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moveobjectsonblogs · 4 years ago

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Zodiac Challenge

Welcome to the Sims 4 Zodiac Challenge!

This idea came to me in a dream after a month of um-ing and ah-ing over whether or not I should start my very own Sims inspired Youtube Channel.

This is also inspired by the Not So Berry Challenge over on my queen, lilsimsie’s page, since I recently started playing that myself and found myself engaging with aspects of the game I never used to before.

SO, the Zodiac challenge... It’s a legacy challenge inspired by Zodiac traits*, aspirations and careers with a little extra spice to keep the story moving along.

*Please keep in mind that this is not a direct reflection of Zodiac traits, but merely an inspired challenge based on some common information surrounding each sign and a need to make a workable legacy challenge. I love all you little start signs out there equally and I believe we all have some positive influences on society as a whole.

Okay, okay, cut to the chase already. Here are the rules of the challenge:

No excessive money cheats (freerealestate is acceptable, as well as moderate transfer of household fees when a sim moves out)

You have full control over CAS for your sims/partners/children, however traits are to remain according to challenge

The color attached to each generation/sign needs to be visible on all sim outfits as well as in household, but you can decide to what degree

You can create looks inspired by the signs, but again, you can decide to what degree

Make it your own! Where a generation requires pack-specific traits, aspirations, careers etc which you do not own, please substitute and come up with your own unique spin on it!

If a skill, aspiration, or career is listed, the expectation is to MAX IT OUT!

Please tag me! I want to see your videos, characters and creations on this

Generation 1 - Aries / Red - The Go-Getter

You start out as a runaway teen, trying to make it in the Big City. You believe you have what it takes to be the next National Leader, and the City is the place to be! You have a quick temper and a fiery personality, so in order to appear calm in the public eye (everyone wants a piece of you!) you need to practice Wellness every day. You don’t have time for marriage, but your PR Manager advised you it would look good for your political career to adopt!

Traits

Hot Headed

Self-Assured

Ambitious

Aspiration

Leader Of The Pack

Career

Politician (Politician branch to become National Leader)

Skills

Charisma

Wellness

Additional Requirements

Reach Level 3 Fame

Must have no biological children, only adopt

Don’t have a good relationship with child/ren

Never marry

Never retire

Generation 2 - Taurus / Dark Green - The Loving Nurturer

All your life you tried to get the approval of your always-too-busy presidential parent. You were pawned off to day-care, baby-sitters and after-school activities to fill your time and never knew what a parental figure or family time was. You were told to always appear perfect in terms of good grades, a good university degree and a stable career but in your heart all you ever wanted was love! You spend quality time with your children and your greatest pleasure is helping them grow and succeed in life. You believe in taking the time to grow your own produce in order to eat only the healthiest food and other sims would describe you as ~earthy~.

Traits

Foodie

Family Oriented

Romantic

Aspiration

Big Happy Family

Career

Freelancer (any branch you want)

Skills

Parenting

Gardening

Additional Requirements

Marry your High School/University sweetheart

Have minimum 3 children

Work part time in order to help children with meals & homework everyday

Generation 3 - Gemini / Yellow - The Open-Minded Adventurer

You loved your cozy (some would say sheltered) and unconventional upbringing with your earthy parent and many siblings; however, you want to see the world and all it has to offer for yourself! You love people, creativity and being busy and you want to see it all, try it all and be it all. Thanks to your loving mom, you were always made to believe you can be whatever you want in this world. You can never sit still. Due to that, you have many different careers, many different worlds you live in and many different lovers...You’ll try anything once!

Traits

Outgoing

Adventurous

Creative

Aspiration

Renaissance Sim

Career

Any 3 (as per Aspiration)

Skills

Flower Arranging

Video Gaming

Fitness

Additional Requirements

Have a love child before marriage

Have 3 failed romances before marriage

Move to 3 different worlds in lifetime

Generation 4 - Cancer / Grey - The Intuitive Gossip

You want a nice and normal life, no surprises, everything as it should be and in the right order. You want to settle down, and live an uneventful life. But when do plans ever work out like that? You earn a university degree in something sensible, and you follow that route with determination; however, you’ve always been described as psychic by those who know you, and you always have the dirt on the town folk. Finally, late in your life you understand that this ability can bring in some serious cash. You switch to the social media career and always work from home to protect your identity from those who’s secrets you spill. Who would ever suspect you, the nerdy Brainiac who barely speaks up? xoxo, Sims Girl

Traits

Neat

Unflirty

Materialistic

Aspiration

Academic

Career

Initially something connected to Degree, but switch to Social Media (Internet Personality Branch) in late Adult Life Stage

Skills

Logic

Writing

Media Production

Additional Requirements

Attend university (Business or History degree)

Change careers when in Adult life stage to Social Media Career

Always work from home

Marry for convenience and not love (not attracted to partner)

Have no relationship with child/ren

Generation 5 - Leo / Gold - The Romantic Star

Your life growing up was boring. Your mom and dad were the least romantic people ever and everything was cookie-cutter perfect (and devoid of any emotion) growing up. So, from a young age, you throw yourself into movies and get lost in the romantic, passionate and fairy tale aesthetic of it all! You move to Del Sol Valley straight after high school to try and make it as a big star and start your own fairy tale! But it turns out not all fairy tales are perfect, and you have to kiss a few frogs to find your prince/ss!

Traits

Cheerful

Self Absorbed

Romantic

Aspiration

World Famous Celebrity

Career

Actor/Actress

Skills

Acting

Singing

Additional Requirements

Move to Del Sol Valley straight after high school with very little money (10K max)

Cheat on 2 different partners

Date both genders

Generation 6 - Virgo / Beige - The Critical Perfectionist

Owing to your famous parent, you always attended red carpet events with the best food imaginable. Let’s face it, you always thought your taste was just a touch above everyone else. And when you’re good at something never do it for free! Your dream is to criticize others and earn a pay check for it.For you, life is about experiences, perfection and having something to show for it in the bank account. You want to wear and eat the finest things!

Traits

Perfectionist

Genius

Snob

Aspiration

Fabulously Wealthy

Career

Critic (Food)

Skills

Gourmet Cooking

Mixology

Additional Requirements

Marry a famous sim or a sim at the top of their career

Have a house worth over 100K

Have 1 child

Generation 7 - Libra / Pink - The Classy Advocate

You grew up in a very classy home, with only the finest things. You believe in the value of beautiful art, intellectual discussions and physical beauty. From behind the thick, gilded window panes in your childhood mansion, you always witness the injustices of the world and felt a calling to help those without a voice.

Traits

Materialistic

Art Lover

Outgoing

Aspiration

Party Animal

Career

Law (Any Branch)

Skills

Charisma

Violin

Additional Requirements

Attend university, join the debate guild

Marry a sim you find extremely attractive

Volunteer weekly

Own art pieces worth over 20K

Generation 8 - Scorpio / Black - The Beautiful Empath

You’re a sweetheart deep down and you find beauty in all things physical. Where your parents saw beauty in materialistic things, you see beauty in yourself and others. You always dreamed of perfecting your own body as a testament to your intense passion towards your goals. You meet a beautiful partner along the way and together, you create a perfect image of love, beauty and emotional intensity.

Traits

Jealous

Active

Romantic

Aspiration

Soulmate

Career

Athlete (Bodybuilder career)

Skills

Fitness

Mischief

Additional Requirements

Marry a sim seen as extremely attractive

Have 1 child minimum and encourage active side (from toddler to teenager)

Go on a date night with your partner every weekend

Generation 9 - Sagittarius / Purple - The Traveling Spy

You’re fun to be around and can never sit still. You’ve used this to your advantage to lure people into trusting you, and you have friends all over the world! Little do they know, you’re a secret agent with some top-tier missions to accomplish. Your passion for love and romance means you have a few slip ups and made some (unexpectedly great) mistakes along the way. You can’t ever be tied down. Keep it moving, blend in with the locals and you’ll never get caught!

Traits

Non-Committal

Adventurous

Cheerful

Aspiration

Serial Romantic

Career

Secret Agent (Any Branch)

Skills

Comedy

Photography

Additional Requirements

Live in Mt. Komorebi and Sulani in lifetime – dabble in local culture and activities

Have children from both of the above worlds with one of the locals

Never marry

Generation 10 - Capricorn / Brown - The Idealistic Pragmatist

You’re smart – scary smart. You are a quiet, intelligent soul and you love to lose yourself in the mountains when life gets overwhelming. You approach life with military intelligence, routine and perfection and never thought you could meet someone who cracked through your tough exterior. When you do meet them, you marry them after the first few dates and start your family. Your partner adores you and your family and quits their career to take care of the large brood of kids and animals in your rustic, outdoorsy home.

Traits

Loner

Genius

Loves the Outdoors

Aspiration

Extreme Sports Enthusiast

Career

Military

Skills

Pet Training

Logic

Additional Requirements

Marry a spouse after a maximum of 3 dates

Have spouse quit job to raise children

Have 4 children minimum

Go Climbing/Hiking or do Snow Sports every weekend

Generation 11 - Aquarius / Blue - The Outspoken Activist

You grew up with nature and animals taking preference over technology and humans. Therefore, you are sickened by the state of the world that humans have created and you decide to pursue a green future. You are all for eco living, off the grid lifestyle and conserving the environment for generations to come.

Traits

Vegetarian

Green Fiend

Creative

Aspiration

Eco Innovator

Career

Civil Designer (Green Technician)

Skills

Fabrication

Logic

Additional Requirements

Live in Evergreen Harbor (all 3 neighborhoods) and convert all to Green Eco Footprint

Live off the grid at least once

Adopt children and animals until household limit of 8 is reached

Generation 12 - Pisces / Light Green - The Creative Overthinker

You’re a dreamer and you want to heal everyone. Due to your parent’s ideals growing up, you want to make a difference... but you also want to create art and move souls. You tend to internalize your dreams and fears and as a result often feel misunderstood. You move around as a doctor trying to heal the world and as a result, love is last on the list of accomplishments.

Traits

Creative

Gloomy

Loner

Aspiration

Painter Extraordinaire

Career

Doctor

Skills

Painting

Baking

Additional Requirements

Have no friends apart from future spouse

Gain fame through paintings

Marry for the first time as an elder

Never have children

Live in all worlds through lifetime

#sims4 #sims 4 legacy #sims4 challenge #zodiac challenge #ts4 legacy #aries #taurus #gemini #cancer #leo #virgo #libra #scorpio #sagittarius #capricorn #aquarius #pisces #lilsimsie

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imaginariumpod · 4 years ago

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Studio Ghibli; and the aesthetic of comfort and the mundane.

When it comes to animation movies, Studio Ghibli movies are still some of the long standing staples of the genre, and for a good reason. A lot has been said about these films, their thematics, their characters, their stories and the studio that made them, as well as one of their elusive and yet most well known creators : Hayao Miyazaki. I will try to focus on the ways Studio Ghibli views comfort as well the coziness in these little slower moments that fill the universe of Ghibli films. These movies are generally universally loved by the public, despite the fact that they are aimed toward a younger audience. These movies are definitely created with the goal of showing it to a public of children and families, and yet they still are very complex and layered pieces of art and animation that all audiences can appreciate. These movies also do not look down on their audiences, they do not shy away from touching upon more difficult themes such as war, loss, and fear, in a manner that’s adequate for the public it is targeting. With this article, I want to write an extension on the article I have already written on the subject of slowness in cinema and that has been asked by one of my subscribers on patreon. If you haven’t read that article yet, you can read it HERE on my blog.

The films that have been created by Studio Ghibli, are, and with reason, a cornerstone of the animated movie industry. Despite the fact that these movies are definitely intended and made for a younger audience, I think we can all agree that these particular movies can be appreciated by everyone, at any age, and that anyone can find meaning and solace within these movies. Studio Ghibli movies are truly an excellent example of filmmaking that manages to capture a slower pace in media, slowing down the action to just offer a moment to breathe. Between all of the grand adventures and events that are happening in those movies, there are always moments of slowness to be found. Of calm. Of quietness. The characters of the Ghibli universe are permitted to simply exist sometimes.

The concept of slowing down in media is one that I deeply appreciate for the way it brings depth and serenity in stories. This is a very personal point of view of course, I find the modern pace of capitalist life deeply alienating at times, and sometimes I think we just need a moment to slow down and enjoy simply being. Doing nothing is a very anti-capitalist thing, in my opinion, and I greatly appreciate seeing this concept in books and movies. While being productive is always a nice feeling, and god knows I always enjoy being busy and having things to do, it is always in these moments where I feel submerged by everything I have to do that I yearn for some peace and quiet. While it is not always possible to have this, it is always possible for me to simply … start a movie, and try to escape a bit the weight of the world.

I personally think having these moments to be able to just breathe and be truly enriches a movie. Those moments of simple mundanity and ordinariness ground the story in reality even when the story is about a wizard living in a moving castle. Studio Ghibli movies are the epitome of films that can focus on fantasy and the imaginary and telling incredibly original stories, while also including this measure of the mundane, the routine and the ordinary in between the louder and more action-packed parts of the film. This way of constructing these films, makes it so that the universe feels more lived-in, real and comforting, the characters feel more grounded and rooted in reality.

Studio Ghibli: a brief history

Even though Hayao Miyazaki started working as an animator in the 1960s, working in TOEI animation and learning the tricks of the trade, it is only later in 1985 that he established Studio Ghibli as we now know it, with the partnership of Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki. It is with that previous working experience that he got to truly construct an identity as the type of animator he wanted to become, and the type of movies he wanted to produce. Before Ghibli, Miyazaki got involved with different animation projects such as Heidi (1974) , and Anne of Green Gables (1979) and a project that would never see the day : Pippi Longstocking. This project is quite interesting in how it simply … never got made, its a bit like a lost part of history, a what-if. Despite the fact that Hayao Miyazaki had drawn a lot of concept arts as well as storyboards for this project, they never got the green light from the swedish author Astrid Lindgren.

