come into play and show that, yes, it's ALL from Henry's point of view indeed.

The Conductor's solo scenes has information that, again, in retrospect we know that Henry must have known from Ann. Henry knew, Henry absolutely knew...

All of Ann's opera scenes focus on her dying because Henry's jealousy grows and grows until he's ready to take her out, and his love for her becomes twisted into monstrous hatred. And in retrospect, no, her death was not ambiguous, he meant for her to die, absolutely.

Then there is Ann's #MeToo dream, why that? Well, again, Henry's point of view. Take that scene paired with Henry's later scene when he's surrounding himself with all of the different women. Ann's dream was foreshadowing Henry's treatment of her, and paired with his callousness towards women in the latter scene, how he has always used and manipulated people.

Which brings us to who Henry is as a user and a abuser. Someone who used everyone as puppets. He manipulated everyone, using them to do what he wanted, to make him happy, to give him what he wanted, to thrill him, to give him a high. His back-up singers. His audiences. Ann. The Conductor (who didn't even have a name, he was just "my conductor friend"), and then, of course, Annette. Annette was literally a puppet.

Annette was LITERALLY Henry's puppet until the final scene when he was locked away and he could use her no more. That is when she was finally able to be a real girl, when she broke free from him and it was no longer Henry's story. She was no longer his puppet.

Aah, so brilliant. So beautiful.

A few random comments...

- The song "We Love Each Other So Much" that I didn't think much of when I listened to some of the soundtrack, I remember remarking that I hoped it worked better in the context of the film. It does. It DOES SO MUCH. It's absolutely perfect in the context of the film, and then is a sucker-punch when it's true origin is revealed later.

- The courthouse scene was the first (but not the last) time I teared up. Henry desperately searching for, singing to the sweet Ann, but in the end, the vengeful Ann found him. So, so well done.

- Now why was Ann always eating an apple? Because of Eve. Eve ate the apple because she was tempted by the devil. Henry is the devil. Henry is evil, a monster. That's why we saw Ann always eating an apple. And in her solo song, she was describing the sweet, innocent girl--the voice of an angel, a good girl, who was used and abused by men when she came into her beauty. At the end of that scene, then who showed up when she had Annette protectively with her? Henry, looking quite malevolent indeed.

- The mark on Henry's face  -- which one critic was like 'wtf? is up with that? random!  -- appeared after Henry killed Ann and kept growing. Was it an outward reflection of Henry's guilt over what he had done to Ann? No. Henry always had that mark on his face. We just didn't know that until the final scene because prior to that it, we'd only seen Henry's version of himself, not the REAL Henry. Think of it, Annette was barely older than we'd last seen her before he was jailed when she went to see him in prison, but Henry looked SO different. Why? Because that was the REAL Henry McHenry. Not the stylized, romantic version of himself that we'd seen through his eyes.  After he killed Ann we started to see him look more and more like the real Henry. In prison, that was the real Henry.

Again, this film was just absolutely magnificent. I simply can't wait to watch it again. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

[hoochy-coo]

I just thought the acting was poor, Lady Gaga was truly the star of the movie imo and I kinda knew it was going to be camp and artisy but though it was a tad overhyped.

Last night in soho I thought was really good and I agree it’s something that will be potentially more appreciated in the future than currently but Thomsin was incredible and I think she got a future a head of her, definitely think she was underrated

Was Adam Driver any good?

And yeah, Thomasin definitely has a bright future ahead of you! She should look at getting herself a role in a Netflix show where there’s not a lot of big names involved. She gave an amazing performance in ‘Last Night in Soho’ but obviously because Anya is who Anya is, she overshadowed her

[tros-for-dinner]

Like, okay, I need to talk about trauma a second

I’m reading The Body Keeps the Score right now - it’s a pretty comprehensive book about PTSD and trauma, and treatment of trauma-related mental illnesses and, like, I just keep thinking about Kylo (Ben)

In one sentence: Kylo is a deeply traumatized man and I can’t stop thinking about it.

As a general rule I don’t care about the ancillary materials, but “absentee parents” and “being left with droid caretakers that tried to kill him” is trauma - he didn’t have someone to comfort him and his usual caretakers weren’t safe. He probably started acting out, as what happens to kids that go through that. He was also deeply empathetic (metaphorically represented by being strong in the Force) so every lie that was told to him, every time someone feared him because of his ancestors, every time someone tried to use him because of his family - those are all wounds, too. Then, maybe because he was acting out, maybe because he was a deeply religious kid, he goes to live the ascetic life with his beloved Uncle Luke.

And I know this is my own headcanon, but knowing what I now know about trauma: he was still suffering the emotional effects of trauma. The fear, the mistrust, the anxiety, the anger - his fellow Force-sensitive students (and Luke) could feel those emotions. In the Jedi tradition, you either shut that shit down or you’re assumed to be on the road to the Dark Side.

Here’s the problem: the fear, the anxiety, the anger triggered by the pain of trauma can’t just be meditated away. It’s fight/flight instinct; it’s literally the oldest, most sub-conscious part of the brain reacting to the memory of pain and trying to prevent future pain. You can’t control it. You can’t reason with it. You either heal it or it controls you.

Luke can feel that his methods aren’t working but he hasn’t been trained in psychology so he has no idea how to fix this problem. Luke is deeply afraid of the Dark Side, and he was taught that emotions - a deeply-rooted function of the brain - are inherently ‘evil’ and cause self-destruction for the Jedi. Luke has a “all or nothing” “either I do it all or I’m a failure” mindset so he starts feeling despair at the bitter taste of failure. One night, out of pure fear, he takes an uninhibited look into his nephew’s mind (notably, without his consent) and sees how bad things could be in the future. For an instant, he honestly considers killing Ben to prevent that future from happening.

Here’s a question: what would you do if you woke up to a trusted, beloved family member pointing a loaded, safety-off shotgun at you, and you could feel without a doubt that they were definitely ready to kill you?

You would feel abject terror. Wounds from trusted loved ones can be the most painful, and this was a wound that eclipsed every other in Ben’s life. He escapes, and then falls into the hands of Snoke.

(I hate how the ancillary materials totally erased Ben’s agency by making Snoke influence his mind even before he was born. Grooming from a young age? That would have been fine. But as it is, it’s a supernatural element that oversimplifies and makes unbelievable a story that could have been more powerful.)

In my mind, Snoke doesn’t even have to be Force-sensitive: his gift is that he can tell what people wants, and he controls those people by promising what they want (and getting his victims just close enough to what they want so they keep coming back for more).

So he sees Ben and sees the perfect mark: someone who believes they’re inherently a bad person (drowning in shame, an instinct that is extremely self-isolating), enraged with pain, who has been indoctrinated into black-and-white thinking by the culture/religion he grew up in.

Snoke promises Ben 1. respect (i.e. a form of connection in which you don’t have to be vulnerable) and 2. power (which appeals to Ben’s helplessness).

All of us wear different “hats” depending on the situation we’re in: at work, we wear Customer Service or Manager hats. At home, we wear Caregiver or Partner or Roommate hats. Walking out to our cars in the dark, or taking the bus in a bad neighborhood, we might swagger with a Don’t Fuck With Me attitude. We hide or reveal parts of our personality depending on the tools we need in the situation.

Ben creates a persona to hide his shame, protect himself from vulnerability, and deaden the part of his conscience that objects to being part of an organization that is hurting people like his family was hurt. This persona is named Kylo Ren, and it uses the mask and robes like a magic spell to summon the gravitas and influence of his ancestor. But most importantly, the mask and robes shield him from the outside world as protection, but also to hide his shame and any emotions that aren’t ‘acceptable’ (’acceptable’ being anger, mostly).

The thing about shame is that it separates us from the people around us, preventing us from making meaningful connections. This is devastating to the human mind, because humans survive in groups (and our brain evolved to seek groups out). Bringing shame out into the light in the presence of someone you trust is usually enough to exorcise it.

Kylo doesn’t have anyone he can trust, and he is drowning in shame. He is totally isolated and knows he’s nothing but a weapon in Snoke’s hand. Snoke cultivates his shame and isolation because it makes Kylo easy to control. But then, totally by happenstance, Kylo meets Rey.

I hear people talk about ‘the power of love’ and I used to think it was total bullshit. I realize now that’s because visual media usually simplifies ‘love’ into ‘physical attraction’. In reality, love contains a spectrum of elements that are essential to a healthy, functioning mind. Specifically: a place you feel safe (a place where you feel trust, where you feel genuine connection, where you feel wanted, where you feel heard and seen and understood). The entire spectrum of intimacy (emotional, physical, and sexual) spans this need for a place to feel safe and known.

So Kylo meets this girl and a couple of things happen. 1. he realizes he isn’t actually alone. There is someone in the whole of the galaxy who might be his equal. 2. Totally inadvertently, Rey exposes his deepest shame (that he can’t live up to the legacy, that he is hurting himself for nothing) and brings it out into the light.

And, like, all of that would be disrupting enough, but then something even more important happens. See, Snoke built the expectation in Kylo’s mind that if Kylo cut away everyone who loved him, Kylo would be stronger, would be more powerful. Kylo gets the opportunity to cut away his father in the most final way - to kill him - and he takes the opportunity.

As soon as he kills Han - the very second after he ignites his saber - he realizes that Snoke was lying. It didn’t make him more powerful, it just makes things worse.

So while he’s reeling from that realization, his mind instinctively reaches out for connection, for people who might understand. I once read a meta that the Force Skype scenes in TLJ are initiated when Rey feels lonely, which I totally 100% buy into, but I’d suggest the connection happens when both of them are feeling lonely or hurt.