Nonetheless, it is obvious how all of these projects forecast how Miyazaki and his business partner Isao Takahata will more often than not try to center young girls as the main protagonists of their movies. A trend that will continue on for the most of their careers to this day. They will continue to focus on young girls and women as the main characters of the stories they are telling in such a complex and intricate way, all of their female characters are different from each other, with their own complicated inner lives, dreams and goals. It seems like such a basic requirement to request from our media, and yet even now, it is still not something that… will be guaranteed in the stories we consume. It is not to say that ghibli’s portrayals of women is perfect, but I do appreciate their very complex heroines and their adventures.

I will not try to pretend that I can totally understand the type of person that Miyazaki is, he’s a complicated figure at the helm of Studio Ghibli, the man behind the curtain. He is definitely a hardworking and self-critical person, but also deeply critical of others as well, wanting to set up very high standards of work that can be extremely difficult to achieve in a very high pressure environment. Thus is the complex personality of Miyazaki. I do not want to pretend he is a perfect man, and I do think some of his choices are things i don't quite agree with. There are some very valid and legitimate criticisms to be made about him, some by the closest people he works with as well as his own sons, especially Goro Miyazaki, who say that his father was always very distant, working long hours even by the era’s standards, and whose heart was obviously more into his work than his home life. Hayao Miyazaki valued work and putting in the time and effort into his art and job, pushing for very unhealthy job practices and work culture.

He is far from perfect, and seek perfection in his work, both from himself and the people he works with. There’s a lot to be said on that aspect, and yet I still very much think that he is that he is still a very fascinating person to reckon with, someone who brought very important and beautiful stories and revolutionized the world of animation in a really significant way. The universes he created are some I keep coming back to times and times again. I also highly recommend the documentary A Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (2013) if you have not seen it, as to have a glimpse of the way this animation studio functions on a daily basis. I find it always so very inspiring personally, each time I watch this documentary, I feel hugely motivated to create and to make something, no matter how small. Sometimes, it is simple about the sheer act of creating something, of spending some time away on the roof, looking at the skies while a cat is sleeping next to you.

His involvement with the Union during his early animator years left him with a leftist tendency that will continue on during his career and seep through the themes of his movies.From the very firmly anti-war stances to the pro-environmentalist and anti-capitalist and anti-consumerist themes, Ghibli movies are a proof that you can tackle these subject matters in a very conscientious way even in children’s media. It can be seen in the movie Grave of the Fireflies (1988), a heart-wrenching movie about two children trying to survive the last months of World War II. Even though Isao Takahata, who directed this movie, says the movie was not made out to be an anti-war movie, this stance is still very much woven in the very fabric of the movie, from its beginning to its ending.

This specific theme is very important here in terms of the experience of the mundane and the ordinary in Ghibli movies. Even within the most devastating of events, smaller moments of slowness can be found, and appreciated. Quiet moments of peace that feel even more poignant in the midst of struggle. Despite everything, I think we have all come to the conclusion that even when world-shattering events are happening, life truly must go on. And it does find a way to go on, and it feels mind-boggling that we all have to do our groceries, cook dinner, wash our laundry while terrible events keep happening, and yet, these mundane moments still occur. It is still possible to find a moment of respite and peace in the midst of uncertain times and terrible events.

But also, as Marco says it in Porco Rosso, « I’d much rather be a pig than a fascist » and I think this really does say it all.

The aesthetic of comfort

Despite being usually an animated movie set in a very obviously fantastical universe, Studio Ghibli movies tend to be very realistic in the way they portray the characters, their complexity, and also what are the real underlying conflicts. For example, in Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) «The primary conflict isn’t about magic—it’s internal and invisible and wholly human: Kiki’s brief period of lost motivation and artist’s block. She gets it back when she wants to help Tombo, whom she loves. Simple as that. She doesn’t have to wage an epic battle to prove her worth» The stakes might seem lower in this movie compared to other stories, very mundane and ordinary, there is no war, there is no significant conflict, but I think this is what makes it so special in the end.

One of the particularities of Ghibli movies is how they deal with the notion of childhood, a notion that few animation movies have approached with such delicateness and seriousness. One of the things I really appreciate from Ghibli movies is that it does not shy away from treating children as complex beings. It does acknowledge the fact that children are also able of complexities and of understanding more than we think they do, and yet creating media that is easy for them to comprehend and appreciate, which I think is no small feat.

There is definitely also a definite focus on working class characters instead of the more “prestigious” ones in Ghibli movies, there is a desire to center normal people, whatever that means, in their stories. Most of the characters have to work for a living, earn their lives, and the value of hard work is definitely something that is highlighted in the Ghibli universe. In Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989), the baker’s wife tells the young witch that work is work no matter how small and insignificant you might think it is, and all work should be paid, and it is a truth that should be remembered.

In that movie, here is no world shattering events, no wars or massive destruction, only a young witch trying to make something out of herself, losing her will and creativity and gaining it again. That particular theme is one that resonates a lot with people on a very basic level, especially in this current day and age where so many of us are trying to monetize our creative work. So often, trying to capitalize off a hobby and enduring the bone deep dreary weight of capitalism is what will make artists lose their original inspiration and will to create, when a hobby turns into labor, and this is, at its core, the journey that Kiki went through.

As Robert Ebert told Miyazaki, during an interview with him « I told Miyazaki I love the "gratuitous motion" in his films; instead of every movement being dictated by the story, sometimes people will just sit for a moment, or they will sigh, or look in a running stream, or do something extra, not to advance the story but only to give the sense of time and place and who they are.»

And he was right, Ghibli movies have these moments where the action is not something that is strictly essential to the plot of the movie, and yet it is essential to the essence of what Ghibli movies do. Miyazaki then explained what this concept for him meant for him :

«"We have a word for that in Japanese," he said. "It's called ma. Emptiness. It's there intentionally."»

Those slow moments between the actions are thus very deliberate, they mean to slow down the story and to slow down the pace. Unlike the generally accepted school of thought in modern Hollywood cinema, where every single scene and dialogue needs to move the story forward, Miyazaki lets his story and movies breathe and exist. This way of building a story does give it an added sense of calm and soothingness, but also it gives it a sense of realism. Instead of following a strict narrative outline, this fluidity makes the story feel more real and relatable.

These quiet moments and details that might seem innocuous and useless at first glance, and maybe look like they would slow and hinder the pace of the movie in itself, are ultimately what gives it this feeling of genuineness, of sincerity. It lets the characters as well as the plot have the space to breathe, evolve and grow.

« Although these scenes may seem slow or unimportant, they give space to develop the characters and to heighten dreams or feelings the characters are having such as feelings of isolation, wonder, or anxiety. It is in these moments of stillness that the audience can contemplate with the characters and feel what the characters are feeling. These moments remind the audience the importance of stillness in such a fast paced world and highlights the beauty of a slower paced life»

Studio Ghibli movies insert those slo

wer moments in between their more faster paced and action packed scenes, but also in the midst of world-changing events such as wars, as shown in Howl’s Moving Castle (2004). This demonstrates how people still live on during those crises, even with the danger looming over their heads. This kind of media gives me hope that we can live through this, that moments of happiness and peace are still to be found even within the madness of our very fast capitalistic and hyper consumerist life.

From visibly established routines to a focus on the mundane, the daily. the ordinary, Ghibli movies will definitely bring these seemingly unimportant acts and integrate them as essential to the general experience of the movie. You see the characters inhabiting the Ghibli universe working, studying, sleeping, eating, in a way, you see them being alive. In a manner of speaking, of course, these are fictional characters in fictional universes, but it is obvious that the universe and the lives these characters lead extend beyond what we’re seeing on the screen. They have whole lives and experiences that we might not be privy to, as the audience, but it is apparent that these characters are fully formed. They are going on and about with their lives, and it is this emphasis on the ordinary that makes them appear so realistic.

Falling and getting up again. Jumping and stumbling. So often, Ghibli’s characters are not perfectly graceful beacons of dexterity and elegance, quite the opposite even, their demeanor and posture will inform the character and their place in that world, and yet it is not always perfect and flawless. Sometimes, the characters will run and stumble and trip and fall and this mundanity of being.

This representation of the realness of what it is to be a person, that sometimes we trip and stumble, that we fall and get up again and yet, we continue to walk or run. It’s also a way of defining the different characters, of imbuing them with their own personality and mannerisms and be able to distinguish them even with such small details as the way they walk and carry themselves. This is definitely not exclusive to Studio Ghibli, animation as a whole uses movement and mannerisms as an essential tenet of character, but it is still very rare to see this sort of flailing included voluntarily in the films. Since the medium that these movies are created in is two-dimensional animation, it means that every single frame had to be carefully planned and executed, before being drawn and painted frame by frame. These movements could have been easily not included in the final cut of the movie, they could have been considered superfluous to the film, and yet they were. These imperfect moments are what ultimately makes it better.

Ghibli movies do that, not only in terms of physicality and concrete elements, but also when it comes to feelings and emotions. Emotions that we all feel and experience, from the feeling of restlessness to loss and fear, to love and courage. Ghibli movies really do showcase all of these feelings that we all feel, even though in a manner that is easy to understand for all audiences.

“Only Yesterday does not hit the dramatic highs of Miyazaki’s work, but that’s partly the point. It’s less concerned with presenting a grand thesis about the nature of being human than it is navigating the heartbreaks, triumphs and regrets that make us. But it’s still comforting for a film about the relentless march of time, the title even invoking both the speed with which childhood can pass us by and how close those memories stay with us.

It’s immensely relatable in how it evokes these little tragedies: the feeling of being a fraud; of missing out’ of wondering if you’ve left your childhood self behind; idealism; dreams and all. It asks us not to mourn what might or might not have happened, but to keep those memories close, and use them to move forward. That Only Yesterday makes this feel as wondrous as a castle in the sky or a land of spirits is nothing short of miraculous, and why it ranks among Ghibli’s best.”

The act of eating is one that is heavily emphasized in Ghibli movies, one only needs to read all of the articles dedicated to the mouth-watering food that fills its universe to understand that this simple act, of eating and of preparing food, is one that is very important. Countless of people have made videos on how to recreate some of the most iconic dishes and meals of the Ghibli universe, from Howl’s Moving Castle’s tempting breakfast to Spirited Away’s feasts, both the one that Chihiro’s parents eat at the beginning of the movie and the ones served to the bathhouse’s guests, and the simple snacks that are eaten throughout the movie, from the onigiri Haku gives Chihiro or the food she shares with Lin. Ghibli movies are very well known for how pretty and appealing its food looks, and simply taking the time to showcase the act of preparing and eating food, thus slowing down the pace and creating a break during the plot of the movie. There’s a certain type of media that does put a lot of importance on the act of slowing down, taking the time to cook, such movies such as Little Forest : Summer & Autumn and Little forest : winter and spring, for example. A lot of media that’s just about not doing much and preparing some food, which somehow has a very soothing effect. The act of eating and cooking is part of the greater character narrative and storyline when it comes to Ghibli movies, but also the act of sharing a meal and of eating together.

Food, the preparing of food as well as the sharing of a meal, is a love language in itself, in my very humble opinion, taking the time to prepare all of the ingredients and then a dish for someone else or for one self is an act of care. And it is definitely one of the ways it is used in Ghibli movies, from My Neighbor Totoro (1988) in which the eldest daughter is often seen having to prepare lunch and food for her younger sister and her father, since her mother is sick and hospitalized. I will not be talking here about eldest daughter syndrome here, but it is very much a Real Thing™️. It is simply in this representation of the act of cooking, and the care she puts in it, that we can understand not only the love she has for her younger sister and father, but also the very real responsibilities that she has to shoulder as such a young age.

In every single Studio Ghibli movie, this pattern appears, someone will make food, and it will be obvious how much time, effort and love it takes to prepare this dish, or someone will simply take a break from whatever they were doing and take a bite of a small but tasty snack. Somehow, the usage of food in the Ghibli universe is central to the way the characters will experience and move through the world.

It is in these small moments of respite and calm that the characters, and by extension, us, are allowed to breathe. Moments that are quiet, where two people will share a meal and just be. I always terribly appreciate whenever a movie, or any piece of media really, simply takes the time to let the story expand and move at its own pace. Studio Ghibli movies are always ones I love to go back to whenever the world feels overwhelming and slightly unbearable. I hope that we can all have more moments of peace and quiet, that things can slow down enough for us to catch our breath.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Hayao Miyazaki interview | Interviews

The Magic and Artistry of Studio Ghibli's Films

The Low-Stakes Pleasure of KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE

Wings and Freedom, Spirit and Self: How the Filmography of Hayao Miyazaki Subverts Nation Branding and Soft Power Shadow

Miyazaki’s Magical Food: An Ode to Anime’s Best Cooking Scenes

Food in Spirited Away: Consuming with Intent

Grave of the Fireflies: The haunting relevance of Studio Ghibli's darkest film

NAPIER, Susan. Miyazakiworld : a life in art. Yale University Press, 2018.

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80scartoonfan · 3 years ago

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My Review of Masters of the Universe Revelation - Better late then Never...

It has been two months now, and wow... Not, not many fans of the entire franchise like the Kevin Smith Masters of the Universe series do they? As an aspiring writer myself I can't say I blame them.

I know this comes literally on the heels of the LATEST series being released (obligations to projects, work, family and other things got in the way) and I have to say I wasn't all that impressed with it. If anything, compared to the dumpster fire that was Season 8 of Voltron Legendary Defender that season was more enjoyable than this first part of the mini-series.

And if I am being honest from the first leaks of Skele-God, to the drama with YouTubers like Clownfish-TV and others, to the "race swapping" of Andra and King Greyskull, to spoilers Kevin Smith himself even made, I would give Part-1 a GENEROUS D-Minus. This is a shame because I really wanted this series to exceed all expectations and be equal to the original like 2012s TMNT is or 2011s ThunderCats. But there is too much against it.

First, let’s talk about the animation. It was absolutely breathtaking! It was crisp, the world-building in just the scenery was a masterpiece. Out of what I saw of all of part 1, spotted one goof - dealing in episode 1 with Evil-Lyn's staff, which shows that their animators care of what they produce. I loved the animation so much that if the rights to my favorite anime were purchased by a studio to do a continuation from 2005 or a second reboot, I'd gladly give Powerhouse Animation my salary for the next 5 years!

The music, the music was gorgeous! But then I am biased towards Bear McCreary. Even though He-Man seems a bit knew to compose music to, he immediately got my vote of confidence when it was announced he was attached. Reason being, his work for the movie Godzilla King of the Monsters! His music made me actually tear up during that movie. Something I didn't do since another Godzilla movie.

With the exception of Mark Hamill - as shocking as it comes and Sarah Michelle Gellar, the voice acting was phenomenal! I loved Kevin Michael Richards as Beastman, Tony Todd as ScareGlow, even Liam Cunningham as Duncan! Chris Wood was spectacular as Prince Adam/He-Man for just being introduced to him. But the one who really stole the show for me was Lena Headdy. She killed it as Evil-Lyn, so much that if the Eternity War Saga or 2 part crossover event ThunderCats and He-Man/Injustice vs Masters of the Universe were made into live-action or animated movies, I'd pay whatever she wanted just to have her return.

I also want to applaud the effort of getting a diverse group of voice actors. Something which I noticed few if ANY have. Actors who are both known for their VA resumes and those who are new to voice acting. But also the actors themselves, besides the white and black VAs there were if I am not mistaken a Native American and I think 2 Mixed-Race voice actors. I don't remember if there were any Asian or Middle Eastern VAs, but it is always Part-2!

As for Mark Hamill, at first, I was excited that he was going to do the voice of Skeletor. But upon hearing him as Skeletor, I'm not sure anymore. Granted this is just the first part of the mini-series, but it didn't feel like Skeletor if that makes sense? To me, it felt like he was trying to mix Joker/Alvin the Treacherous/and Firelord Orzi all into one character.

Sarah Michelle Gellar is another one I wasn't sure about. I admit I found it hard going in unbiased because I never liked Sarah. Not as Gwendy Doll, or Andromeda, Daphne and certainly not as Buffy - mainly because I preferred Kristy Swanson as Buffy, but that is beside the point. She had some nice emotional spots, but for the majority of her performance as Teela, it just wasn't there for me. If the writing and script had been better than what it was, she could have won me over for Teela, but as I write this I am more excited for Kimberly Brooks to voice Teela.

Now let’s talk about the things I hated. This will involve anything from Characters including designs to the writing and other things. If you don't want to be triggered I advise you to stop reading this and move on. If you are still here and get triggered, like one person who always seems to be, don't say I didn't warn you. I am always open to engaging others civilly in talking and debate. But if you can't even do that, don't bother engaging. These are my opinions and MY THOUGHTS, and I will hold nothing back regardless of the topic. You have been warned!

The story, the story absolutely sucked! You can tell the writers, if you can call them that, just didn’t care about what they were doing. I’ll go into this shortly. But those writers should be ashamed to even call themselves that. Sure it was catered to be modernized and appealing to potential new fans, but they should have been more aware of what they were doing. Just in this first part, there are so many plotholes and questions I was asking myself that I filled 4 whole pages of paper asking questions and thoughts - which to the fanfic writers I will put in at the end of this if you want to explore them.

I watched the mini-series five times now, trying to be as objective as I possibly could as an aspiring writer and not as a MotU fan, and each time got even more painful. Let’s be clear on one thing, I wanted this series to succeed. But too many things brought it down, and like with Ghost in the Shell 2045, I’m not sure I want Netflix to release part 2 or that I would watch it if they did.

Let’s start with how it was advertised as a “direct sequel to the original.” It was not a direct sequel to the original. I have seen someone bring this up and I have to agree with him. This mini-series is more in line with Nickelodeon’s Voltron-Force from 2011. I remember watching that series when it premiered and then had to hunt down my VHS tapes that had them to get a feel for the series again.

Both played off their respective originals as direct sequels, but both are in fact pseudo-sequels/soft reboots. They have the characters we grew up with and we can identify these characters because they are close to their original counterparts, but that is as far as the “sequel” goes. They bring in newer characters who we know nothing about or characters who have maybe been unimportant to the main characters, but we have to accept them now. It was like that with Mona Lisa in the 2012 TMNT who I enjoyed WHEN they used her, Larmina of Voltron-Force being Allura’s niece, and Andra of Revelation who had maybe 2 or 3 appearances in the entire run of the Masters of the Universe franchise.

Like Voltron-Force, Revelation, had no real ties to the original. There were no mentions of battles, events, and characters who played critical roles in the original. Instead, it starts off with a narrative deposition to set the series up (not matching how the original ended) and just starts in with new adventures. For it to be a direct sequel to an original, you need to have more than just characters we can identify as He-Man/Skeletor/Keith/Lotor/Allura/or Teela.

Next, let’s talk about the length of this mini-series. This is still a bitter subject amongst Voltron fans because so much Netflix could have done more with it if they didn’t do four seasons that were 6/7 episodes. We can all agree that with the “story telling” they wanted to do, just five episodes just were not enough for the first part and potentially the second part. The amount of time needed to portray the journey from Adam’s death to Skeletor taking the power sword and becoming Skelegod could have easily been an entire season. Even 9-10 episodes would have been acceptable with the proper writing that wasn’t going for deliberate shock value goals or “shipping.”

With a 9-10 episode first part, they could have given everyone what they wanted. They could have had He-Man solidly in the first 3 episodes killing him off in the 3rd in such an emotional way it would leave us old-timers not only devastated but eager for more. Use episode 4 to transition into a dying magical world trying to survive with the loss of He-Man and Skeletor and set up the following episode where we see Teela and Andra meet, rather than “next episode we meet Teela and her ‘friend’ Andra on a practically dead world.” Hell, if this was supposed to be a series which wanted to emotionally cripple old timers like me, I’d have been fine if were three season 13 episode series where He-Man dies at the very end of season 1, season 2 picks up with the aftermath of his death, and season 3 is He-Man’s return to defeat Skeletor.

Let’s now talk about the plotholes in this series which tie together with the amount of episodes. These are the biggest things that damage the series the most! The biggest plothole and the most important one is “SPAN OF TIME!” How long has it been since Prince Adam’s death and we see Teela with Andra - days/weeks/months/years - WHAT?! When did they meet? Where did they meet? What happened to Eternos? Did King Randor go all Mad-King Targarian or was Eternos get sacked and destroyed now that He-Man was no longer there to protect its people? Did King Randor put a bounty on Teela’s head for leaving? Remember she was a sworn member of the guard to the King. I doubt he would have just let her leave unless he had a good reason not to go after her. What happened to all the other Masters - Clamp Champ/Ram-Man/Stratos/Buzzoff/Tusk Man and many others in the aftermath of Adam’s death? These are questions and things fans should have been focusing on rather than “will Teela and Andra be together?” Kevin Smith said this series had what others didn’t... STAKES. What are those stakes?

Speaking of Teela and Andra and I know this will be a touchy one for most. I feel that their dynamic is directly done to “queerbait” people. Now I am not saying we can’t have LGBT couples in series, it’s just that writers either need to commit to establishing these couples or not at all. Only doing glimpses or hints at, is for a lack of a better term a Kobayashi Maru - (a No Win Scenario for the Non-Star Trek fans) like it was with Shiro in Voltron Legendary Defender. And if and when this blows up in their faces, like it did the Voltron writers, they have no one to blame but themselves.

Star Trek Lower Decks like every other Star Trek since “The Next Generation” have no qualms in establishing certain characters as LGBT. It is how you do it, and many of these shows need to follow the example from Star Treks TNG/DS9/VOY/LD. This series are a clear testament that you can have Straight/Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual relationships without “queer-baiting” or overtly shoving it in people’s faces.

The writers have made it clear that there is something between Teela and Andra but while also making it clear there is still something between her and Adam. Which regardless of how part 2 ends is liable to upset the fans they “catered” this series to. Who do you make happy and who do you ostracize? And with today’s social media are you going to handle the backlash of giving one and not the other? I personally would prefer Teela and Adam to be what kids today call “Endgame,” but ever since the Keith & Allura tradition was soundly destroyed in Season 2 of Netflix’s Voltron, that when it comes to Netflix series I just simply don’t care anymore who ends up with who, I want a well thought-well developed story.

The character designs of Teela/Andra/Evil-Lyn I understand they wanted a more “modern” realistic feel to them, which I am neither for nor against. Because let’s face it spandex-clad or barely covered barbarian fantasy women with chainmail is a product of the 70s/80s/90s. It is alright to have modern designs for characters but not too modern. Especially when we have shows like Game of Thrones and others to draw references from.

I do admit, I am not a fan of Teela’s design. I understand the reasoning is to make her a “Strong Female Character” but there is more to being a strong female character than looking strong. Strength is also one’s character, how they grow and develop. Teela’s stubbornness, fear, and anger at her “past life” are preventing her growth. If this is the way they portray a strong female character then they have no business doing so.

Kimberly Brooks’ Allura is a far stronger woman than this Teela ever will be. The burdens she shouldered, admitting she was wrong and not gloating when she was correct, the forgiveness of a race responsible for the genocide of her’s, being a diplomat while also being a warrior, sacrificing her well being for others all contributed to her growth from “Princess who just woke up” to Strong Female Character by the end of Season 6.

Teela understandably was hurt by the lies that filled her life. Sure she built a life away from those lies, but she was running away from them. Rather than confront the reason why she became bitter and ran away essentially. She was only forced to confront those lies to save Eternia and the universe and even then there really wasn’t any humility about it. Instead, it is all about her. Not once in this series have I seen growth for Teela’s character like Legendary Defender’s Allura, and let me be perfectly blunt - I had no love for Allura after Season 2. Not once did she admit she was wrong or apologize. Not once was she willing to sacrifice her life for the greater good - instead she was willing to let the whole universe die because of the lies she was fed her life.

Now let me address the whole Race-Bending “controversy.” As with the new designs, I am neither for nor against them. I understand the arguments on both sides when it comes to Andra and King Greyskull. One side argues it appeals to young black girls and boys while the other argues they are being tired of being handed “Hand-Me-Down” characters. Both sides have valid arguments. But honestly, as an old Masters of the Universe fan, it took the so-called “race-swapping” of Andra for me to even remember her because she was never that important and even betrayed Teela for Faker in the Injustice vs Masters of the Universe comics and even then she appeared in maybe 5 panels at most.

Now King Greyskull, at first I was against, I’ll admit it but then I changed my tone looking at myself and my family. See I am Bi-Racial, my mother is white and my father is black. My father’s sister married a white guy and had 6 bi-racial kids. Two who in turn gave birth to white-skinned blond-haired blue-eyed kids. Had they gone the “bloodline” path Prince Adam could have been a representation of not just blacks, whites, but bi-racial and mixed-blood peoples.

I realize this is coming out on the eve of that new He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series, which as a He-Man fan since 1984 (when I was potty training) I will give it a shot, maybe even write a review of it. But I still have my reviews of Godzilla: Singular Point, Pacific Rim: The Black, Star Trek Lower Decks, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2045, and other series to write on top of work and my family life.

-------------------------------~ Question and Thoughts Time ~---------------------------

As I mentioned above, had many thoughts and questions which I believe were pivotal in the development of this series. Questions and thoughts should have been vocalized during the writing stage rather than fans asking them. These are of the first 3 episodes and some of episode 4. If you are a fanfiction writer who wants to explore these feel free to do so, I will be more than happy to read if they answer these questions and make the mini-series more enjoyable.

Keep in mind these are questions and thoughts I had because I am also an aspiring writer of my own fiction - that I am keeping close to my chest until I feel ready to release it.

Any true He-Man fan would question why is He-Man on a mechanical horse when he would be using battle cat

I do like the celebration happening at the same time quote-unquote He-Man is approaching Castle Grayskull it makes you think Adam is missing out on an important event

In the original series, Castle Grayskull had defenses that the Sorceress could call upon to confuse and combat an enemy who breached its walls how did Skeletor learn about the true secrets of Castle Grayskull when it should only be the Sorceress that knows of such secrets

If the Sorceress is so powerful and so smart why was she tricked by the faker He-Man he doesn't have the power sword?

I love that Orko is still a bumbling magician in Eternia’s realm. Shows how different realities have an effect on others

Adams entrance to “I have the power” let alone his playful jab at who “He is” should have been a hint to Teela

I do like the scene between Adam and Teela in the hall. It really makes you think that they actually are friends from childhood that grew up together and possibly have a future together.

My knowledge of the 38 years of the canon may be a bit shady now, but hasn’t Skeletor always needed the Power sword to get into Castle Grayskull like he always needed it in the comics?

They hinted that his mother knows he's He-Man and that she does reveal that he is He-Man after the battle. I know a mother knows these things about her child. But how did she learn Adam was He-Man and how did she not tell King Randor

Again how did Marlena know He-Man was her son and not tell her husband?

King Randor’s response is feasible but Teela’s response, because everyone lied to her is understandable - but she's a warrior. She is also a sworn captain of the royal guard, sworn to the King. She can’t just quit like that, can she?

How much time has passed between the death of Adam and when we see Teela with Andra

What has happened to the Royal Family in this time? What about Eternos? Has King Randor and Marlena revealed that he-man was their son Prince Adam? With He-Man out of the picture Has Eternos Fallen? Did Randor go all Mad-King Targaryen and become a ruthless tyrant?