As far as I’m concerned, they bridged their own minds - Snoke took credit because he knew that would be devastating to Ben. Ben and Rey experience emotional intimacy and through their connection, they both start to heal a little from their individual traumas.

I went on a bit of a tangent there but here’s what I’m trying to get to: trauma doesn’t just go away. You don’t just flip a switch, forget about the past, and move on with your life. If you don’t heal, then that trauma and the damage to your brain persists. It takes time and an enduring safe place to heal. So I’m sitting here, trying to imagine what that healing could look like in-universe. And I’m just thinking about the fact that Episode 9 could have been about healing. They gave Rey the gift of healing. The moviemakers had a love story all wrapped up in a bow that could have been a metaphor for the healing power of love. They had all these traumatized characters that could have experienced healing. We, the audience, could have experienced the healing power of catharsis.

And in conclusion, I’m just thinking about Adam Driver performing this incredibly relatable character and TLJ’s Reylo and Luke&Rey plotlines being what they are - and just feeling deep gratitude. 

[brandufo]

Top 20 movies if you watch you will cry

One of the best ways to go through a tough week is to watch a 'tear-jerking' movie. Viewers may wish to invest in tissue boxes to watch these top 20 movies if you watch, you will cry.  Check out the top 20 movies if you watch, you will cry.  - The Notebook

IMDb- 7.8 A very energetic and emotional film with a great cast and script. The love story of the characters makes you believe in love though it's hard to believe. The final scene is very sad and probably not what anyone can expect. It can make anyone cry at the end as they will always be together now. The whole movie is very emotional. We can all agree that The Notebook is very touching. Allie choose Noah knowing that everything in life can have no meaning when you can't have love. Their love is pure and sincere. Undoubtedly, this movie is on our top in the list of top 20 movies if you watch, you will cry.  - The Green Mile

IMDb- 8.6 Most of all, the Green Mile is a very touching drama, with the joys and sorrows of life pictured with great skills. The movie revolves around the prison most of the time, everyone who had acted in the movie has performed their role to perfection. It's an emotional rollercoaster along with supernatural elements. The acting of Tom Hanks is brilliant along with the other cast members. Undoubtedly, this movie is on our top in the list of top 20 movies if you watch, you will cry. - Boys Don't Cry

IMDb- 7.5  This movie stays with you for a long time after watching it. Direction is amazing and lead actress Hilary Swank is character personified. Also, extremely sad at the end, really makes you think about humanity. It is a very compelling movie about trans gender phobia in the 90s. It is extremely sad to find out that it’s based on a true story. Also, It gives an insighful feel for an early understanding of transgender challenges. - The Passion of the Christ

IMDb- 8.7 This movie is a powerful, intense, and realistic biographical drama. This passionate film displays the dark spiritual warfare raging around Jesus Christ during his Passion. This deeply moving film shows the great love and sacrifice of Christ to pay for mankind’s sins.  It has very real beatings and shows what the persecution was really like. It's a good mix between Jesus' actual life and reality which some people tend to not look at often. Also, it is very touching and sad to watch something as real as this movie.  - Life is beautiful

IMDb- 8.6 This movie sends a powerful message of Love and Hope and brings humor even in the toughest of times. This movie warms your heart and then crushes it. It is a movie combining every emotion into one inspiring story. Set in two moments during WWII, both parts of the film is magnificent. This is not just an ordinary drama.This movie makes you laugh from the beginning and makes you cry at the end. It is based on a true story along with brilliant performances and very strong direction. - Philadelphia

IMDb- 7.7 Films do have an effect on society and this one was truly essential during that time. The last scenes after judgement were especially admirable, emotional, and heart touching. Also, it is an excellent and a soul-challenging movie on so many levels. Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks showed a very powerful and emotional performance in this movie. Viewers are inspired by both sensitive and dramatic acting, plus some by subtle camera catching touching moments, scenes and non verbal dialogues. - Forrest Gump

IMDb- 7 The story revolves around two ideas that Life is a Destiny vs Life is a chance but concludes with Life is a bit of both. This is not just a movie, it's a movie that also includes various elements of emotions. This movie has a great lesson which tells us not to give up in tough times and find our inner strength which can lead to great things. Also, it will take you with a rollercoaster ride. This movie comprises various surprising treats, along with sweet and sometimes bitter moments. - Me Before You

IMDb- 7.4 The movie is about how to enjoy every moment of your life when everything seems at an end.  It has a lot of messages and also can really help people who are going through a tough time. It also teaches you to live life to the fullest. A sweet story with a sad but beautiful ending. The chemistry between the two main actors is just about as perfect as any other couple you could think of. The moment that tears your heart apart is when Will tells Lou that he is not going to change his decision. - Hachi: A Dog's Tale

IMDb- 8.1 This movie has a heart wrenching ending. Undoubtedly, It will leave a forever mark in your heart. It will take out your hidden emotions and also it will turn you into an emotional being, a real you. It's a real story of a Hachiko dog born in Japan 1924 who passed away in 1935 waiting for his master. It is indeed one of the best dog films to come across to a viewer.  - Lion

IMDb- 8 It is a beautiful, gripping movie about a young boy getting lost and eventually finding his mother with very little knowledge and memory of where he came from. It really brings that sense of human spirit amongst all humanity and of course how can you not cry during the last scene? Undoubtedly, it's an emotional journey to watch this movie with a touching story at its core. This movie also includes most talented Indian actors such as Deepti Naval, Nawaz & Tannishtha. -  Titanic

IMDb- 7.8 The quintessential tragedy and romance film everyone should watch at least once in their lifetime. It also keeps you glued, and emotions are going to breakthrough in this one. This movie is breathtaking and also inspiring. The love story has indeed a deeper meaning. It's emotionally so powerful that it really puts you there like you’re just another passenger on the Titanic and puts the viewer into tears during the climax.  - Call Me By Your Name

IMDb- 7.9  This movie destroys viewers in the best possible way, with so much emotion, so much power and its beauty in itself is just mesmerising. This is no ordinary movie, this movie will release so many emotions. The acting from Timothee and Armie is perfect, undoubtedly amazing, perfect in chemistry, in every single way. This movie will make you cry, make you angry, make you happy and grateful and also one part which you should anticipate is a speech in the ending. It will change your life in the best way possible and honestly.  - Portrait of a Lady on Fire

IMDb- 8.1 Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a phenomenal film that echoes the directors passion undoubtedly with stellar cast, brilliant writing and amazing cinematography. The chemistry between the leads is on another level. Surely, the philosophical plot will hit you right at the core of your heart. No unnecessary frames have been used to disturb the connections between you and also the characters. The film also consists of many heart touching delicate moments. It encompasses countless human emotions.  - The Farewell

IMDb- 7.6 A Farewell tells the story of a family who fabricates an imaginary wedding in order to spend time with, and say goodbye to, their beloved matriarch. It is a very sweet and heartwarming true story about family and also love. It is recommended for fans of dark comedy and also of culturally curious. The story is so good because it just speaks through the heart and doesn't try anything else which is good. The script is tight, funny, moving, thought-provoking. This is also the kind of movie that hits your every emotional button. It will undoubtedly resonate with anyone who has a grandparent/parent/any relationship whom they are close to and facing the possibility of losing them.  - The Pursuit of Happyness

IMDb- 8 This is a family movie, the family should always have faith in one, moreover, a father and son should always have faith in each other. Surely, It’s an incredible film that depicts the importance of hardwork and success. Will Smith and his son, Jaden bring to life the true story of a father-son family, struggling to step up from the bottom rung of the ladder.  - Dead Poets Society

IMDb- 8.1 This movie leaves you with all the magic poetry, the realism of life and how still we can choose to stand up for ourselves despite what life throws at us. The movie will give tears, happiness, sorrow all at once; just like life itself and that's the reason this movie hits hard. This movie is indeed a definite watch for all age groups. It also evoked feeling, from its raw approach to life down to its heartfelt depiction of friendship and longing for freedom.  - The Fault in Our Stars

IMDb- 7.7 Firstly, this movie is one of the most heartfelt and heartbreaking films to watch. From ending the story's plot thickened and thickened and never was there a boring moment, it just stayed heavy with action and also kept you hooked throughout the chapters. The chemistry between Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort is brilliant. It teaches you that life is a beautiful thing and we truly need to spend every day as if it's our last. It shows how wonderful love is even when you are in your worst state.  - Marriage Story

IMDb- 7.9 The story shows us both sides, neither it makes anyone guilty nor it victimizes anyone. Both Charlie's and Nicole's thinking process and their sufferings are shown. It is an insightful and solicitous look at a marriage breaking up and a family staying together. Also, this film is heart-rending, but it also has a comedic touch. The performances by Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, and also Laura Dern are all pretty much perfect and the emotions displayed by everyone in the cast is great. - Before Sunrise

IMDb- 8.1 A story of two strangers meeting on a train journey and deciding to spend a day together in Vienna. Firstly, they get to know each other as they check out the town and end up falling for each other. The Film indeed focuses on the finer nuances in the scenes, making it subtle and relatable and makes You feel for the characters as time flows. This movie is undoubtedly so clean and beautiful yet so engaging with an emotional ending. The movie is excellent and is also beautifully shot. - Five Feet Apart

IMDb- 7.2 How can we forget to put this movie under the list of top 20 movies if you watch, you will cry? Undoubtedly, the movie Five Feet Apart is really great if it made viewers' tears roll on their cheeks several times. The movie also reminds us not to lose hope but to follow the tiniest dot of light and it will surely radiate inside of our soul. Indeed, It is a beautiful and hopeful story, yet giving young adults an eye-opener about individuals suffering from cystic fibrosis. This movie also presents a very inspirational and emotional experience for the audience.  Related Article - Top 20 movies if you watch you will cry Benefits of Using Angular for Web Development 2021 How to Write Business Proposal for Client with Sample Format Top 10 Best Jackie Chan Movies of all time 10 Best Japanese Foods Everyone Should Try Read the full article

[ryanmeft]

My Top Performances of 2019, Part 1

That’s pretty self-explanatory, right?