What has happened to all of the other Masters? Ram-Man/Buzzoff/Clamp Champ/Fisto/Stratos/ and so many others? Were they killed off? Did they disband? Or were they exiled, WHAT?!

What about Snake-Mountain? What happened in the aftermath of Skeletor’s apparent death? Did Triclops and Beastman betray Evil-Lyn?

How did Teela meet Andra? What is the “When, where, and how” behind their meeting? What did she do to gain Teela’s trust when she felt betrayed by the world?

What is Andra’s background or history in this series besides being an engineer?

When old hag gives Teela and Andra their mission you can obviously tell it's evil-lyn

He-Man flashbacks are kind of nice but it would have been nice to have a build-up for such flashback or have a series season before his demise with such flashbacks that way it could be more poignant

I do like the idea of Triclops and Trap-jaw building a technical but what put them on the path for this techno cult

The cult kind of feels like the Borg as much as I like the idea of Trap-jaw and Triclops making a cult I don't know how I feel about it being Borg-like

This may be controversial but Andra feels like the stereotypical POC Rooky sidekick you see join the main character on their quest.

Like Grace Randolph said this whole Teela/Andra angle may come up and bite everyone in the ass later on if they don’t follow through which will piss off all the old-time fans and if they don’t follow through with the Teela/Andra angle and make Prince Adam/Teela are a couple then all the LGBTQ fans will be pissed off about that

I can already foresee it happening just like it did with Voltron Legendary Defender with Shiro being gay and his ex-partner Adam being killed in combat

We do get a hint of what the king did after the final battle but still what happened in that time after Prince Adam was killed? Did king Randor go off the deep end and become a dictator, what? These are questions that needed to be asked and answered during the writing stage

When did Evil-Lyn, Cringer, and the Sorceress make an alliance to save what little magic is left and in essence the entire universe?

I have the suspicion that was the Sorceress finally trying to tell Teela she's her mother Ford Shadows that the Sorceress is going to die and Teela is going to take her place

Did Teela really name Cringer, or was it something to boost her up in this mini-series?

Did cringer really tell Tela the Adam loved her?

Thus Begins the quest to reforge the sword to go to heaven and hell to get the parts and rebuild the Power sword thus queue Duncan

How much time has passed between the end of the previous episode and the beginning of this new one?

How is time measured on Eternia?

If Skeletor truly wanted to kill He-Man why didn't you take his power sword when he was shackled up?

Kevin Conroy is ma as Mermaid Man if he gets more roles as mermaid man he might grow on me

Instead of gloating, why didn’t they take He-Man’s sword if it was their prize all along?

Typical 80s cartoon ponds very nice

If Evil-Lyn preached that Man-at-Arms was the most dangerous man in Eternia why didn't they act like it why did they act like He-Man was the most dangerous one?

I do love the jobs both Teela and Evil-Lyn take at each other because they are pretty much the same. Evil-Lyn is Skeletor’s version of the Sorceress and Teela is practically He-Man sorceress when she accepts her destiny.

Teela has seen her father fight hundreds of times how could you not recognize his fighting style?

I like how beast man's loyalty never swayed from evil when I also like Kevin Michael Richardson parentheses? As Beastman I thought I would like him as King Grayskull but I I do like him as beast man

Orko like Castle Grayskull does provide a little hint as to King Randor’s reaction to Prince Adam’s death. I feel this is something they should have put into the series

I feel that all of Orko's scenes in episode 3 and my Following episode 4 are tainted because of Kevin Smith revealing he gets killed and why he decided to have Oracle killed

Why should Beastman show a little fear to Andra who is she to him?

I like that you can still see that Man at Arms still loves the Sorceress and I also find it funny that when it comes to that one huge secret something always gets in the way

Again I hate how they portrayed the span of time in this?

How did they go from a Forest Village so halfway across the world?

Something's been nagging me lately could Evil-Lyn be related to both Teela and the Sorceress somehow?

It could be a reference to how similar the Figures were in the 80s but in some scenes, Teela and Evil-Lyn’s facial structures look almost identical could you be separated sisters?

The further this point it's funny how Evil-lyn and Kela can just cut through the bullshit between their infatuation with He-Man and Skeletor

Again what time something happened between evil-lyn and Merman we don't know what just that he seems bitter that she didn't take over the land while he took a while he tried to take over the seat

It seems that there are undertones to a massive war and the wake of Prince Adam’s death.

I kind of like how even evil-lyn kind of shows that she may be afraid of subterranean

With half of part 1 ended could Skeletor have them influencing her? Why did she have to retrieve the Havoc staff head?

How does Evil-Lyn know so much about the Subterranea?

Teela facing a false He-Man could be a hint of her feelings for Adam. But I think it would be more of a visceral scene if it was Prince Adam and not He-Man.

Was that a hint of Teela becoming the new sorceress?

Scenes between Orko and Lyn were a nice touch. Maybe a better connection between Orko and Lyn than Teela, He-Man, and the others?

Orko’s sacrifice could be the beginning of the Dark-Orko storyline?

Was that the Sorceress’ most recent ancestor, Teela’s Grandmother or GREAT-Grandmother?

Why didn’t Adam finish the chant? If Kevin Smith borrowed aspects from everything relating to He-Man, then why didn’t Adam finish the chant? A few times Adam has been run through in which he could finish the chant to become He-Man.

If Teela is such a badass, why didn’t she attempt to stop a reconstituting Skeletor from stabbing Adam?

Really Andra? You are going to sass Skeletor? He doesn’t know you and would sleep like a baby dispersing you. You are nothing to him, you are lucky he didn’t decide to run you through with the power sword.

And really Skeletor? Because no woman could love a face like your’s? Thats your motivation?

#masters of the universe revelation #motu #he-man #teela #skeletor

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lokiondisneyplus · 4 years ago

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The wonderful Mancunian actress Wunmi Mosaku can be seen grappling with a leather-skinned monster in the horror film His House and drinking a body-swapping potion before having sex with a wizard in the HBO/Sky series Lovecraft Country. Pure hokum, right? After all, this is a woman who made her name with gritty performances on British television in Moses Jones and Luther, and who won a Bafta for playing Gloria Taylor, mother of the murdered Damilola, in Damilola, Our Loved Boy. Has moving to Los Angeles played havoc with her sense of reality?

Actually, no. His House and Lovecraft Country belong to a new generation of accomplished, provocative stories that invite us to compare the terror and violence of genre fantasy with that of the real world. They include the Emmy-winning Watchmen miniseries, which used Alan Moore’s superhero saga as a jumping-off point to explore bigotry and civil rights, and such racially charged horror movies as Us and the Oscar-winning Get Out, both directed by Jordan Peele, who is an executive producer on Lovecraft Country.

“The horror of humanity is the real horror, the things that we put people through,” says Mosaku, 34, via Zoom from Atlanta in the US. It’s hard to disagree. The most disturbing thing about His House isn’t the haunted council home assigned to her character, Rial, and her husband, Bol (Sope Dirisu), on their arrival in the UK from South Sudan. It’s what the couple endured before they got there: massacres, institutional brutality and losing their child as they cross the Mediterranean in a rubber dinghy.

Jurnee Smollett alongside Mosaku in the HBO/Sky series Lovecraft Country ALAMY

Meanwhile, the fang-filled, head-chomping bogeymen in the Fifties-set Lovecraft Country are puppy dogs compared with the racist cops, lynch-hungry rednecks and white men burning crosses on the lawn of their black Chicago neighbours.

The fantastical elements of His House have their roots in Rial and Bol’s grief, guilt and trauma. Yet Mosaku thinks that the heightened experience of watching horror, with its jump scares, musical cues and manipulative editing, is “a great vehicle” for conveying those more earthbound emotions. “It helps with empathy,” she says. “The tension, the way one’s heart beats when watching something that’s terrifying.”

In this tricksy new dramatic world we’re often not sure if the monsters are real. The events of His House, Mosaku says, “feel like they could absolutely be in their heads”. In Lovecraft Country three characters wake up the day after a horrific battle with the aforementioned fanged beasts but two of them can no longer remember it. This is a kind of gaslighting, echoing the way that black people’s testimony of mistreatment has been challenged.

Mosaku’s hardest scenes in Lovecraft Country came when her character, Ruby, drinks a potion that temporarily turns her into a white woman. This allows her to experience privilege — suddenly, strangers are deferential and policemen believe what she says. Things take a more lurid turn when she drinks the potion before having sex with a white man (actually a white woman in magical disguise — it’s complicated). At an, erm, crucial juncture, the potion wears off and her pale skin cracks and peels away.

Idris Elba with Mosaku in Luther, one of the British TV shows in which the actress made her name BBC/ALAMY

It’s an upsetting sequence, aesthetically and symbolically. “It brings up lots of crazy thoughts and rage and pain,” Mosaku says. “But I think the reality is that if any of us changed the skin that we lived in, whether it was to be someone who was disabled or Asian or LGBTQ+, the world changes how it reacts to us.

“People are threatened because of my skin [which] is weaponised against me,” Mosaku says. “My stature and the fact that I don’t conform to Western ideas of beauty with my afro and my west African gap [teeth]. I have to overcompensate, to say, ‘That isn’t me. Just because I’m 5ft 9in and black doesn’t mean that I’m threatening.’ I am a happy, joyful person. But I am not allowed to express any kind of frustration or anger, because I get boxed straight back into that thing that they always thought I was.”

Born in Nigeria, she moved with her family to Manchester when she was a year old. Her parents had been professors, but struggled to find similar work in the UK. In the end her mother started her own business and her father returned to Nigeria after the couple split up. Mosaku loved music as a girl, singing for 11 years with the Manchester Girls Choir, and she shows off her gorgeous voice in Lovecraft Country, belting out Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby in a party scene.

She doesn’t speak Yoruba, her parents’ native tongue. “It’s a real shame,” she says, telling a story from her primary school years to explain why. She is dyslexic, but at that point it was undiagnosed. “My teachers saw I was struggling with reading and writing and told my parents that they needed to stop speaking Yoruba in the house, which is crazy, because they would never have done that to a French family.” For His House she learnt Dinka, the dominant language of South Sudan, as well as being tutored in the culture of the region and hearing testimonials from refugees who had made the journey through the Sahara to north Africa and across the Mediterranean.

She was set on studying maths after school until she decided at the 11th hour that she preferred acting. Hearing that another Mancunian, Albert Finney, had gone to Rada, she applied and got in. Soon after graduating she was being directed by Rupert Goold in Rough Crossings at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith, London, and appearing in David Hare’s The Vertical Hour at the Royal Court. “Theatre is my jam,” she says. Every time she and her American husband come to the UK, “We will see a play as soon as we land. We’ll go to the Young Vic with our suitcases straight from the flight.”

After several years of yo-yoing between America and the UK, Lovecraft Country is the first time she has worked in the US for an extended period. It’s not certain whether the show will return for a second season, despite critical plaudits and ratings that compare favourably with other HBO series such as Watchmen and Succession. Either way, Mosaku seems happily ensconced in Los Angeles, where she lives with her husband, who she would rather not name.

There are strong rumours of a role in Loki, the superhero spin-off series in which Tom Hiddleston returns as the trickster god from the Marvel films, alongside Owen Wilson and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Mosaku says, with an evenness that sounds practised. Given that she’s speaking from Atlanta and that’s where they’re filming the show, it would seem a good bet.

Eventually Mosaku says she would like to move behind the camera. “Even some of my favourite films, it might be a black story, but it’s written by a white person and directed by a white person,” she says. That’s the next barrier for people of colour, and it’s starting to come down, thanks to Peele; Misha Green, the creator of Lovecraft Country; Remi Weekes, the director of His House, and the like.

Mosaku talks about the notion of double consciousness, as explored in Toni Morrison’s novels: “The way that the world will box me up before I’ve even had a chance to prove who I am. It’s exhausting. Trying to do things without having to explain or apologise is really refreshing. That’s what I love about Lovecraft and I think His House does it too. We don’t need to explain. Let’s just be.” His House is in cinemas now and on Netflix from October 30. Lovecraft Country is on Sky Atlantic, Now TV, Amazon and Google

#Wunmi Mosaku #Loki #Lovecraft Country #Luther #His House

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weekendwarriorblog · 4 years ago

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The Weekend Warrior 4/23/21: MORTAL KOMBAT, DEMON SLAYER, TOGETHER TOGETHER, STREET GANG, SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS

Ugh. Trying to maintain this column as a weekly entity during the final few weeks of the longest Oscar season ever has been really hard, and I’m not sure that will change once the Oscars are over either, because I look at the number of movies being released both theatrically and streaming over the next few weeks, and it makes my head hurt. Sorry for the kvetching, it just is what it is.

There are two big theatrical releases this weekend, Warner Bros’ MORTAL KOMBAT and DEMON SLAYER THE MOVIE: MUGEN TRAIN from FUNImation Entertainment, both which have already been released internationally. I also probably won’t be able to watch or review either before this column gets posted.

Mortal Kombat seems like the easiest sell being that it’s based on the popular Midway Games video game franchise introduced in the early ‘90s that led to a series of films, books, comics and you name it. It was a very popular fighting game that had over a dozen iterations including one in which MK characters fought against DC superheroes.

The very first Mortal Kombat movies opened in 1995, right amidst MK-mania, and it was directed by one Paul W.S. Anderson, his very first movie in a long line of video game-related movies, including a number of Resident Evil and the recent Monster Hunter. There are a lot of people who love those games, and yes, even people who love that and other movies, but to others, who may have been too old to get into the games when they came out, the whole thing about different fighters fighting each other just looks kind of studio. Even though I’m interested to see what producer James Wan brings to this reboot, I just don’t have much interest otherwise.

Unfortunately, and this is pretty daunting, Warner Bros. wasn’t sending out screeners to critics until Wednesday with a review embargo for Thursday night at 7pm, which is never a good sign, and yet, it continues Warner Bros. continuing the trend of being one of the only studios that screeners EVERY movie to film critics rather than just making them pay to see it on Thursday night or Friday. I hope to watch it and maybe add something Thursday night, time-permitting. Not sure you heard but the Oscars are Sunday.

As far as box office, Mortal Kombat opens on Friday but also premieres on HBO Max, and I’m not sure there will be as much urge to see MK on the largest screen possible, as there was with Godzilla vs. Kong. Because of that, I think the cap for this one over the three-day weekend is about $10 million but not much more and probably more frontloaded to Friday than we’ve seen in some time.

Mini-Review: As you can imagine from my statement above, I don’t hold the Mortal Kombat games or other iterations in any particular high esteem, so I’m basically jumping into this movie, directed by Simon McQuoid, just as a movie and not necessarily as a video game movie.

It starts off promising enough like a samurai movie with a flashback where we watch Hiroyuki Sanada’s hero sees his wife and son be killed by Joe Taslim’s character that will later become Sub-Zero. The general principle seems to be that there’s a world where people from other worlds fight each other to gain complete control. The hero is Lewis Tan’s MMA fighter Cole Young, presumably a popular character from the game? He is also soon attacked by Sub-Zero presumably because he’s marked with a dragon tattoo that deems him a champion of these fights, but he needs to find someone named Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) to help him get to the “Mortal Kombat.” At the same time, he meets the movie’s most entertaining character, Kane,

played by Australian actor Josh Lawson, mainly because he swears constantly and cracks wise -- he’s a bit like Wolverine, actually, and he’s actually the best part of the movie.

Otherwise, everyone and everything is always so deadly serious that everyone else we meet just doesn’t have much impact, because frankly, none of these names or characters mean jack shit to me. Sure, some of them sound vaguely familiar but I was more interested in the great Asian actors who turn up including Tadanobu Asano’s Lord Raiden, who is gonna claim Earth if its champions lose at Mortal Kombat. And Sub-Zero basically just shows up and tries to kill everyone.

As with far too many action movies, the action itself is great, the writing and acting not so much.

As it goes along, things become more epic and fantasy-driven but that also makes the dialogue seem even worse. Similarly, the fight choreography is pretty great, but the movie still leans way too heavily on visual FX to keep it more interesting for anyone not too interested in MMA… like myself. When all else fails, they can show off Sub-Zero’s cool ice powers every chance possible as well as the other’s powers, but some of them (like Lord Raiden) just made me think of this as a rip-off of the great Big Trouble in Little China.

The thing is I’m not a fan of the video game nor of MMA, so Mortal Kombat really doesn’t have much to offer me. The whole thing just seems very silly, just like almost everything from the ‘90s. (How’s THAT for a bad take?)

That said, I thought the final battle was great, and I enjoyed some of the gorier aspects of the fights, too, and it all leads to my favorite part, which is the three-way fight between Cole, Sub-Zero, and… actually I’m not sure if it’s a spoiler or not, but it’s a pretty cool fight that almost makes up for some of the dumber characters introduced earlier on. (LIke that guy with four arms. I know he’s a character in the games, but I didn’t even care enough to look up his name.)

It’s perfectly fine that they decided to go Rated R with the movie since most of the nostalgia for this movie and franchise will be towards older guys, but at times, the CG blood is so hinky it feels like the decision to go R-rated was made well after it was filmed.

Even though I went in with the lowest of expectations, I still found most of Mortal Kombat kinda trite and boring, maybe something I’d appreciate more as a teenager but not so much as a grown adult. But what do you expect for a movie based on a video game that’s just a bunch of “cool fights”?

Rating: 5.5/10

And yet, Demon Slayer could be the surprise breakout of the weekend, considering the theatrical success FUNimation has had with theatrical releases of the My Hero Academia movies into theaters in 2018 and 2020, and the hugely successful Dragon Ball Super: Brolly, which grossed $31 million domestically after a surprise $20.2 million in its first five days in roughly 1,200 movies. In fact, it made $7 million its opening Wednesday in January 2019, and FUNimation is hoping that Demon Slayer will have a similar success by opening it for a single day (Thursday) in IMAX theaters before Mortal Kombat takes over on Friday.

Demon Slayer has already grossed $383.7 million internationally compared to Mortal Kombat’s $10.7 million, and you cannot ignore the huge popularity that anime has seen over the past few decades. In fact, a bunch of screenings for Demon Slayer in NYC have already sold out, although you have to bear in mind that these are 25% capacity theaters. Even so, I still think this can make $4 to 5 million on Thursday and another $7 to 8 million over the weekend, depending on the number of theaters. Yes, it will be quite frontloaded, and I’m not sure what the cap is on theaters and how that will affect how it does over the weekend, but expect a big Thursday and a more moderate weekend but one that might give both Mortal Kombat and Godzilla vs. Kong a run for the top of the box office.

Also hitting theaters before streaming on Netflix (on April 30) is THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES, the new animated movie produced by Chris Miller and Philip Lord, following their Oscar win for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It’s a little weird to open a new animated movies, presumably in select theaters, when such a hugely anticipated animated movie like Demon Slayer is opening, but Netflix won’t

The movie itself is directed by Michael Rianda and Jeff Rowe, and it involves a family named the Mitchells, whose eldest daughter Katie (voiced by Abbi Jacobson) is leaving home for college, so her father (voiced by Danny McBride) decides that he’s going to drive her there and use it as the chance for a cross-country family trip. Meanwhile, it’s set up how the world becomes overrun with robots when a tech giant creates a new personal assistant.

I wasn’t sure whether I’d like this even though I’m generally a fan of all of Lord/Miller’s animated movies including both Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movies. It took me a little time to get into the family and the general premise. In some ways it reminded me of Edgar Wright’s The World’s End where it’s trying to merge these two disparate genres, but when they actually merge, it just doesn’t work as well as it may have seemed on paper. That worry is soon expunged, because Rianda finds ways to integrate the two ideas over time.

On the trip, the Mitchells run into their perfect family neighbors, the Poseys -- voiced by Krissy Teigen, John Legend and Charlyne Yi -- and you’d think they might be a bigger part of the movie then they actually are. I’m not sure I would have liked doing the family-vs.-family thing so soon after last year’s Croods movie, but I did love the dynamics of the Mitchells being a very relatable imperfect family with Danny McBride being particularly great voicing the family patriarch. It even has a really touching Pixar’s Up moment of Katie’s father watching old home movies of them together when she was younger.

In general, the filmmakers have assembled a pretty amazing voice cast that includes Conan O’Brien, Olivia Colman, Fred Armisen and Beck Bennett. Actually the weirdest voice choice is Katie’s younger brother Aaron, voiced by Rianda himself, and it sounds like a strange older man trying to be a kid, so it doesn’t work as well as others.

What I genuinely liked about Mitchells vs. the Machines is that it doesn’t go out of its way to talk down to overly sensitive kiddies or skimp on the action while also including elements that parents will enjoy as well, and to me, that’s the ideal of a family film.

While some might feel that The Mitchells vs. the Machines is fairly standard animated fare, it ends up being a fun cross between National Lampoon’s Vacation (cleaned up for the kiddies) with Will Smith’s I, Robot, actually, and yet, it somehow does work. It’s a shame that it’s really not getting a theatrical release except to be awards-eligible.

Next, we have two really great movies I saw at Sundance this year and really enjoyed immensely…

So as I mentioned, I first saw Nikole Beckwith’s TOGETHER TOGETHER (Bleecker Street), starring Ed Helms and Patti Harrison, at Sundance, and it was one of my favorite movies there with Helms playing a middle-aged single guy named Matt, who hires the much-younger Anna (Harrison) to be his surrogate, because he wants a baby. It’s a tough relationship thrown together due to each of their respective necessities.

Part of what drives the movie is how different Matt and Anna are, him being quite inappropriate with his suggestions and requests but not really having a working knowledge of female anatomy, pregnancy, delivery etc, but being really eager to raise a child and having the money that Anna clearly does not.

While I was familiar with Helms from The Office, The Hangover, etc. I really didn’t know Patti Harrison at all. Apparently, she’s a stand-up comic who hasn’t done a ton of acting, comedic or otherwise. That’s pretty amazing when you watch this movie and see her dry sardonic wit playing well against Helms’ generally lovable doofus. What I also didn’t realize and frankly, I don’t really see this as something even worth mentioning, is that she’s a trans woman playing a clearly CIS part, and she kills it. I certainly wouldn’t have known nor did it really affect my enjoyment of the movie, yet it still seems like such a brave statement on the part of the director and Harrison herself. The thing is that Harrison isn't just a terrific actress in her own right, but she brings out aspects of Helms that I never thought I would ever possibly see. (If it isn't obvious, I'm not the biggest fan of Helms.)

The movie has a great sense of humor, as it gets the most out of this awkward duo and then throws so many great supporting actors into the cast around them that it’s almost impossible not to enjoy the laughs. There’s the testy Sonogram tech, played by Sufe Bradshaw from Veep, who tries to maintain her composure and bite her tongue, but you can tell she’s having none of it. Others who show up, including Tig Notero, Norah Dunn and Fred Melamed. Just when you least expect it, Anna Conkle from Pen15, shows up as one of those delivery gurus that make the two of them feel even more awkward.

What’s nice is that this never turns into the typical meet cute rom-com that some might be expecting, as Beckwith’s film is more about friendship and companionship and being there for another, and the lack of that romantic spark even as chemistry develops between them is what makes this film so enjoyably unique. Beckwith’s sense of humor combined with her dynamic duo stars makes Together Together the best comedy about pregnancy probably since Knocked Up.

Another great Sundance movie and actually one of my two favorite recent documentaries AND one of the best movies I’ve seen this year is… you know what? I haven’t done this for a while so this is this week’s “CHOSEN ONE”!! (Fanfare)

(Photo courtesy: Robert Fuhring/Courtesy Sesame Workshop)

Marilyn (Mad Hot Ballroom) Agrilo’s STREET GANG: HOW WE GOT TO SESAME STREET (Screen Media/HBO Documentaries) is a fantastic doc about the long-running and popular PBS kids show that’s every bit as good as Morgan Neville’s Mr. Rogers doc, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Which was robbed of an Oscar nomination a few years back.

Let me make something clear on the day I’m writing this, April 21, 2021, that this is my favorite movie of the year, the only one I’ve already given a 10/10, and the end of the year might come around, and I have a feeling it will still be my #1.

You see, I was raised a Sesame Street kid. It’s not like I didn’t read or play outside or not get the attention of my parents or family, but there was so much of my happy, young life that I could attribute to my time watching Sesame Street, and when you watch Marily Agrilo’s amazing doc, it all comes rushing back. There is stuff in this movie that I haven’t seen in maybe 50 years but that I clearly remember laughing at, and there’s stuff that got into the mind of a young Ed that influenced my love of humor and music and just outright insanity. Sure, I loved The Muppet Show, too, but it was a different experience, so to watch a movie about the show with all sorts of stuff I had never seen or knew, that’s what makes Street Gang such a brilliant documentary, and easily one of the best we’ll see this year. Of that I have no doubt.

From the very origins of the show with Joan Cooney developing a show that will be entertaining and educational to the kids being plopped down in front of the TV in the ‘60s and ‘70s, so they can learn something, it’s just 1:46 of straight-up wonderment.

Besides getting to see a lot of the beloved actors/characters from the show and many of the surviving players like Carol Spinney aka Big Bird/Oscar, you can see how this show tried to create something that wasn’t just constantly advertising to young minds.

More than anything, the show is a love letter to the bromance between Jim Henson and Frank Oz, and you get to see so many of their bits and outtakes that make their Muppets like Burt and Ernie and Grover and, of course, Kermit, so beloved by kids that even cynical adults like myself would revert childhood just thinking about them. Then on top of that there’s the wonderful music and songs of Christopher Cerf and Joe Raposo and others, songs that would permeate the mainstream populace and be remembered for decades.

The movie is just a tribute to the joy of childhood and learning to love and sing and dance and just have fun and not worry about the world. I’m not sure if kids these days have anything like that.

It also gets quite sad, and I’m not embarrassed to say that in the sequence that covers the death of Mr. Hooper, I was outright bawling, and a few minutes later, when Jim Henson dies in 1990, I completely lost it. That’s how much this show meant to me and to so many people over the decades, and Brava to Ms. Agrilo for creating just the perfect document to everything that Sesame Street brought to so many people’s lives. This is easily the best documentary this year, and woe be to any Academy that doesn’t remember it at year’s end.

The other fantastic doc out this week, though I actually got to see it last year, is Lisa Rovner’s SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS (Metrograph Pictures), which will play at the Metrograph, both on demand and part of its Digital Live Screenings (available to join for just $5 a month!). This is an endlessly fascinating doc that looks at the women of electronic music and the early days of synthesizers and synthesis and some of the female pioneers. It’s narrated by Laurie Anderson, which couldn’t be the more perfect combination.

The movie covers the likes of Suzanne Cianni; Forbidden Planet composers Louis and Bebe Barron, who created the first all-electronic score for that movie; the amazing Wendy Carlos, who electronically scored one of my favorite movies of all time, Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange; Delia Derbyshire, who was also the subject of Caroline Catz’s short, Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and Legendary Tapes, which tragically, I missed when it premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March. Derbyshire was also famous for creating the iconic theme to “Doctor Who” while working at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in the '60s. Others who appear in the movie, either via archival footage or more recent interviews are Pauline Oliveros and Laurie Spiegel, who I was less familiar with.

The point is that as someone who was a fantastic for electronic music and synthesizers from a very early age and for someone who feels he’s very familiar with all angles of music, I learned a lot from watching Rovner’s film, and I enjoyed it just as much a second time, because the footage assembled proves what amazing work these women were doing and rarely if ever getting the credit for what they brought to electronic music, something that still resonates with the kids today who love things like EDM.