A couple notes:

I cut myself off at 20. Many deserving performances didn’t quite make that arbitrary cut. Some will be in the honorable mentions section in Part 2. The order is irrelevant. In fact, it is deliberately random. There were a few cases where two performances in the same movie were both great and complimentary, and I wanted to honor them both without using up another slot. So I just combined them.

Last but not least, don’t forget that while writers and directors can’t make movies without actors, without writers and directors actors are just grown-ass adults playing pretend in front of a mirror. That’s also true of designers, cinematographers, key grips, assistants---pretty much everyone it takes to make one of these things. If you really love an actor or a performance, look into the people you don’t see who make it possible, and be sure to mentally send them some appreciation, too.

On with the show.

Elisabeth Moss in Her Smell

While Joaquin Phoenix and Adam Sandler earned a lot of (very deserving) praise for playing men destructing in slow-motion, Elisabeth Moss went almost unseen here as a woman actively shredding herself and her life while holding onto the fading dregs of fame. Playing the wonderfully named Becky Something, she’s a briefly popular rock star whose absolute lack of control and addiction to power destroy her. But that’s not new; it’s so common a theme in rock movies that it’s become a cliche. What makes Becky stand out is the unwavering intensity Moss portrays her with. There is never a moment of calm, never a place to let out a breath.

Eddie Murphy in Dolemite is My Name

After a couple of decades of his early trash-talking persona being de-fanged by appearances in family films, Murphy returns to what made him famous: swearing a lot. But his turn as Blaxploitation icon Rudy Ray Moore is bigger than that. Moore is seen here as a truly ambitious and calculating entertainer for whom cussing and talking about explicit sex is merely a character for the benefit of others. Could it be a subtle comment on Murphy himself?

Thomasin McKenzie in Jojo Rabbit

Scarlett Johansson got the Oscar nod, but McKenzie is the beating heart of this Mel Brooksian satire of the Nazi regime, fierce and vulnerable and never too much of one or the other. From the moment she appears, when you think she’s going to be the typical meek Jewish refugee hiding in a wall panel and she instead lets Jojo know exactly who is in control, she commands the film, leaving us enjoying the whole thing but also waiting for her scenes. After her debut in Leave No Trace was mostly ignored, her lack of awards success here continues to be baffling.

Scarlett Johansson & Adam Driver in Marriage Story

Not that ScarJo didn’t deserve a nomination this year. You cannot look away from her in this unflinchingly realistic story of an imploding marriage---but Driver sure makes you want to. In a gender-narrative-switch, Johansson plays the cool, calculating one, remaining above the fray though, of course, privately threatening to drown in it. Driver is the overly emotional one, relying on instinct rather than reason. When they finally break down and have a knock-down drag-out, it’s both shocking that things disintegrated so quickly, and entirely unsurprising to anyone who’s ever attempted a serious relationship. 

Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems

Despite the fact he’s proven himself time and again to be a fantastic dramatic actor when he wants to be, few people were unsurprised at the unrelenting intensity of Sandler’s performance here. He’s a jewel shop owner and small-time hustler, addicted to the risk and thrill of gambling more than the reward. But that’s a pretty typical character. What makes Howard Ratner unique is that he lever lets us take a breath---the never ending explosion inside his head is manifested by the constant whirl of activity and terrible judgement on the outside.

Lupita Nyong’o in Us

As the hero of the film, Nyong’o is sympathetic and engaging. Yet the highlight of this double role is her evil twin---a twisted, broken psychopath who tells ghost stories that could scar your mind and slowly-but-relentlessly pursues her prey. It’s a testament to Nyong’o’s talent that whenever both are onscreen together, they seem equally real and equally separate. If you don’t think that sounds hard, imagine having to pretend to fight yourself pretending to fight yourself, and make it look good.

Rebecca Ferguson in Doctor Sleep

Look, I’m just gonna be honest here: I might have a little bit of a crush on Rebecca Ferguson, as much because of her until-now underutilized talent as her looks. She’s simply incredibly compelling to watch even in roles that don’t deserve her level of skill. After seeing her as a centuries-old, soul-devouring, child-murdering, vampire-like creature of the night in the latest Stephen King adaptation, though, I…well, still have a little bit of a crush on her. I probably need a better therapist. You know who doesn’t need more help? Ferguson, who with this role takes back the scene-chewing movie villain from superhero films and delivers one of the best of all time. I haven’t watched Doctor Who in a while; do they need a new Master yet?

Antonio Banderas in Pain & Glory

Banderas was a talented actor right from his early beginnings with director Pedro Almodovar. He came to Hollywood, got a few good roles out of it (I’m still a fan of that first Zorro movie), was relegated to the status of a sex symbol, dropped off most people’s radars for a while, and in Almodovar’s latest finally gets the role of his career. He’s an aging filmmaker who suffers from every chronic pain imaginable, unable or unwilling to write and reflecting on a lifetime full of loves and losses. It is a performance that is difficult to describe in words, sublime and subtle let passionate and romantic.

Juliette Binoche in High Life

I usually hedge my bets on statements of absolute fact, but I feel comfortable saying this is the only movie you will ever see in which Juliette Binoche uses a virtual reality machine and ceiling straps to imagine herself having sex with a person in an animal suit. Describing that scene is irresistible, but it is more than mere shock: it’s an indication of the depths of human drives which Claire Denis is willing to explore, and the bravery of Binoche to trust her to do it. Binoche’s character is slimy---an unethical doctor sentenced to a prison spaceship for her gut-churning experiments---but she’s not a traditional villain. Rather, she’s a creature who exists to fulfill her needs, in a ship full of such animals.

Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe in The Lighthouse

Two men, one a rule-abiding rookie and the other a rambling retired sailor, go mad together in a lighthouse. Pattinson plays the younger man, who seems to believe that good intent and staying on the straight and narrow will forgive him past sins. Dafoe is the wizened, tough-but-fair mentor---or at least so it seems at first. He’s actually as cracked and despotic as they come, leaving us with two unlikable people---one who reveals themselves as such and one who becomes so. It is impossible to separate one of these performances from the other. Witness the scene in which they use stories as verbal weapons. It is as sharp as any actual knife fight could ever be.

That’s all for part one; look for part two tomorrow. Or the next day. Sometime this week.

[renewedarchives]

Ep. 5 Thrown Away

French Toast and a drive to continue my little relisten

Keiran Woodard, 93 Lancaster Rd. London, 2009

A garbage man, talking about his normal days at work.  He talks about how it’s benefits getting paid more than the average “office monkey” when taking into account overtime and bonuses and also how he usually gets off early after running his route. 

The conversation of the bin men seeing all of your trash makes me happy I’ve lived in some form of communal living where we all share a dumpster sinced I moved out of my parents. 

First oddity is a trash bag filled entirely with behead doll heads. They start calling 93 Lancaster the Dollhouse. 

The first most dangerous profession in England is farming!? 

the driver, adam, gets real into the weirdness. 

next bag was full of paper

Adam hops out excited to open it up. 

The bag is specifically filled with one piece of paper, like an incredibly long scroll. the lord’s prayer written over it, parts of it singed with a match or a candle. 

the third is the most infamous, what sticks out most clearly in my mind from the episode. teeth, just a whole bag full of teeth.  He claims it made a sound like shifting sand, which is not what I’d imagine a bag of teeth to sound like, but I don’t have much experience. 

All collections of teeth I’ve dealt with have been kept in glass jars. 

93 Lancaster is inhabited by a little old couple that had no idea about these extra bags placed outside their garbage bin. 

Oh fuck me, the driver’s name is alan not adam. he’s having a rough time, can’t sleep well, is pissy all the goddamn time. Turns out he’s been spying on lancaster to see who was leaving the strange refuse. 

He got fired after falling asleep at the wheel and ramming into a parked car. 

Alan texts this guy at 2 in the morning just saying “found him” and nothing else, no reply after that. 

So our homeboy Keiran heads to Lancaster rd, and finds a new bag unsurprisingly, this one topped with a nice little green ribbon like a gift.  It’s filled with packing peanuts. and a heart. 

A heart made of copper and bronze, cold to the touch. Machined into the aorta is Alan’s name. He tossed it into an incinerator.

End Statement 

Jon has confirmation of the first three bags and Alan’s odd habits. Martin performed a follow up interview with Keiran, and he’s had a pretty normal time of it since then. 

Jon also apparently was dying to have an afternoon with martin out of the institute.  

2780 teeth, despite varying states of decay are all the exact same tooth. no correlation to any existing dental records. 

Speculation

For the most part this sounds like the work of the stranger.

Doll heads, plastic little creepy human babies, dig nice and deep into that whole uncanny valley fear they love. 

A heart carved from metal, the first attempt at the unknowing was built around a large metal set of organs meant to replicate human speech. Making a body part out of metal is par for the course for their lot. 

Teeth are more often associated with the flesh, but these teeth are identical copies aside from the decomposition so could also be a slight argument for the stranger. Could have all been pulled from some avatar of the flesh who kept growing them back the instant one left their gob. 

But what throws the whole stranger bit off is the second bag, the prayer.

The stranger has pretty much no ties to religion like the meat, the dark, or the desolation do, and the bits of it singed by candles mark this as some thing from the cult of the lightless flame. 

So rather than this episode being caused by any one entity, I think it might be the work of Breekon and Hope? 

They’ve worked with most of the entities in one way or another, and they may have just been using Lancaster as a place to dispose of surplus creepy stuff or deliberately instilling fear in the garbage men.  

I can definitely see them dealing with a man looking too closely into their affairs by making a nice little statue from his still beating heart. 

Recommended weather- “ Please Don't Tell My Father That I Used His 1996 Honda Accord To Destroy The Town of Willow Grove” by Pet Symmetry

[afeef49160]

Movies that will inspire Acting students

Needless to say, observing other actors working at the top of their game is both an enjoyable and potentially inspirational activity, one which can provide insights that students may use to inform and improve their own acting skills. As actors, we are trained to observe carefully, to analyze every choice a fellow actor makes with meticulous attention.

But notice, too, that truly great performances inexorably draw you in. Ideally, they make you forget that you are watching a performance at all. When watching a powerhouse actor at work, we aren’t focused on their performance as an assemblage of conscious choices, but feel rather that we are witnessing a genuine person engaging in their private struggles and experiencing their own unique triumphs.

At its best, a superior performance will offer us a view of seemingly private moments, of spontaneous actions and reactions, of raw and unfiltered emotions. As an actor, of course, you know well that such performances are not in fact completely spontaneous and unfiltered. Rather, the accomplished actor makes specific choices and calls upon their past experiences, creating the illusion of true spontaneity. Here, I have assembled ten must-watch Hollywood movies out of the many thousands.

1. Dog Day Afternoon — Al Pacino

While his unforgettable role in 1971’s The Godfather arguably put Al Pacino’s star on the map, this riveting and tense film solidified his reputation as one of the greatest young actors of his generation.

Directed by the legendary Sidney Lumet, Dog Day Afternoon has been called one of the best bank robbery films in history. Pacino – who trained with Lee at the Actors Studio – tackles the challenging role of Sonny, an anti-establishment bank robber trying to save money for his partner’s gender reassignment surgery. In so doing, Pacino successfully delivers one of the most complex and compelling performances of his career.

2. Steel Magnolias — Sally Field

his classic hit from the ‘80s featured a stellar cast of new stars and acting veterans alike, including Daryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis, Shirley MacClaine and Sally Field. Field, who trained with Lee Strasberg himself, received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress for her role as the matriarch at the center of an endearing and steely group of women.

 Field has received countless awards for her work on screen – including two Academy Awards, three Primetime Emmys, and two Golden Globes – but her grief-stricken “I Wanna Know Why” speech in Steel Magnolias has been called one of the greatest film monologues of all time.

3. Marriage Story — Scarlett Johansson

This story of a marriage or rather, the dissolution of one feature powerhouse actor Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver as a couple coming undone. At the 2020 Academy Awards, Johansson was recognized for her work in both Marriage Story and JoJo Rabbit.

She made history by becoming the eleventh actor in history to receive two nominations in the same year. If one Method Actor wasn’t enough, Marriage Story also stars Strasberg aluma Laura Dern, who walked away from the 2020 awards season with both the Oscar and the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.

4. Blue Velvet — Laura Dern

If you finished Marriage Story wanting more from Laura Dern, you’re in luck. Dern has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in Hollywood with nearly sixty films under her belt and continues to delight audiences with ongoing projects.

With recent hits including Little Women and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Blue Velvet is largely considered her breakthrough performance. While the film initially received a divided response due to its objectionable and violent content, it ultimately won David Lynch a nomination for Best Director at the Academy Awards. Since, Blue Velvet has become an American cult classic.

5. The Social Network — Armie Hammer

Born the year Blue Velvet premiered, Armie Hammer is an accomplished young actor who holds dozens of works on screen and two Broadway credits to his name. Of his many notable hits, The Social Network is the film that put Hammer on the map. In the film, a biographical drama about the invention of Facebook and subsequent lawsuits, Hammer plays not one but two characters – Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, a pair of identical twins.

According to the Washington Post, “for 10 months of production, [Hammer] enlisted in twin boot camp, working with acting coach Cameron Thor to drill the subtle movements and speech patterns that the Winklevosses would have developed over two decades of genetic equality.” Now that’s dedication!

6. Pulp Fiction — Uma Thurman

Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction is yet another cult classic, starring John Travolta and LSTFI alumna Uma Thurman.

Thurman’s performance as Mia Wallace, an aspiring young actress, earned her a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the 1994 Academy Awards – just one of the film’s 48 nominations from 11 different award shows. Film critics, fans and professionals alike have praised Thurman for her performance. A riveting and complex femma fatale, Mia Wallace is now considered one of the most iconic female film roles of all time.

7. Carrie — Sissy Spacek

Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, Carrie follows a young woman struggling to come to grips with her untested supernatural powers. Now considered one of the greatest horror movies ever made, Carrie shocked audiences and brought Sissy Spacek wide acclaim.  

Although she first received attention for her performance in Terrence Malick’s Badlands, Carrie – and its unforgettable bucket of blood – put Spacek on the proverbial map and earned her first nomination for Best Actress at the Academy Awards.

8. A Star Is Born — Lady Gaga

With three successful versions since the original A Star is Born in 1937, many accomplished actresses have tackled this film’s challenging leading role. Joining the ranks of Judy Garland and Barbra Steisand, Lady Gaga stars in the 2018 remake as Ally, a struggling singer who reaches stardom as her famous boyfriend loses his own place in the firmament.

The film made excellent use of Gaga’s powerful vocal abilities and touching vulnerability. Aside from her incredible career as a singer and performer, Lady Gaga studied at LSTFI and has made a name for herself as a successful actress in recent years as well.

9. Taxi Driver — Harvey Keitel

This gritty drama from the mid-‘70s featured a young Robert DeNiro and an even younger Jodie Foster. But it also starred Strasberg alum, Harvey Keitel. Keitel plays a ruthless pimp to Foster’s underage prostitute, and DeNiro’s character, Travis Bickle, ultimately engages in a gun battle with Keitel’s character.

Although his screen time is limited, Keitel has riveted audiences for decades since, in projects ranging from The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) to The Irishman (2019). For more than two decades, Keitel served as co-president of the Actor’s Studio.

10. Some Like It Hot — Marilyn Monroe  

Considered one of the greatest comedies of all time, Some Like it Hot film features two men on the run, forced by circumstances to pose as young women in a traveling band. While the men do get their fair share of laughs, it was Marilyn Monroe, as a sweet singer named Sugar, who undoubtedly stole the show.  

The men are caught in an intense competition for Sugar’s affection, all the while attempting to maintain their disguises as female band members. The 1959 comedy highlighted Monroe’s legendary charms, showcasing her not only as a “blonde bombshell” but as a skilled and technical comedic actress. The film was both a critical and commercial success – and won Monroe a Golden Globe for Best Actress!

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Emperor Palpatine

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

There are villains. There are memes about villains. There are villains who are memes. And then, high above all of them, sitting on a lofty throne all his own, is Emperor Sheev Palpatine, a character so insanely incredible that it’s frankly quite baffling that even George Lucas at his worst still couldn’t make him awful… No, that was good old J.J. Abrams. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Palpatine is pretty much the archetype for the evil emperor in modern fiction, a mysterious evil sorcerer in dark robes who commands the main villain from afar and contains power beyond anything thought possible. But what’s interesting to note is that Palpatine really has three distinct eras to him: the original trilogy, where he was basically an outside context last minute threat who only had a presence in the third act of Return of the Jedi; the prequel trilogy, which is his best showing and where the Sheev we’ve all come to known and love really got to spread his wings and fly; and finally, the sequel era, the worst showing of Palpatine hands down, where he is randomly slapped into a film with no foreshadowing or buildup to pander to nostalgia.

So let’s take a look at our old pal Sheevy and see what makes him one of the greatest villains of all time, and one of the worst.

Motivation/Goals: Palpatine is motivated by one thing, and one thing only:

He spends the entire prequel trilogy building this up, working behind the scenes and manipulating both sides of the Clone Wars to his advantage so he can be given more and more political power. This works out beautifully for him, allowing him to dispose of his pawns like Dooku, take over the senate, seize absolute power, amass an army of clones, and of course execute Order 66. But most importantly, he is able to manipulate the frustrated and hurting Anakin to his side, mostly because the Jedi are a bunch of bumbling, archaic morons who put so much restrictions and belittle him so much that this creepy, predatory man is able to feed into his insecurities and send him tumbling to the Dark Side.

In the original trilogy, Palpatine is pretty content with letting Vader handle the affairs of the Empire, at least until Luke shows up and the Rebels become a substantial threat. Once the time comes, he has Luke and Vader get together and puts them up against each other, thinking the outcome is either that he gets a new apprentice/keeps his old one in check, or corrupts Luke somehow into killing his father and joining him as the new Sith. He didn’t count on Vader turning, but ah well.

The thing is that throughout these six films he remains remarkably consistent in his goals. He wants power, and if he can’t keep that power he’s going to make sure as many people suffer on his way down as possible. He’s almost cartoonishly evil in the best way possible!

And then came the sequels.

His motivations in the sequels are, quite frankly, impossible to discern, because they seem to change every scene. If he’s behind Snoke and the First Order, it’s easy to guess that he probably wanted Rey dead, right? Because that’s sure the vibe Snoke gave in The Last Jedi. But no, after it seeming like he wants her dead for most of The Rise of Skywalker, as soon as she shows up his plan is suddenly for her to kill him so he can transfer into his body. And then he changes that a short time later to “I am going to suck the life out of Rey and Ben so this shitty clone body can be great.” It’s like they’re cramming three or four different Palpatine plots into the twenty-five minutes of screentime Palpatine has in this film, and there is just absolutely no thematic cohesion anywhere. It’s just a mess.