An endlessly fascinating film with so much great music and footage, Sisters with Transistors can be watched exclusively through the Metrograph’s Live Screening series, so don’t miss it!

Hitting Shudder this week is Chris Baugh’s BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL (Shudder), which I didn’t get a chance to watch before writing this week’s column, but Shudder in general has been knocking it out of the park with the amazing horror movies it’s been releasing on a weekly basis. This one involves a quarelling father and son on a road who must survive the night when they awaken an ancient Irish vampire.

Also hitting theaters and streamers and digital this week:

THE MARIJUANA CONSPIRACY (Samuel Goldwyn Films)

MY WONDERFUL WANDA (Zeitgeist Films)

WET SEASON (Strand Releasing)

CRESTONE (Utopia)

VANQUISH (Lionsgate)

BLOODTHIRSTY (Brainstorm)

SASQUATCH (Hulu)

SHADOW AND BONE (Netflix)

And that wraps up this week. Next week? No idea… I know there’s stuff coming out but I probably won’t think about it until after THE OSCARS!!!! On Sunday.

#movies #mortalkombat #demonslayer #weekendwarrior #reviews #sisters with transistors #togethertogether #mitchellsvsmachines #streaming

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agentnico · 4 years ago

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Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020) Review

If you haven’t yet came about this gem, look up the Russian submission for the cancelled Eurovision 2020. The group is called Little Big. You can thank me later.

Plot: When aspiring musicians Lars and Sigrit are given the opportunity to represent their country Iceland at the world's biggest song competition, they finally have a chance to prove that any dream worth having is a dream worth fighting for.

I do enjoy Will Ferrell’s comedy. He has one funny bone, I tell ya that much! Obviously he’s great in all the Adam McKay films such as Anchorman, Talladega Nights and Step Brothers, all of which are endlessly quotable, and I also enjoy his lesser known outings such as Casa de mi Padre and The Campaign (the latter being a scarily realistic portrayal of the bonkers nature of American politics for a stupid irreverent comedy), however recently he’s definitely exhibited a dip in quality, especially with Holmes & Watson. That movie...........that movie.................that......movie.....can I even call it a movie? I still have no idea how in the hell that thing got green-lit? Honestly, who at Sony Pictures picked up the script and thought “hey, look at this, what a funny and original take on the classic Conan Doyle stories, this is a farcical revolution, a slapstick masterpiece, a fantastical example of burlesque interpretation.....let’s make it!!” Whoever this spherical dumbass of a producer was, he’s an idiot who should question his choices more as Holmes & Watson is diabolically bad! It’s excruciatingly unfunny! There’s a gag involving Holmes wearing a Trump-supporting ‘Make America Great Again’ hat....speaks for itself really. The movie is poop! But enough about negatives, let’s set our eyes upon Netflix’s new comedy Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga about, you guessed it, the Eurovision Song Contest! Ironically, the movie is brought to us by the US, even though America has never partook in the real Eurovision contest, nor do many American citizens even know what Eurovision is, which is probably why film critics have been so negative towards this movie, as they don’t really know what Eurovision is all about. Yes, it’s about the music and the competition, but it’s also about the over-the-top set pieces, flamboyant costumes and general acts of weirdness that make Eurovision so enjoyable to watch. But does the new Netflix spoof recapture the magic?

The movie’s biggest negative is that for a comedy it’s not that funny. There are some solid jokes for sure, but there a lot more ones that fall flat than ones that hit. It seems that due to the movie being made in conjunction with Eurovision partners, the writing team avoided to take any true risks, so as to not offend anyone. The Eurovision contest has a lot within it to make fun at to be honest, and this movie avoids that in favour of typical stupid debauchery Ferrell is known for. Even the inclusion of Graham Norton, who actually commentates on Eurovision in real life is severely toned down, and his insults are nowhere as offensive and sarcastic as in real life. And yes, at first that may seem to come off as me saying that this film is a total pile of garbage that should be buried deep at the bottom of the dumpster hidden beneath various human excrement right next to a bunch of DVD copies of Holmes & Watson (grrrrrr!), but let me hit you back with a but! Yes, there’s always a but! No, I’m not referring to one’s backside, for starters that’s a different spelling so learn your English you uneducated son of a bee, please and thank you! Anyway, I digress, the but is that even though it lacks the promised comedic punch, the movie more than makes up with it’s element of romance and, more importantly its heartwarming feel-good nature. Especially in these very strange and confusing times that we find ourselves living in, one does not need a masterpiece in film-making......though I am very much still looking forward to Christopher Nolan’s Tenet...whenever that release date finally comes to fruition. But sometimes a fairly simple film with an abundance of cliches (there’s an obligatory ABBA reference) and terrible Icelandic accents but filled with good cheerfully innocent nature is enough to please one’s mind. And you can call me sentimental at my old age (I’m turning 23 in under a week so happy birthday to me!), but I’m not going to lie, I really dug this movie. I had a good time! As I said, it’s no masterpiece, far from it actually, but it is just so pleasing, joyful and upbeat to watch!

Interestingly enough, a few films came to my mind whilst I watched The Story of Fire Saga. There’s the obvious reference to Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, another satirical film that parodies the music industry, only there the comedy worked better for me. Then also the movie has a surprisingly catchy soundtrack, with a lot of the song choices feeling like they came out straight from The Greatest Showman. There’s that element of oomph to each tune that really makes it pop! Not going to lie, I’ve been listening to the soundtrack on repeat ever since I’ve watched the movie! Also there’s a certain scene that’s a straight up knock off of the Riff-Off scene from Pitch Perfect. Then the more surprising connection is actually last year’s film Yesterday, where a man wakes up one day and he’s the only one who remembers The Beatles and their songs. The connecting thread-line is that in that movie too there is a woman who is unabashedly in love for the main guy, but he doesn’t notice it as he’s so focused on his music dream. I’ll be the first to say I did not like Yesterday. It was very disappointing in light of the calibre of talent that was involved, with Danny Boyle directing and Richard Curtis penning the script. The romantic side of that movie came as a bit of a distraction that got in the way of the potential of the main story-line involving a world without The Beatles. However in Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga that romantic thread is actually what holds the whole thing together so well. This is easily the most romantic movie of this year, and I know, I’m surprised to say so myself, seeing as this is a Will Ferrell motion picture!

Speaking of Will Ferrell, he’s decent in the movie, if you like Will Ferrell, as he does his usual shtick, though looking unrecognisable due to the ridiculous wig. However it seems Ferrell himself realises his co-stars bring more to the table in terms of acting compared to him, as he devotes a lot of scenes to Rachel McAdams and Dan Stevens. Rachel McAdams is adorable in this movie, with such a pure and baby-like personality, and it was constantly a pleasure seeing her light up the screen. Though it is Dan Stevens who steals the show as an antagonist that is surprisingly not as villainous as first anticipated, and turns out to be a cute puppy-dog eyed Russian lion! Also, that hair style suits him well.......maybe too well. Appearances from Demi Lovato and Pierce Brosnan are welcome too, though heavily under-used. Speaking of the latter, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga and the Mamma Mia! films are now part of the Pierce-Brosnan-has-a-dead-wife-and-ABBA-is-heavily-involved-somehow cinematic universe.

As a whole Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is nothing groundbreaking, but a truly good time, with a soundtrack filled with low-key bangers, a visual feast to the eyes due to showcasing the gorgeous visages of the Icelandic landscapes, and is easily Will Ferrell’s best film in years! Especially with that surprisingly emotional finale. Yes, this movie is ridiculously stupid, though it’s more ridiculous how emotionally hard-hitting the ending is. The song “Husavik” does for this movie what “Shallow” did for A Star Is Born. So I say go watch this film and embrace its warm comforting feels. Perfect for a date night, me and my girlfriend can attest to that!

Overall score: 6/10

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doomonfilm · 4 years ago

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Memories : Top 15 Films of 2020

If 2020 taught movie fans anything, it was that we shouldn’t take things for granted. On the dollars and cents side of things, movie theaters were already facing an uphill battle to stay sustainable, but the “shelter-in-place” practice of March and beyond decimated box office returns, with many theaters yet to reopen (if they will open at all). In terms of famous names and faces, the list of those who passed away featured numerous icons : Kobe Bryant, Kirk Douglas, Max von Sydow, Honor Blackman, Carl Reiner, Ennio Morricone, John Saxon, Wilford Brimley, Chadwick Boseman, Sean Connery, Tiny Lister Jr., Adolfo ‘Shabba Doo’ Quinones and many more transitioned to the great beyond. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Shudder and a number of other streaming services saw themselves step into the forefront of the entertainment provider realm, with Warner Brothers and a handful of other studios making announcements that they will be following suit for at least 2021, if not for good.

With all of this uncertainty and chaos, however, the year 2020 was a surprisingly strong one, in my opinion, when it came to cinematic output... so much so, in fact, that aside from a number of Honorable Mentions, my list of top films was expanded to 15 in order to accommodate all of my choices. For anyone who has checked out my lists from previous years, you will know that I did not see every film released this year, but I did make my best effort to cover as wide a range of films as possible. Enjoy the list, and be sure to support film in whatever medium you are able to moving forward so that it can thrive.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

The 40-Year-Old Version (dir. Radha Blank) A nice little personal film that spoke to my hip-hop sensibility, as well as that ever-present awareness of the inevitability of age, and how it can skew our perspective in regards to our achievements.

Ava (dir. Tate Taylor) This isn’t the action film that’s going to reinvent the wheel, but if you look at action films like wheels, this is a quality wheel. Outside of Common, I couldn’t really find much to shoot down... this will definitely be one I consider the next time I have company and we’re looking for something fun to check out.

Bill & Ted Face The Music (dir. Dean Parisot) I honestly would have been satisfied with just two films in this franchise, but surprisingly, a third entry was created that didn’t ruin my overall enjoyment of the previous two films. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter jumped in without missing a beat, a healthy dose of familiar faces popped back up, and the new cast additions weren’t too jarring... it’s nice to know that a pair of my favorite childhood films are officially now part of a trilogy.

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (dir. Jason Woliner) This was possibly the most surprising release of 2020... outside of a couple of news blips that Sacha Baron Cohen made during production, not a lot about this film was leaked prior to its release. For such a dated character and a seemingly outdated style of humor, Borat once again exposed the simplest parts of society in an incredibly insightful (albeit cringey as all get-out) manner.

Guns Akimbo (dir. Jason Lei Howden) One of the most fun films of 2020. Somewhere, the creative minds behind Nerve are wishing that they’d made this film instead.

Henrietta and Her Dismal Display of Affection (dir. Jeffrey Garcia) Jeffrey Garcia is the homie, and I’ve had the pleasure of being in a number of his short films, so when he announced his intentions to write and shoot a feature film in 2020, I was completely on-board. Miraculously, he was able to film the movie while the world was being ravaged by COVID-19, and though I cannot publicly announce details yet, this film has definitely already met (and likely succeeded) his expectations.

The Midnight Sky (dir. George Clooney) With each film that George Clooney directs, I realize more and more than he is an old soul trapped in a body idolized by the new school of film. That being said, it’s nice to know that there are directors out there willing to embrace patient, silent and contemplative moments while simultaneously withholding from force-feeding viewers exposition.

Tenet (dir. Christopher Nolan) This was possibly the most anticipated release of the year, considering it was the king of the IMAX release crowd in its pre-release promotion. After a small delay due to COVID-19, it was one of the first films released in hopes of testing the movie-going waters during what was sure to be a diminished period of time, which probably hurt its numbers. Too many, the film was confusing, and the nit-picking was fierce from the criticism contingency, but in all honesty, this was pretty impressive Nolan fare... certainly a good second movie in a Nolan double feature.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (dir. Aaron Sorkin) I cannot tell a lie... I was hugely impressed with how Sorkin managed to reel his personality and voice back in order to let this well-known, controversial moment in time present itself. Sorkin has a tendency to be the star of his films, be it when he is in the writer or director role, but for this film, he managed to focus the best parts of his skillset into a highly respectful, educational and inspiring tale that fit the tumultuous summer we endured.

VHYes (dir. Jack Henry Robbins) I remember seeing this trailer as 2019 was coming to a close, and it was a film high on my list of desired viewing. Then 2020 reared its ugly, stupid head and many releases disappeared into obscurity or found themselves delayed. Luckily, this one slipped through the cracks and found a home in the streaming world, which in all honesty, suited its presentation very well. One of the most delightfully weird films of the year, hands down.

Vivarium (dir. Lorcan Finnegan) Of all the films cut from my Top 15 list, this was the toughest cut to make. I went into the film totally blind (with Jesse Eisenberg and my respect for his acting chops being the sole selling point), but this film really hit a lot of my buttons... it’s trippy as can be, there is a character that is freakishly unique and wholly unnerving, and the production design leaves a lasting impression. Don’t let the Honorable Mention designation fool you... this one is a winner.

Wonder Woman 1984 (dir. Patty Jenkins) The Christmas gift that the masses collectively decided that they did not want. Much like Ava, there is one glaring aspect of this film that I could have done without, but otherwise, I found this to be an enjoyable film. Gal Gadot was made for this role, while Kristen Wiig and Pedro Pascal stepped up to the plate and impressed. If you’re looking to be blown away, the Wonder Woman franchise isn’t the smartest place to go, but if you’re looking for entertainment, there’s plenty of it here.

THE TOP 15 FILMS OF 2020

15. Mignonnes (dir. Maïmouna Doucouré) This one started off the year with plenty of controversy. What was an award-winning tale about womanhood and the difficulties surrounding coming of age in an ever-changing and evolving world quickly devolved into a campaign to ban the film (and Netflix). Many people overlooked the film as a cautionary tale about what access to the Internet and the sexually-charged nature in which women are portrayed can do to developing girls, instead choosing to accuse the film of being fodder for malicious types seeking to exploit the sexualizing of young women. More than anything, in my opinion, Mignonnes served as an example of our outrage-fueled culture and the way it tends to skew our perspective and/or our ability to take art at face value.