Performance: If there is one thing that is always consistent with Palpatine, it is that Ian McDiarmid is absolutely fantastic as him. This man is able to take the most cliché, generic evil overlord archetype imaginable and transform every single line of dialogue he spouts into a meme, and even when he’s the absolute worst version of this character possible and strapped to a giant Sith dialysis machine on some Sith planet where he makes Snoke clones and verbally berates Adam Driver, he still finds time to be hilariously awesome.

Final Fate: Palpatine seriously underestimated Anakin, and ended up chucked down into the Death Star, where he died. He certainly didn’t have a poorly-explained clone backup of himself anywhere that would rise up decades later to completely override any victories the heroes ever had by ensuring that the entire lineage of the Skywalkers was destroyed and then usurped by his own spawn.

Best Scene: In a scene that justifies the entire existence of the prequels, shows off McDiarmid’s acting chops as he pulls off some actual subtlety as Palpatine, delivers some great background lore, and helps make Revenge of the Sith as awesome as it is… well, have you heard of the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?

Best Quote: Look, I could put just about anything he says in Revenge of the Sith here. I could put just about anything he says here. This man is an absolute meme machine who spits out only the finest quotable soundbites you will ever here. But look, I’m tired of not singling out great lines, so let me give you the one I quote the most. It’s one of his greatest quotes, and yet it is unbelievably simple. Two words and a ridiculously hammy inflection is all this man needs to be a meme:

Final Thoughts & Score: Sheev Palpatine is a man of extremes. Every aspect of him is so large that when he does something, he does it with the full force of his entire character. Revenge of the Sith will eternally be his best showing in the entire franchise, because he just spends the entirety of his screentime being the most insanely impressive scheming, manipulative bastard imaginable while somehow managing to cram in time for a sick spin through the air or a monologue about his former master at the space opera house. He manages to singlehandedly redeem the prequels if only by existing in them, and he helps elevates Revenge of the Sith into being the only one of those films that is generally accepted as being legitimately awesome. And while he is absent for much of the original trilogy, seeing as he wasn’t exactly conceived of right off the bat, he manages to make the most of his appearance in Return of the Jedi by being just as delightfully malevolent as ever, goading Luke and Vader into a duel and shooting lightning from his fingertips.

There are few villains who are just this completely basic and cliché that could ever hope to be great, but thanks to McDiarmid’s portrayal, he has gone on to be one of the single most iconic villains of all time, and one of the most iconic characters of all time. The guy is practically a living meme, from his name to his actions in the prequels, and he has certainly inspired many an evil overlord after him. For a character so seemingly unoriginal, it can be hard to believe he probably deserves an 11/10, but he most definitely does. He’s just become a staple of the franchise, to the point where some people feel it just ain’t Star Wars without him…

...Including, unfortunately, J.J. Abrams and a few other writers. Palpatine managed to be shoehorned into the prequels by being a surprise twist villain for The Rise of Skywalker (and as we’ve all seen from their recent animated movies, out-of-nowhere twist villains are great!), and it is without a doubt the most stupid and embarrassing showing one could possibly imagine for a character of this caliber. His motivations seem to change every time he opens his mouth, a lot of his dialogue is just uninspired, and while he does get a somewhat striking design here it’s hampered by the fact that his entire existence and role are really unexplained in the film and he feels like he was slapped in for the sake of being there. 

There’s also the fact that his mere existence and the fact he ends up being responsible for Ben Solo’s death means he completely overrides the entire franchise, comes out on top with his granddaughter usurping the Skywalker name, and succeeds entirely at wiping out the Skywalker lineage. This entire nine film series was just buildup to Palpatine ultimately winning, and just when things couldn’t get worse, Disney decided to take away the one thing that made this Palpatine hilarious – the idea that, with his hideous scarred face, he was able to bang a woman and conceive a child – and completely toss it out the window by saying this Palpatine was actually a clone. Not in the movie, of course, because that would make way too much sense, no; it was confirmed on Twitter.

I think it goes without saying Clone Palpatine gets a 1/10. And this is through no fault of McDiarmid; he’s still genuinely great in the role, even if the role is stupid, his character’s actions are stupid, and just everything about the character’s existence is stupid. He’s certainly not phoning it in at all, and ignoring everything else about the film Clone Palpatine is at least somewhat amusing on his own. There’s also the fact that this Palpatine most definitely has an incredibly striking design and looks really cool, despite the unbelievable lameness of what he actually is:

But how he is utilized within the franchise and what he ultimately accomplishes and represents is too much for me to actually forgive in the context of Psycho Analysis. When the most redemptive thing I can say about Clone Palpatine is that his actor is at least trying and his design is cool despite the awful writing and story relevance, that is not the sign of a great character. That is the sign of a great actor desperately trying to salvage a trainwreck.

But it’s like I said earlier; Palpatine is a man of extremes. If he’s gonna be a great villain, then by god is he going to be one of the greatest villains of all time. And if he’s going to be a crappy villain? Well then he’s gonna sit among the worst ever. I kind of respect that about good ol’ Sheev; he just can’t do anything in half measures. I guess as a Sith he really does deal in absolutes, be it absolutely amazing or absolutely awful.

UPDATE: I stand by all my criticisms of Sheev Clonepatine, but dammit, there’s just too many hilarious memes, and I can’t really hate Ian McDiarmid’s performance. Yes, I’ve come around quick, but I guess it is true: when Palpatine succeeds, he succeeds epically and hilariously, and when he fails, he fails epically and hilariously. His role in the story and the stupidity of him being here at all is a 1/10 for sure, but I think he’s just hilarious enough to edge into the “So bad it’s good” category of 3/10 alongside his bouncing baby boy Snoke. 

Just remember: No matter what Disney tries to tell you, Palpatine fucks.

[lavila27]

What I Love About Marriage Story- by Lauren Avila

It’s simple. The story is straightforward and yet deeply complex in it’s high and lows. It’s not hiding behind special effects, elaborate costumes or outlandish sets. It boils down to character, emotion, character, emotion, emotion, emotion and no one would ask for more beyond that. 

In a world of superhero franchises, book adaptations and remakes, it’s strikingly unique. I honestly can’t think of any other film quite like it. Certainly not one that makes a single divorce the main character and central plotline. Can you? 

It tells one story yet explores the stories of any divorce you’ve probably heard about.

It doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is. We have been conditioned to think that there’s going to be a twist or cliffhanger or open end or perhaps maybe even a surprise happy ending. Despite the fact that none of these happen, you find yourself satisfied and accepting of the end. Except of course that you don’t want it to end because it’s just so good.

It is unapologetically truthful. When you think that a sensitive subject at its most vulnerable state must be handled with gentle hands, Marriage Story dives deeper into raw emotion and natural degression of a person in the meatgrinder of a marital split.

It stars Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson in one of, if not the best performances of their careers. Both actors have specific tendencies in their respective repertoires yet I didn’t see either one of them in this film. Rather I saw Charlie and Nicole. That is all.

It is written and directed by Noah Baumbach who I now dream of collaborating with. Upon seeing this movie three times* in 72 hours, I still find myself thinking about it all day and wanting to see it again. I pick up new things each time but also still appreciate the brilliance I saw the first time. Only a film genius can create this in a script. 

It has a heartbreaking score by Randy Newman. Yes, the same Randy Newman who has been breaking my heart since Toy Story, 20+ years ago. 

It features an amazing child actor named Azhy Robertson. 

Even the scenes and scenarios you’re supposed to hate like the lawyers, the fighting, the awkward evaluator… all fascinating. Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Ray Liotta anyone?!

It is theatrical in film form. The very basis of jostling between New York and Los Angeles was like a metaphor of Broadway and Hollywood fusing together. 

It features songs from Company including one of my favorite show tunes of all time: Being Alive. Adam Driver sings a confident but poignant rendition. This movie uses the song perfectly by using it backwards. Bobby realizes what he wants in Company. Charlie realizes what he lost in Marriage Story. Heartbreaking.

It escalates but the pacing never changes. Unlike movies where it only gets good at the end or it falls short as it moves on, Marriage Story is engaging in every scene and you even find yourself holding your breath as Charlie and Nicole’s divorce turns from casual to tense.

The Easter egg: banner advertisements in LA for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Love Never Dies.” Kismet. 

The Star Wars reference.

It has a similar feel to La, La Land (another incredible film) but it’s completely opposite. Instead of watching the couple fall in love, you watch them fall out. The music also helps tell the story in both movies. 

I could feel everything. It was so realistic I couldn’t breathe sometimes. I found myself understanding the characters so viscerally. The frustration, anger, sadness, betrayal, confusion, love and lives of these people. 

The long scenes. 

The details. 

The intimacy of the story. 

They say everything you’re not supposed to and you’re still rooting for them. They’re not bad people. An exploration into one of the worst times in someone’s life and you’re bound to see a person to crack. 

The love that reverberates. It dust the scenes like a tangible reminder that these two were once each other’s whole worlds. I’m obsessed with the beginning and end. 

The lists. The constant themes that you notice because its been pointed out to you. You feel like you know this couple. You know Charlie. You know Nicole. And you know them through each other’s eyes. 

The hate that spills out like an over-packed suitcase of resentment.

It’s imperfect. The little mistakes and minor oversights only make me love it more because it makes it more real.

It has a thread of comedy. The relationship that Charlie has with Nicole’s family brings a bit of levity without being annoying or unnecessary. 

Regardless of what type of genre, I love when a movie has a complete circle. Henry is their middle ground. They find balance and their love for him brings about that full circle. By the end, Charlie takes a residency at UCLA so he could be in LA. He never made the move for Nicole during their marriage but did it for Henry. They spent Halloween together and even shared “Nicole’s” night which is the opposite of where they once were. 

The foreshadowing. Nicole confided in Nora that she felt that she wasn’t alive but only contributed to Charlie’s aliveness. An aliveness he feels he lost at the end of their marriage as he laments in Being Alive.

I LOVE that Henry reads Nicole’s list of what she loves about Charlie. He struggled with reading throughout the whole movie. It took T-ime but he got it and they read it together. Charlie and Henry reading that list is probably my favorite part of the movie. I cry each time. 

Everything.

*At time of publishing, I have now seen Marriage Story four times and have found that I’m memorizing it like a soundtrack. If you haven’t seen it yet, drop everything and go watch it. It’s worth subscribing to Netflix just for this movie.

[arabian-bloodstream]

I saw ‘Annette.’ I haz thoughts

(Reposting since this just dropped on Prime.) This movie was brilliant. I can't wait to watch again because the brilliance of it didn't really truly hit until the final scene. It was in that final scene when it all came together. Leos Carax didn't waste a single frame, a single line of dialogue, music, etc.

There are MAJOR SPOILERS!!

The performances were brilliant all around. Adam was fantastic. Simon Helberg's stand-out scene with his solo was absolutely stellar, at turns funny and heartbreaking. Marion Cotillard was beautiful and haunting. Devyn McDowell as the (finally) human Annette was wonderful, holding her own against Adam Driver while singing!

Henry McHenry truly is a monster. I mentioned above that Carax didn't waste a line. Henry mentioned in his comedy act early on that he became a comedian to say things he could say without being hated/judged. He says awful things. And there are so many little things that point to that he IS a monster so that...

* When Ann dies it's a little ambiguous. There *is* a storm. He is drunk. He isn't in full control of his facilities.

* When Baby Annette begins singing, it's less ambiguous, he *is* using her, but it's still a miraculous thing and Simon Helberg's character, the Conductor, is in on it because sharing the miracle of Baby Annette with the world is amazing.

* When Henry finds out that the Conductor could likely be Annette's father and that the knowledge of it could take away his free ride, he murders him. Yeah, no ambiguity there.

So after Henry has been outed and is in prison, Annette comes to visit. Up to this point, Annette has been varying aged up freaky looking puppets (like a female version of Chucky, but less malevolent like). Henry points out she looks different, the puppet-Annette sitting in from of him agrees, but the voice comes from across the room and lo and behold! It's an actual little girl standing there.

The rest of the scene continues between Henry and this real girl and I was astounded. Everything fell into place. Annette told him it was good he was in prison because he couldn't kill anymore. She also told him he couldn't love anymore. He tried to tell her he could love her. But she wouldn't let him love her. They began to sing. She wanted to forget, couldn't forgive both of her parents. He didn't want Ann blamed. It was a back and forth, beautifully done. Young Devyn held her own so well opposite Adam. He again tried to tell her he could love her, but no, no, she would not let him.

What was so incredibly powerful about this scene, how this scene and how it ended once Annette left -- which I will not describe -- is that it brought the entire film into focus. Everything made sense. Prior to this scene, Annette was a puppet because the entire film up until this scene was from HENRY's POINT OF VIEW.

Remember when I said that at the top that "Leos Carax didn't waste a single frame, a single line of dialogue, music, etc. " That's where this really comes into play.

The film begins with the director, Sparks, cast and crew singing "So May We Start," let's break a few things down in there. First of all, Adam is the first actor who sings, and more importantly the first character that is addressed is his character, Henry McHenry... meaning it is HIS story that we're watching unfold. And almost every single scene includes Henry, focuses on Henry, but if you look at the scenes that don't... ah! That's when the latter scenes come into play and show that, yes, it's ALL from Henry's point of view indeed.

The Conductor's solo scenes has information that, again, in retrospect we know that Henry must have known from Ann. Henry knew, Henry absolutely knew...

All of Ann's opera scenes focus on her dying because Henry's jealousy grows and grows until he's ready to take her out, and his love for her becomes twisted into monstrous hatred. And in retrospect, no, her death was not ambiguous, he meant for her to die, absolutely.

Then there is Ann's #MeToo dream, why that? Well, again, Henry's point of view. Take that scene paired with Henry's later scene when he's surrounding himself with all of the different women. Ann's dream was foreshadowing Henry's treatment of her, and paired with his callousness towards women in the latter scene, how he has always used and manipulated people.

Which brings us to who Henry is as a user and a abuser. Someone who used everyone as puppets. He manipulated everyone, using them to do what he wanted, to make him happy, to give him what he wanted, to thrill him, to give him a high. His back-up singers. His audiences. Ann. The Conductor (who didn't even have a name, he was just "my conductor friend"), and then, of course, Annette. Annette was literally a puppet.

Annette was LITERALLY Henry's puppet until the final scene when he was locked away and he could use her no more. That is when she was finally able to be a real girl, when she broke free from him and it was no longer Henry's story. She was no longer his puppet.

Aah, so brilliant. So beautiful.

A few random comments...

- Many reviews tended to downplay Marion’s performance and the character of Ann. I disagree. I think that Marion did an amazing job and I think that Ann was essential to the plot in every way. She drove every single thing that happened. And if Marion had not played every note, every beat as beautifully, perfectly as she did, it wouldn't have landed as beautifully, as perfectly as it did. She was the beautiful force that drove Henry to look into the abyss... which was his own dark soul. And Marion played the light and dark so beautifully. She was radiant in life, and an avenging angel in death.

- The song "We Love Each Other So Much" that I didn't think much of when I listened to some of the soundtrack, I remember remarking that I hoped it worked better in the context of the film. It does. It DOES SO MUCH. It's absolutely perfect in the context of the film, and then is a sucker-punch when it's true origin is revealed later.

- The courthouse scene was the first (but not the last) time I teared up. Henry desperately searching for, singing to the sweet Ann, but in the end, the vengeful Ann found him. So, so well done.

It was also great in that we saw some truth from Henry by admitting that he couldn't tell the truth. In the beginning, he had told the audience that he used comedy to tell the truth because he wouldn't be hated or judged (before, of course, he was). But in the courtroom, he knew that he couldn't do that. Because in telling the truth in the courtroom he had no puppets, he had no one he could use or manipulate. There was no "clap, clap, clap," no "laugh, laugh, laugh." Telling the truth in the courtroom, he WOULD be judged and he knew that.

So that was so powerful and once he admitted that truth, it was as if the guilt swamped him because he went searching for the sweet Ann to release him from his guilt, but he couldn't reach her, of course. There was a barrier between them. She was so, so far away. Ah, but then the vengeful Ann showed up, and she was closer, nearer and no barrier stood between her and Henry as she vowed to haunt him in prison for the rest of his life. The guilt had taken hold.

- Now why was Ann always eating an apple? Because of Eve. Eve ate the apple because she was tempted by the devil. Henry is the devil. Henry is evil, a monster. That's why we saw Ann always eating an apple. And in her solo song, she was describing the sweet, innocent girl--the voice of an angel, a good girl, who was used and abused by men when she came into her beauty. At the end of that scene, then who showed up when she had Annette protectively with her? Henry, looking quite malevolent indeed.

- The mark on Henry's face -- which one critic was like 'wtf? is up with that? random! -- was there all along, but really became noticeable after Henry killed Ann and kept growing. Was it an outward reflection of Henry's guilt over what he had done to Ann? No. Henry always had that mark on his face. We just didn't know that until the final scene because prior to that it, we'd only seen Henry's version of himself, not the REAL Henry. Think of it, Annette was barely older than we'd last seen her before he was jailed when she went to see him in prison, but Henry looked SO different. Why? Because that was the REAL Henry McHenry. Not the stylized, romantic version of himself that we'd seen through his eyes. After he killed Ann we started to see him look more and more like the real Henry. In prison, that was the real Henry.

Again, this film was just absolutely magnificent. I simply can't wait to watch it again. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

[xoruffitup]

AITAF’s 11th Annual Broadway Show

It’s surreal that this was my second year attending and I’m sitting here typing up a second recap! It hardly feels like a whole year has passed since last November, as the time has been so full of Adam and SW-related joy. After last night’s show, Sarah (the same friend I adventured to TIFF with) and I reflected that following/loving Adam has brought us so many extraordinary experiences we would never have sought out otherwise. Attending military-oriented events and creating stronger ties with the veterans and service members in each of our lives, traveling to Toronto (and shortly to London!!) together, and cultivating the most unlikely and incredible friendships. It’s been an eye-opening, whirlwind year of new and wonderful experiences - chief among which was sitting in a theatre largely full of military personnel and having each of my preconceived stereotypes challenged.

The group I gathered with outside the American Airlines theatre was even bigger than last year. We had my friends Sarah and MP ( @reylonly​), my dad who usually abhors the “veteran” label and yet - to his own surprise - confessed to being deeply moved by last year’s show, a retired Army nurse and her husband, a cousin I hadn’t seen in ages who’s currently enlisted, and her two friends from the army. Our sizable group was first to queue up outside the theatre, with more than plenty to talk and catch up about while we waited.

(Fun/Amusing Fact: That enlisted cousin I hadn’t seen in ages? We reconnected ahead of this show when she messaged me on Facebook: “Hi! I heard from X family member that you like Adam Driver. I’ve attended AITAF performances before and I’ll be going to their NYC event, if you’d like to come as one of my guests?” Yes, that is my rep spreading through the family and you bet I’m proud. :’’))

We thought we had an idea what to expect from last year, but this year’s show surprised and took us off guard in almost every way.