14. His House (dir. Remi Weekes) As I’ve mentioned many times over the past week or so on this blog, horror films were one of the few genres that found a benefit from the film industry’s transition to streaming services for primary access to film. While a number of traditional horror films received notice, His House took the opportunity to not only make a pure horror film, but one that spoke on racism and the conditions that asylum-seekers and refugees face. The film is well-acted, the production value is high quality, and it’s paced beautifully... while not the highest film on this list, it is certainly one I will encourage others to see as time goes by.

13. All Day and a Night (dir. Joe Robert Cole) When human nature reared its ugly head during COVID-19 in the form of numerous race-related killings, multitudes of businesses quickly adopted the Black Lives Matter mantra, with film distributors and streaming services taking advantage of the moment to produce and release content relevant to cultural and social awareness. Netflix was no different, and of the many films they released in the wake of the harrowing events, All Day and a Night is the one that feels the most sincere and honest in its approach and presentation. The streets of Oakland are presented with a vast array of characters, each with complex backgrounds and states of mind, all of which helps the viewer understand the pressure many minorities live with and process on a daily basis.

12. She Dies Tomorrow (dir. Amy Seimetz) Execution is king, even when applied to the simplest of premises, and She Dies Tomorrow is a shining example of this. In a very John Cassavetes move, director Amy Seimetz took her payment from her appearance in Pet Sematary and used it to fund a personal project that more than likely would have been ignored by studio heads. The result is a hypnotic, entrancing and haunting film where stillness and anticipation play antagonist, while we as viewers feel the need to transpose ourselves into the protagonists we are presented due to their stilted but emotional performances. Hopefully this one finds some notoriety in the cult classic realm as the years pass.

11. The Vast of Night (dir. Andrew Patterson) For a debut film, The Vast of Night handles itself with a surprising amount of confidence in its vision. The immersion is nearly instant as we are first placed in the premise of a TV show, and then a 1950′s town, but once the actors and camera get going, it’s up to us as viewers to strap in for the ride. The story is deeply intriguing, the performances are strong enough to carry a very dialogue heavy movie, and the final act is chilling in its reveals. I will be surprised if this one finds its way to a Best Original Screenplay nomination due to it being a debut film from a relatively unknown writer/director, but if it manages to get the nomination it will certainly be a well-deserved one.

10. Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (dir. Cathy Yan) The movie that broke the list. If someone would have told me in 2019 that a film directly connected to Suicide Squad would be anywhere on a Top Films list I curated, I would have laughed dead in their face, and yet, here we are. It’s like every good idea that was poorly executed in Suicide Squad found new life in Birds of Prey, which makes the film not only an entertaining watch, but a satisfying one. Not only is Margot Robbie perfect in this film (as well as given a break on the exploitative costuming), but Mary Elizabeth Winstead arguably takes a stab at stealing the show with her performance. Don’t let the DCEU association fool you... Birds of Prey is the real deal.

9. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (dir. Eliza Hittman) Probably the most contemplative film on the entire list, and impressive in its nature for sure. To my knowledge, the cast is made up of mostly unknowns (unless I’m sleeping on actors and actresses, which has been known to happen), and as a result, a tough slice of life to swallow is presented in an extremely grounded nature. Sidney Flanigan gives a powerful performance, hopefully the first of many.

8. Possessor [Uncut] (dir. Brandon Cronenberg) Easily the most “what the f-ck” film on this list, and certainly one worthy of the Cronenberg name. Andrea Riseborough has been on my radar since Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and Mandy, and seeing her in a lead role confirms her talent. I’m a sucker for science-fiction films that don’t rely on digital effects and elaborate set pieces, and Possessor rings both of those bells with a vengeance. I watched the uncut version, which has a couple of extremely brutal sequences that will unnerve even the most hardened viewer, but these sequences only serve to drive home the lost nature of Tasya, our protagonist. This one isn’t for everyone, but for those who can stomach a bit off graphicness and process a narrative that doesn’t spoon-feed you answers, this one is a must see.

7. Da 5 Bloods (dir. Spike Lee) Spike Lee has always been a huge influence on me as both an aspiring filmmaker and a fan of the medium, but I’d be lying if I told you that his last decade was a memorable one. Outside of BlacKkKlansman, Lee has found himself falling short of his vision more often than not, but Da 5 Bloods is a tonal and stylistic bullseye. Fans of Lee will dig it, fans of Vietnam films will dig it, and anyone who had an inkling of respect or admiration for Chadwick Boseman will be moved. If Lee continues to make films as good as this one, he may find an entirely new generation of fans as a result.

6. Soul (dir. Pete Docter) As mentioned at the top of this list, people love to try and sink films due to their own personal agendas, and Soul found itself in the crosshairs prior to its late 2020 release. Many people were upset that a minority character would not only spend most of the movie as a blue blob, but would also seemingly serve as a tool for another character’s “salvation”. That being said, once Soul dropped, anybody with common sense dropped those stances and realized that Pixar had not only made a stunningly beautiful film, but one that likely spoke to adults more than children. Plain and simple, Soul is a bonafide instant classic.

5. Kajillionaire (dir. Miranda July) If Evan Rachel Wood doesn’t win an Oscar for her performance in Kajillionaire (or at least garner a nomination), Hollywood needs to collectively have their head checked. Every year worth its salt has a weird, quirky but loveable film, and Miranda July more than succeeded in making one for 2020. The humor, both physical and dialogue-based, is on point, and the bittersweet nature of the story is gut-wrenching as the film progresses. This one was probably the biggest surprise for 2020 in terms of prior awareness versus post-watch admiration.

4. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (dir. George C. Wolfe) The final film of Chadwick Boseman’s short but prolific career is one that allowed him to exist in the wake of his reality, making his performance powerful and (seemingly) cathartic. He is surrounded by supreme talent on all sides, as there are no weak performances in this film, and despite it essentially being a play shot for film, it feels far from limited, contained or constrained. Not only does it speak on larger issues of the commodification of Black pain and talent, but it may serve as a vehicle for a posthumous Oscar for Boseman.

3. The Devil All The Time (dir. Antonio Campos) This was the first Netflix original that made me really and truly respect them as a film distributor. The list of talent for The Devil All The Time is truly impressive, and Tom Holland knocked his lead role out of the park. Robert Pattinson is great as always, and the way that the story winds back into itself keeps you locked in and connected until the credits roll. For something that came out so many months ago, it’s respectable that it was able to hold such a high position on a list that was as fluid as any I’ve ever put together.

2. Mank (dir. David Fincher) For a time, this was the hands down film of the year on my list. Gary Oldman has basically become a “can do no wrong” actor, and his performance was amplified by David Fincher’s ability to emulate the look, sound and feel of a bygone Hollywood era. On top of this, the built in intrigue that comes with handling anything remotely connected to Orson Welles is present, making Mank almost feel like a companion piece to the prolific film that is Citizen Kane. If The Devil All The Time was a victory for Netflix, then Mank was the win that put them into a true spot as contenders in the future of film distribution.

1. I'm Thinking of Ending Things (dir. Charlie Kaufman) Where does one even begin with Charlie Kaufman? Time and again, he proves to be one of the most truly unique voices to gain fame. For I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Kaufman seemingly returns to his foundation of odd, offbeat love stories, only to take us on a journey of truly mind-bending and psyche-warping proportions. Of all the movies on this list, this is the one that almost demands repeat viewings, as one must have an idea of the entire journey before they can understand the individual aspects laid out. If dialogue isn’t your thing, then this one may not hold you, but that would be a shame, as this beautiful mystery stands head and shoulders above the rest of 2020′s stellar output.

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bitletsanddrabbles · 5 years ago

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Theater vs. Books

One thing that has routinely shocked me in the Downton Abbey fandom is how little people seem to know about how TV works, particularly when compared to written fiction.

Examined logically, this should probably not be surprising. I’ve been involved off and on in school plays, church plays, acting camps, etc. for as long as I can remember. I actually went into university on an acting ticket, only to switch when I realized I’d get ulcers if I tried to make a living at it. Between writing classes and Dad going “Honey! The Vacation Bible School skit scripts are terrible again this year! Can you fix them?” I have way more scripting know how than I realize, not to mention directing since I then directed all the skits. I took a few combined study classes in college that involved film and, of course, my BA is creative writing, which does not make me the be all and end all of writing knowledge (there are people who haven’t taken a writing class in their lives who can out write me), but does mean that I have more idea what the different parts of a story are and how they fit together than someone who just took high school English.

However, one of my personal neurosis is that I know the education system I went through is substandard and that I am bad at research, therefore I expect the entire world to know more than I do. From a logical stand point this is rubbish, but try telling my psyche that when someone talks about how bad an actor is and then holds up a badly directed piece with a lousy script. (Guy in high school who insisted Nicole Kidman couldn’t act because Batman Forever, I am so looking at you.)

I mean, really. It doesn’t matter how much I’ve done or how much I know. If I am the only person on the planet who did not, at age five, win an academy award for my first screen play, which I also produced, directed, and starred it, everyone else should know more than me.

Don’t think I can’t see that trophy you’re hiding behind your back.

So for the sake of spreading awareness of what education I do have and helping my neurotic little mind cope with the reality that I’m not the least education person on earth, I’d like to make a few points on theater - both stage and film - versus the written word.

- Theater is an incredibly limited art form. Unlike prose where your narrator can spend pages taking you deep into a character’s psyche, most theater is restricted to communicating entirely thorough what can be seen and said in dialogue or monologue. Some theatrical pieces do use a narrator, but a lot of disadvantages to this in an acted piece (it creates pacing issues, people find it off putting, etc.), so it’s not common. Now, since people perceive emotions differently based on their personal experience, getting an entire audience on board with a nuanced performance is basically impossible. Take sarcastic characters, for example. In a book, you can say that a character made a sarcastic joke that wasn’t meant to be malicious, but that people got offended anyway. Different people will read it different ways - some people will insist it was malicious despite the explicit statement it wasn’t, etc. - but the story has told you the impression you’re intended to get. In theater, your actor has to be sarcastic, the other actors react poorly, and even if you write in, “I was only joking, geeze”, it’s up to the audience to decide whether that was true or not.

So no matter how good your actors, directors, and writers are, it will always be tricky to nail down the intended authorial intent of any one scene or character.

- Theater requires a large budget. Writing does not. Seriously, these days technology is all about multitasking. It’s pretty much gotten to the point that you can buy a toaster and write a story on it. The most expensive books to write I know of are the early Harry Potter novels because JKR wrote in notebooks with pens. Oh yeah, and she bought coffee to drink while she did it. Now, you can argue that computers still cost a fair amount of money, but they’re pretty much a one time expenditure (unless you insist on upgrading or you break it or something basically not-inherent to computer owning).

Every time an actor walks on a stage or screen, they earn money. Every time a character changes clothes, that costs money. Every time there’s a scene (mostly stage) or location (mostly film) change, that costs money. Every time something catches fire, that costs money. Every rehearsal costs money. Theater is one, big shopping list.

- Theater has time limits. Books do not. One of the things in the budget for a theatrical production is space for that production to be seen. It’s a stage or a park or a movie theater or TV air time. All of that costs money and how much you can buy depends not only on how much money you have, but how much time the owners of the theater, park, TV station, etc. are willing to give you.

This means unlike book editors and publishers who can look at a work so stinking long no one would pay for it or want to hold it up long enough to read and go “Sorry, Mr. Tolkien, but we’re going to have to break this into three parts,” the people writing scripts need to try and meet a strict time limit - not shorter, not longer - and if they go over, the editors have to actually take stuff out.

The closest thing writing really has to this is things like drabble challenges where you have to tell a story in an exact number of words. When these first hit Live Journal they were popular because they were a challenge. When they started losing favor, it was because 90% of the time you wound up sacrificing good writing for word count.

Theater, thankfully, is generally a bit more forgiving, but still. Telling a segment of story in a one hour time slot - or a full story in two hours - is not a walk in the park.

- Theater is not a one pony show. There are so many times I have seen people criticize an actor or director or script writer for something that is blatantly not their fault (see above), that I can’t even begin to count them. Theater is a group effort. If someone blows their lines, it’s not the script writer’s fault. If a director insists that an actor ham it up, that is not a reflection of the actor’s skills. There are times when directors actively screw up the action and the script writer doesn’t get a chance to fix it. An example of this is Downton Abbey, season two, where Anna and Ethel were supposed to be fluffing the couch cushions - the part you sit on - by dropping them. This was filmed as them dropping the throw pillows, which made no sense, and by the time Julian Fellows got to see the rushes, there wasn’t time (or money) to redo the scene. So we’re stuck with two maids who apparently don’t know how to fluff pillows and, if you do know how to fluff pillows and have not read the scripts with authors commentary, an audience who assumes that the writer was the person who got it wrong.

- In theater, especially film, mistakes are forever. This is more or less true in traditionally published writing as well, but it’s amendable. If an author makes a typo or gets off in their timeline or forgets where Dr. Watson’s war wound was in the last story, it’s set in stone for the already printed edition, but can, if the author so chooses, be corrected in later printings. Similarly, in stage theater a gaffed line is gaffed and there’s no un-gaffing it, but you can get it right in the next show.

An error in film is set in stone until someone decides to do a remake.

- In no institutionalized story telling medium is the audience comprised of one person. Unless someone is telling you a bedtime story, the story is not meant to cater solely to you. In fanfiction, which is amateur by definition, you can appeal to as niche a group as you like. In professional story telling, you need to appeal to as broad an audience as possible if you want to be successful. In theater, with it’s time constraints, this means every time spent on one plot line is time that can’t be spent on another plot line. In order to please the fans of character A, you have to take story time away from the fans of character B and vice versa. It’s a balancing act where you try to please everyone, and pleasing everyone is impossible. And everyone I’ve seen say “We really didn’t see enough of (x) in this show! We were robbed!” has a plot (y) that “served no purpose” that could have been sacrificed for their satisfaction, but guess what? Someone loved plot (y), wanted to see more of it, and thinks (x) could have been cut out to make that happen. The reason the creator gave us a little bit of both instead of a lot of one and nothing of the other is not because the don’t care about the fans of (x) or (y), but because they care equally about both of them.