After entering the theatre and passing right by Joanne (looking hella fierce in a fitted tweed suit), we headed up to the reception. Here came a surprise I was personally AMPED about!! While MP, Sarah, and I waited to go in the photo booth they had, we saw Scott Burns and Daniel Jones come into the reception area! I explained a bit in my TIFF recap post about how The Report (aside from being just a stellar film) really engaged me personally because not only do I have a human rights-related job, but the Executive Director of my non-profit is also renowned for being one of the first high-ranking whistleblowers against the CIA torture program when he previously worked in the Department of Defense. His name is Alberto Mora and after I heard Scott Burns namecheck him in several interviews, I talked to Alberto about his involvement in the film. From that conversation with Alberto came the idea to arrange a staff screening of the film, given its relevance to our nonprofit’s mission. In addition to seeing the film at TIFF, I also had the chance through work to attend the DC premiere of the film last week, attended by human rights advocates, House Representatives, and Senators (most depicted in the film - including Diane Feinstein herself!) who were all clearly riveted by the film and the discussion with Scott Burns and Dan Jones that followed. SO (sorry for this digression but I’M STILL SO EXCITED BY THIS) when I saw Dan Jones mingling, I practically started vibrating with everything I wanted to say to him.

After psyching myself up and angsting with MP for a minute (“But it’s gotta be the right time - I don’t want to interrupt him!”) I went over and introduced myself to Dan Jones, saying I’d been at the DC premiere of the film last week and how powerful the evening had been. Long story short - omg what a chill and approachable guy to talk to! I explained quickly that I work with Alberto and I’ve been looking into arranging a screening, to which Dan said he’d “absolutely love” to help with! He told me how to contact him and holy shiiiit now this definitely has to happen!!

So after that reception highlight, we ate a little more cheese and fancy crackers before heading downstairs to the theater and our seats. And there we needed to hold onto our hats and strain to remain chill, because like some Adam-related VIP guest list, we brushed shoulders with Noah Baumbach and Laura Dern as we entered the theater! WHATTT!! It certainly made my heart glad to see so many of these high-profile collaborators of Adam’s supporting him and taking an interest in his non-profit work. And just to see that they’re all friends even off set!

This year’s choice of play, A Raisin In The Sun, immediately set a much different tone than last year’s True West. While last year included a cast of only 4, with Adam and Michael Shannon lifting the majority of the performance as the brothers-at-odds Lee and Austin; this year included a cast of 9 almost exclusively African American actors, who would share the stage in a rotating balance. But before anything else... the show began with AITAF’s Director giving a rundown of their recent and upcoming programming, before she introduced Adam to speak. Annnnd out onto the stage he strode in a black suit and tie (pushing the boundaries of fashion for real) looking so striking and handsome my brain and heart jumped into an overdrive race with each other alsdfjslfjalsdfj :’)))) (Yes, the first moment when I see him in person still makes my heart fly up into my throat.) Most of the audience tried to leap to their feet to give him a standing ovation, before Adam quickly made some slightly panicked abortive hand gestures and everyone sat back down. We were seated so close to the stage that that proximity was really the best kind of intense <3333

First of all, I want to assure everyone that our bb does look like he’s gained some weight back. I think his face looked a bit more filled out than at TIFF (and boy did he fill out that suit just right). Adam recognized all of the active service people and veterans in the audience, thanked the actors and AITAF staff for making the evening possible, and gave his background speech on AITAF’s purpose, journey, and mission. He also spoke a bit about the play that was selected this year, quickly adding “I’ll let the play speak for itself rather than butchering it with my interpretation.” Everyone laughed and my heart was only barely beating under the adoration because at the same time I was getting such a good look at just how big he is, being so close... Not only the height, but the shoulders in the suit and the giant hands that fly around when he’s talking, then he stuffed his hands into his pockets for part of his speech and that just made him look taller and more attractive and alsdkfjalskdjf sir you should really take my health into consideration a little bit!!! ;___;

Fangirl feels meltdowns aside, there were a lot of other beautiful things happening on that stage. It was stirring to listen to Adam introduce the cast (and pronounce all of their names correctly, thank you) with all the deference this play deserves and a cast to do it full justice. In a setting where the audience was largely comprised of a military demographic that is often considered to embody more conservative values, it was poignant to see Adam using his platform in AITAF to push the narratives further and confront the audience directly - not with what separates people, but to draw out the humanity that makes us all so very alike. That is, after all, AITAF’s guiding mission. 

Skipping ahead for a quick moment - one of the actors in the talk-back after the performance brought up how difficult it had been to fund this play when it was first produced in 1959 because investors feared it was “too black” and wouldn’t resonate with audiences. Last night was the most blatant demonstration of how close-minded such fears were, as the almost three-hour long reading kept the audience entirely enthralled, caught up in the humor and the heartbreak and the enduring human spirit that keeps the Younger family’s pride and love for each other in tact; then followed by audience members standing up to share deeply personal and candid accounts of how they saw their own struggles with searching for identity and purpose between military-civilian spheres, and their own experiences of trauma reflected in these complex, lively characters. 

As much as I so enjoyed internally flipped my shit completely getting to hear Adam speak in person at the beginning, it made me more proud than ever to love him as I do when I watched him step back and pass the stage and spotlight to an insanely talented cast of color. AITAF is a force and space that aims for all voices to be heard, and Adam appeared only just enough to underscore and enable that last night.

I hope I’ve already made the point that the cast were simply phenomenal. This year’s performance felt completely different than last year’s in terms of the energy and mood. Last year, Adam and Michael Shannon filled two hours with simmering frustration and aggression that grows increasingly outrageous until it culminates in violence. Adam and Michael moved freely around the stage a lot. I’ll never forget Adam doing handstands, collapsing to his knees right at the front of the stage and his lush long hair falling everywhere (UGH <3), Adam yelling about toast and stealing TVs, barking like a coyote, and finally choking Michael in the final scene. This year, the 9-person-strong cast barely moved from behind their script stands, and yet the emotional impact they delivered was simply stunning. The immediacy of this reading-style performance is just incomparable. I do see a lot of theatre and really enjoy the medium, but watching actors like last night’s cast put on a performance that’s completely uninhibited - completely instinctive and raw - was simply unforgettable. It cuts straight to the emotional core and deepest layer of meaning within the material and the characters. There is nothing between the audience and the existence of these characters’ lives, and the actors lost themselves in the roles completely. It was simply breathtaking to watch, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to witness it. Falling in to the Adam bandwagon truly enriched my life in ways I could never have expected

While on the topic of things I couldn’t have expected: Chief among them would be (to be painfully honest) voluntarily attending an event geared for military audiences - and even less enjoying and feeling moved by every second of it. I should probably clarify that although my Dad is a National Guard vet, he rarely speaks about the experience because he was drafted straight out of high school. The memories aren’t easy for him when he knows how close he could have been to being sent to Vietnam; alongside (he admitted to me for the first time following last year’s AITAF show) some amount of guilt towards the friends who were sent and lost their lives. My Dad has never embraced the veteran identity - he felt neither a right nor an affinity to it - and a military settings isn’t one I ever pictured myself feeling comfortable in. And yet, a single AITAF performance was enough to achieve their goal in my heart of building bridges and highlighting commonalities between military and civilian spheres. The military identify is multifaceted, and attending last year’s performance was enough for my Dad to unlock some new acceptance or understanding of that aspect of his own identity. It seemed to let him think of that period in his life in ways beyond antipathy or guilt. It was at least enough for him to open up and speak more candidly to me about his experience than ever before. 

This year’s Q&A was moving, deeply personal, and at times painful. And yet there was truly no better showcase for how a shared experience of theatre can serve to knock down all barriers that might have existed between people when they entered that theatre only hours before.

Highlights:

A man who recently ended his service spoke about how much he connected to the character of Walter Lee in the play. Like Walter, he too feels restless and unfulfilled in his (civilian) job, always feeling like he should be striking out for something more meaningful, something bigger, and never feeling right in his current place. For the audience member, this resonated with his own struggle to find meaning in his civilian life as he navigates the transition of leaving the military. This moved the actor who played Walter Lee (Colman Domingo, who had been TERRIFIC - I mean full-on crying several times throughout the reading) to speak about the personal inspirations and experiences he brought to embodying the character for this setting. Namely, trying to support his veteran older brother’s struggle with drug addiction. As Colman spoke candidly about how the experience with his brother had seeped into his performance, at least two other cast members dabbed tears from their eyes.

The most emotionally difficult and yet moving moment shared throughout the whole theater. A man in the balcony asked for advice on finishing a play that he began writing as a means of trying to process and work through unresolved trauma he experienced in combat zones while deployed. He explained with something of a despairing tremble in his voice that he’s reached a point where he feels emotionally blocked - where confronting the memories of comrades dying in his arms simply freezes him and he can’t seem to move any further. The theater was silent as he had to pause speaking for a moment, audibly overcome for a moment in the effort of speaking and sharing this aloud. Since the speaker was up in the balcony too far back for me to see, I was watching the cast and AITAF team on stage. Being so close, I thought I saw something visibly pass over Adam’s face. Later that evening, the cousin I just reconnected with at this event was the one to bring it up unprompted when she asked, “Did you see his eyes when the man was talking about his struggle to write?” So yes, it’s confirmed, I wasn’t imagining that Adam visibly choked up for a moment listening to this audience member. After the commenter was able to finish speaking, a few cast members responded. Adam, after being silent for most of the Q&A, then held his hand out for a mic and spoke up, telling the audience member something like, “In a way, you’re already doing it. You’re already writing. You’re already processing. I don’t think anyone knows what they’re setting out to write or how it will take shape until they do. But you’re already doing the hardest part.” Then, in a touching moment of connection, another audience member spoke up about a veteran writing group he’s involved with whose members seek to do exactly the same thing. The safe space the questioner was so dearly seeking did, in fact, already exist, and the people were there in that theatre to help guide him towards it. 

I didn’t think anything could have equaled my experience at AITAF’s 10th Anniversary show last year - and yet, last night was every bit as powerful of a performance, followed by a Q&A discussion in which audience members bared revelatory vulnerabilities and saw their own struggles through the eyes of others. My group went to a late dinner afterwards, where we continued discussing the performance, the dialogues thereafter, AITAF’s work in general, and (my favorite) gendered attitudes and embedded patriarchal norms within military settings and how AITAF challenges these norms even while being forced to work within them. 

It was an evening of connections of all types - between people, experiences, and insights. I can’t laud AITAF enough for enabling such valuable and productive exchange, and I hope to experience much more of their work in the future.

(And if performed with a showcase or even a side of Adam, that would be even better! <3)

Thanks so much for reading! : ))

[sobi-fans]

Thoughts on TROS

So I’ve received a few asks asking about my thoughts on The Rise of Skywalker, and I haven’t replied because I have many thoughts and I’m still processing stuff. But yesterday @riselioness messaged me to ask the same, so I thought it was time to try and organise them on a page.Yes, I am very, very late to this party. 

Obviously spoilers, so I’ll put it under a cut. Also, I’ve only seen the movie once, and that was back in December, so my memory might be a little hazy. I probably need to see it again.

For the sake of context, I have no OTP for the sequel trilogy, but I have been known to read Reylo and Damerey on occasion. (And randomly Gingerflower – aka Hux/Rose – purely because of that TLJ deleted scene where she bites him!) Let me tell you, being on the outside of the shipping wars has been very interesting, and it seems abundantly clear to me that your enjoyment of TROS depends greatly on who you ship, or whether you ship at all. I would have been happy if Finnrose endured or Stormpilot became a thing, but ah well. Onwards!

I’ll try and keep this somewhat cohesive, but I feel like it’s going to be all over the place. Apologies.

Let’s start simple. Stuff I liked that doesn’t have a ‘but’ attached:

- Lando (where’s he been all this time?)

- Wedge (where’s he been all this time?)

- Finn being able to show his individuality with clothing and hair that’s his choice

- Purely for shallow reasons, Poe’s outfit

- Poe and Rey channelling Han and Leia with their bickering at the start

- The Force bond stuff was visually stunning with the dual locations

- Luke’s expression after he raises the X-wing, like ‘Yeah, finally nailed it!’

- Ben Solo channelling his father – also Adam Driver in general for making Ben so very different from Kylo with just body language and facial expressions alone. He literally moved like a huge weight had been lifted from him, and it was pretty amazing to watch

- The fact that Rey’s mother is Villanelle from Killing Eve

- Kaydel looking like Endor Leia at the end

- LGBTQ representation!

- Seeing young Luke and Leia

The stuff with Leia was very poignant and emotional, but I can’t exactly say it was good. It’s tricky. I don’t feel like I’ve separated Leia from Carrie in my mind, so it’s really hard to look at it objectively. I do know that when Chewie howled after Leia’s death, I teared up pretty much immediately!

I have mixed feelings about the trio interaction. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice to see them together, and I love their banter, BUT it felt incredibly forced. Shoving them together for the sake of them being together does a disservice to all three characters. This was the last movie. They should all have been developing their individual stories at that point. Rey with her Jedi stuff, (which she does get to go off and do, but not without Finn traipsing after her like a lost puppy), Poe finding his feet as a leader of the Resistance, and Finn doing literally anything else other than running after Rey yelling her name all the time.

There was a lot of stuff that I wanted to like, but mostly it came across as missed opportunities. Such as:

- Jannah and the other former stormtroopers – this would have been such an interesting idea to develop, and would have given Finn a cool storyline of his own that didn’t involve Rey. I would have liked to see Finn reaching out to current stormtroopers, persuading them that they had other options. That would have been cool. A stormtrooper revolution turning the tide of the final battle!

- Finn’s Force sensitivity – where did this come from? Okay, so maybe it was hinted at in TFA, but it wasn’t carried over to TLJ, and JJ should have respected that in the interest of cohesive storytelling. And as interesting as it could have been to see, it doesn’t take any strength away from Finn to have him not be Force sensitive.

- Hux being the spy – this is such an interesting idea, and it’s hilarious to me that he would go to such lengths to be petty towards Kylo, but it was executed in a rush, much like a lot of other stuff in this movie. They could have made Rose his handler, which would have been a nice change in their dynamic after TLJ.

Stuff I did not like: (warning, rants ahead)

- Completely unnecessary new characters – elaborated below

- Pryde – what was the point of him? Hux could have easily fulfilled that role if they didn’t want to develop his spy storyline.

- Zorri – could have been cool, but seemed shoehorned in to remind us that Poe Dameron is straight, thank you very much!

- Poe being a former spice runner – just why? Poe already had a perfectly good back story.

- Palpatine being back – I know opinions vary on this, but I’m not a fan. Doesn’t it just cheapen Anakin’s entire story arc? (This is not to take anything away from Ian McDiarmid’s performance, which was amazing as always.) Also the complete lack of a reasonable explanation for how he returned. In fact, doesn’t someone even use the word ‘somehow’ at some point?

- Rey Palpatine – again, I know opinions vary, but I hated this so much. I’ve been team Rey No One since the beginning! This is our first female protagonist, and in my opinion the thought that she came from completely humble beginnings was fascinating. To link her to a powerful name – a powerful male name, at that – and for it to be literally stated that her power comes from him was just kind of deflating, to be honest. Also, it makes no sense. Are we expected to believe that Luke there-is-good-in-Vader Skywalker writes off his own nephew because of his potential darkness but is A-OK being a mentor to Rey Palpatine?

- Leia knowing that Rey is a Palpatine – this makes no sense either to me. Leia accepts and nurtures Rey despite her bloodline, sensing that there is good in her, yet thinks that her own son is irredeemable? The sense of ‘we had a bad child, but we found a better one’ is just…ugh. And this happens throughout the ST, even with all the Jedi standing behind Rey having abandoned Ben for years. Even if you believe that Rey is more deserving of that attention, the callousness just doesn’t seem very Jedi-like to me.

- Leia’s reasons for giving up her Jedi training made no sense.

- The sidelining of Rose – it seems painfully clear that JJ had no idea what to do with her character, so she’s just kind of…there. I refuse to believe that they couldn’t have come up with something, even if it was just her accompanying Finn or Poe on their storylines. That wouldn’t have given her a whole lot of agency, but it would have been something.

- Rey ending up alone on a desert planet, exactly where she started. Yes, I know she’s likely not going to live there, but visually the movie is showing us that nothing has really changed. We know Rey wants a family, and the hug with Finn and Poe was lovely to see, but to have the last image of her be her alone on a desert planet is actually kind of depressing.

- Rey calling herself a Skywalker – like the Palpatine thing, it’s linking her to someone else’s legacy. I think it would have been more powerful for her to declare herself ‘Just Rey’. No one’s on at Finn to declare his surname, are they?

Now on to the big one. Bendemption and Reylo.

I have been hoping for Bendemption from the beginning, because redemption, compassion and forgiveness were key themes of the OT for me. But I had a feeling that if Kylo did get redeemed, he’d be doomed to die, because as we know, JJ likes to follow the exact same patterns that we’ve already seen before. I have issues with Vader’s ‘redemption’ on the grounds of it being a ridiculously quick turnaround, (quicker than Kylo’s, even), plus he gets an easy way out just returning to the Light and then dying straight after. Lo and behold, the exact same thing happens here. What would have been really interesting to see, in my opinion, is Ben living to atone for what he’s done. That would have been true redemption, and I think the same is true for Anakin too.

Now, as we know, Kylo is much worse than Vader, even though Vader spent literally half his life on the Dark Side, murdered thousands of people, including children, chopped off his son’s hand, tortured his daughter and her future husband. We know this because Kylo killed Han Solo, the fanboys’ favourite. Therefore, he is much worse, despite only having been on the Dark Side for about six years after being mentally manipulated from birth by the most evil man in existence. Don’t get me wrong, I am not apologising for Kylo. I’m aware he did terrible things, hence why Ben should have lived to atone, but I do believe that he gets an unfair level of hatred, largely stemming from killing Han.

As mentioned above, I have occasionally delved into Reylo fics to see what was out there. I’ve always been a supporter of watching their story play out, because enemies to lovers was something new for a Star Wars movie, and it’s a cool idea to explore. We’d previously seen it with Luke and Mara in Legends. (Mara, incidentally, being someone who was redeemed and lived to make up for her bad deeds.) I loved Ben Solo for the short amount of time we got to see him. The interactions between him and Rey over the bond were so cool to watch. Ultimately, though, I don’t feel like their story was particularly well handled in this movie. I buy it because Adam and Daisy were so brilliant, but I can’t help but feel that Ben’s death was a giant cop-out.

I have mixed feelings about Rey facing Palpatine alone. I can see that there’s some kind of strength to her battling alone there. (Except she wasn’t, because she had every Jedi standing metaphorically behind her.) That said, to have Ben out of the fight felt…weird. Since TFA certain people have said that Rey and Ben/Kylo were two halves of one protagonist, which makes me think that he should have been present there instead of tossed into a pit. Also, after the mental mind games that Palpatine has been playing for his entire life, he pretty much deserved to be. But I don’t know. I think I need to watch it again and see how I feel.

This ended up being super long and ranty, sorry. I’ve probably missed a lot. Maybe I’ll change my mind on a few things when I see it again. I thought writing this out might help to organise my thoughts, but I’m not sure it has!