They have to.

It’s their job.

#theater #film #writing #books #how things work

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marcmyworks · 5 years ago

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Quentin Tarantino is one of the best directors of both the 20th and 21st Century, which started with his first wide release film in 1992. He has just recently released his 9th (or 10th depending on your point of view) film, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood to rave reviews. As one of my favourite directors, I have decided to list rank each of his films. I want to first state that I love everything this man puts out, just some more than others. Lets begin.

*Spoilers below*

10. The Hateful Eight (2015)

The Hateful Eight is the least successful in Tarantino’s repertoire and I don’t mean financially. This film just seems to have little to no likeability, and before you say it, I do understand that each character is ‘hateful’ but at times it seems quite forced.

Though well written and acted, it feels that the shocking moments are put in there simply to shock rather than provide any interest. We have the story of eight characters trapped in a cabin during a snowstorm, the film is Western themed, there is a revenge plot as well a bounty hunter. I really do not think this is a bad film in any regard, and it even feels like the sister film to Reservoir Dogs, but in terms of style and content it feels like a mishmash of things the audience has seen before from the Director, like his greatest hits, rather than a new and original story.

9. Death Proof (2007)

A lot of critics, and even Tarantino himself, have put this as the lowest ranking of his films on their list, I disagree. This may not be the most fleshed out story, but it is one of the most fun. I am ranking the unrated version of the film, as the theatrical version was cut down from its 113 minutes to 87 minutes to be incorporated as the Grindhouse double feature (with Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror). The shorter version is the one critics saw and I don’t believe it does the full film justice.

Death Proof is inspired by Grindhouse revenge films such as I Spit on Your Grave and include a multitude of young starlets and even re-launched the career of actor Kurt Russell. Overall the film is quite good though there are instances where it is quite obvious that a man wrote the female dialogue, which in the Me-Too age isn’t as acceptable. An example of this can be read here, where this character speaks about her father:

“Look, he’s totally harmless and cute as a bug's ear! But you know, when he's got a bunch of half-naked poontang walking the floor of his lake house, he just likes to pay us a visit and make sure we got everything we need.”

8. Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Tarantino’s first full length film is the smallest scale of his career as most of it takes place in one room. Though the scale is small, the dialogue and action are immense, the characters fleshed out and, in most ways, stands the test of time. The film was well received by audiences and made more than twice its meager budget, but at times it is quite obvious this was shot by a new director still formulating his style. Tim Roth (as Mr. Orange) is excellent as the newest member of the gang and his relationship with Harvey Keitel (Mr. White) is one of the strongest bromances in cinema history.

7. Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood (2019)

Though advertised as an accurate biographical account of the Manson Murders in 1960s Hollywood, this film is actually more fictional, less about these murders and more a love letter to the actors of that time. The story is centred around director Roman Polanski and wife Sharon Tate’s fictional neighbour, actor Rick Dalton and his stunt man Cliff Booth (based screen legends Steve McQueen and Burt Reynolds and the latter’s stunt-double Hal Needham). The film explores how the two are struggling to adapt to the ever-changing Hollywood, paralleling with the growth of the Manson family who are interested with the Tate/Polanski household. Though a long film, it does quite well at showcasing the struggles of actors in Hollywood, the indulgence of the rich and the rise of a fanatic cult.

6. Jackie Brown (1997)

In the 1990s Tarantino was one of the biggest Directors around, he had won an Oscar for his writing and audiences were anxiously awaiting his third film. After acquiring the film rights to Elmore Leonard’s novel ‘Rum Punch’, Tarantino started writing Jackie Brown with the intent on giving the script to another director; however, Leonard loved the script so much Tarantino decided to direct himself.

Jackie Brown takes inspiration from Blaxploitation films like Coffy and Foxy Brown, though with a slower pace and using much less action. Pam Grier, star of both the aforementioned films, was Tarantino’s only choice for the lead role and to this day he is amazed that she was not nominated for an Oscar. The film is a slow burn compared to Tarantino’s previous two movies and does have its issues with pacing and story consistency but does contain more humour.

5. Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)

The Kill Bill films are two of the coolest of Tarantino’s career; from the opening Klingon proverb, to the Pussy Wagon to the schlocky gore, this film was every film geek’s dream. Tarantino promised Uma Thurman that her birthday present would be the lead in his next film and a year after promising her this he delivered her the script. Originally conceived as one long epic film, it was split into two by production as it was felt the first half of the film had a different tone to the second. Producers also wanted to ensure it was a box office success and a four-hour film in the modern age was too much of a gamble. The first Kill Bill provides the groundwork for what is rarely seen in Hollywood, an even better sequel.

4. Django Unchained (2012)

Django is similar to the original film from 1966 in name only, as this version focuses on pre-American Civil War racism, slavery and the liberation a slave named Django. The film feels more like an homage to one of the biggest budget exploitation film of all time, Mandingo. It's a very simple story of a man who is trying to save his wife and along the way befriends a bounty hunter who aids him in his quest, but it is effective as it is a criticism of racism that still continues in the United States. Jamie Foxx does an excellent job portraying the titular character with Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson wonderfully playing the supporting roles.

3. Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)

I will say there is a large debate in the fan community whether the Kill Bill films should be ranked together as one film (as Tarantino states they should be), or whether they are two separate entities of a franchise as well which one is the better of the two. Upon first watching the films I was a bit disappointed Volume 2 did not have the same amount of camp violence as the first, as this film feels to be more a Spaghetti Western revenge film rather than a Samurai thriller. However, upon the re-watching the film multiple times it is quite obvious through the dialogue, storytelling and excellent cinematography that this is the superior film and is a contender for the top spot of Tarantino’s filmography.

2. Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Inglorious Basterds is one of the films that not only has incredible star power but also has amazing gravitas. The film made Irish actor Michael Fassbender and German actor Christoph Waltz popular with American audiences with the latter’s excellent performance winning him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. The Basterds, a team of Jewish mercenary’s who capture, interrogate and kill Nazis and are played by a group of talents including Brad Pitt, Eli Roth and B.J. Novak. They are up against the evil Hans Landa (Waltz) also known as “The Jew Hunter”, a Nazi Colonel who is employed to ensure security for a film event being attended by Adolf Hitler. The film itself is a tribute to American war propaganda films from the 1940s, and though one of his most brutal, is truly one of Tarantino’s best writing efforts.

1. Pulp Fiction (1994)

I know this is the obvious choice, but with good reason. Pulp Fiction is the first film anyone thinks of when they think Tarantino. Made up of seemingly random story vignettes and inspired by pulp magazines, Tarantino devised to make a film made up of simple short stories that only later the viewer could see were actually intertwined. Tarantino proved he could make interesting films on a smaller scale with his critically acclaimed film Reservoir Dogs and was able to bring in major stars such as Bruce Willis, Uma Thurman, John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, the latter of whom would star in or have roles in most of his pictures. The film was a box-office success and won several awards including the Academy Award for best writing. Though Tarantino has had many excellent films in his career, Pulp Fiction will always be the most iconic and original.

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powerstrangerdacre · 6 years ago

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Stupid, little game

Summary: “Hi, I’m Tom Hiddleston and this is Y/F/N Y/L/N and we’re in the hot seat to answer Ellen’s burning questions.”

Pairing: Tom Hiddleston x Reader

Warning: none? a bit of swearing? (like... 2 cursewords)

Word Count: 2700+

Requested: YES! MY FIRST REQUEST! AHH!

AN: Thank you so much @imnotusedtobeingloved for requesting this! I had a blast while writing it!! And thanks to @theoneanna for proof-reading this for me! Love ya! Hope you all like this and thank you so much for reading! Please criticize away! Tell me what I can do to improve my writing skills! Thank you!

She sits in her chair, leg bouncing up and down as she waits for him. Tom’s late, and it only serves to make her nerves even worse.

Sure, no one would think that Y/F/N Y/L/N, an international theatre star, would get nervous because of a stupid interview, but there she was, feeling like a sinner in church, about to enter the confessional. Only, the priest wasn’t even there yet!

She looks at the cameras in front of her, seeing her expression mirrored in the lenses. Her eyebrows are furrowed, her lips pressed into a thin line in an attempt to not bite at her nails. She shakes her head, thinking this can’t be worse than any other interview she’d done before, which only pushes more thoughts into her head.

Of course this isn’t the first time she’d done an interview. Of course she shouldn’t be worried about what was about to happen. Only, this wasn’t just any interview. This was her first interview on the Ellen Show. She remembers how she’d dreamt about this when she first started acting, and now here she was, about to reach that point in her career.

The fact that it isn’t the actual live version of the show kind of serves to soothe her worries, but at the same time also gives her more to worry about. A live interview is scripted. She gets to know what the questions will be before she even enters the stage where the interviewer shoots them at her. She has some type of control over the situation.

Ellen’s burning questions is everything but that. Unscripted, unedited, uncensored, unnerving. So, even if it is just a YouTube special, it definitely gets her blood boiling.

The door opened, and in he walked, 15 minutes late. If she thought about it, it wasn’t that bad. Maybe he was busy. Maybe he had an interview right before this. Maybe traffic was being a bitch and he couldn’t make it in time no matter how hard he tried. But Y/N would not have it. Already nervous and sweating, she shook her head at her co-worker and rolled her eyes as he made his way over to his seat, saying sorry to everyone but her. God, she hated Tom.

When she first heard that she would be working with him on the new Loki series, she was ecstatic. She had dreamt about working with Marvel and this was the epitome of awesome, since she had heard about how great of an actor Tom was and she idolized the guy. But, as most of these type of encounters go, she was left disappointed.

The first time she met him was on the day where they had their chemistry read. Hellos were exchanged before they both sat down at a table with the producers and writers and casting directors for the series. It was nerve-wracking. She had never acted in anything but a theatre play before, and she knew this would be way more demanding.

So, she sat down, looked at Tom who seemed more indifferent than anyone she had ever seen in her life. He didn’t even spare her a second glance, let alone bother getting to know her.

But, she read her lines, he read his, they clicked while in character, the filming started the very next week, and now here they were promoting a series which had both their names distinguishably written in its trailer. Tom Hiddleston as Loki, the god of mischief and lies, and Y/F/N Y/L/N as Eir, a goddess and Valkyrie, who somehow managed to sneak her way into the prince’s heart.

Y/N watches as Tom takes his seat, his eyes shifting between her and the cameraman. He gives the cameraman a nod and they start rolling. She is left gob-smacked at how easily he commands the room, even without a word.

God, she hates Tom. She hates stupid, tall, handsome, British Tom. And more than anything, she hates that she can’t hate him, no matter how much of an ass he is.

“Hi, I’m Y/F/N Y/L/N,” he says, making her turn to him, expression shocked as ever.

“And I’m Tom Hiddleston,” she says, taking the lead from him. If he was playing a game, she would definitely show him how to change the rules. “And we’re in the hot seat to answer Ellen’s burning questions.” She smiles at the camera, waiting for Tom to ask the first question as it appears on the teleprompter.

“What is the most rebellious thing you did as a teenager?” Tom asks. He looks to Y/N, the smirk on his lips a dare to her.

“I took my dad’s credit card and bought myself school supplies,” she answers easily, pressing the red button in front of her.

Tom shakes his head, the smirk on his lips never failing. “Really?” he asks.

“What?” She turns to him, only to catch him rolling his eyes. “I was a good kid, okay?” she laughs. This was the part she knew she had to play. It needed to look like they were the best of friends, otherwise some gossip show would definitely milk this for all it’s worth. “What about you, mister ‘vanilla’?”

His tongue pokes out of his mouth, going over his bottom lip as he thinks about his answer. She can’t help but stare as he takes his hand and rubs at his beard. Her heart is definitely pumping more blood than it should be. “You’re not supposed to think, just say the first thing that comes to mind,” she says, making him shake his head.

“I went skinny dipping.” He pressed the red button, changing the question on the screen.

Y/N was sure she was as red as the buttons in front of them, the image of a young, wet, naked Tom running through her head. “You’ve gotta read the next question, love,” he says, a chuckle punctuating his sentence.

“What do you wear to bed at night?” she asks, shaking her head as her palm finds her face. This would be the death of her.

“Well, if you must know. I sleep naked,” he says. “What about you, Y/N?” And there is his tongue again, out to play.

“I wear pajamas, like a normal person.” She presses the button, laughing, prompting Tom to do the same and the question changes once again.

“What is your favorite curse word?” Tom reads, leaning back into his seat, seemingly more relaxed.

“Easy, fuck me.” Y/N presses her button, turning to Tom, whose left eyebrow is raised in question. “I like to keep it all directed towards me, y’know. They say you get what you give, so I’d rather not put that energy out into the universe.” Y/N laughs, waiting for Tom to answer.

“Mine’s shit or cunt. It depends on the day.” He says, pressing the button.

The question changes and this time Y/N’s eyes widen. “What body part of your co-star do you like the most?” she reads.

“Hmm… well… this isn’t degrading at all. I’m not just a piece of meat, you know?” Tom says. He turns to look at Y/N, who’s chewing on her lip. Oh, this was something he wasn’t expecting. “I think… Your smile. I definitely like your smile.”

Tom watched as pink dusted her cheeks, her lips pulling into a tinier version of said smile.

“I like Tom’s work ethic,” she answers, pressing the button in front of her, getting ready to read the question.

Tom stops her. “Wait, wait. It says ‘body part’, I don’t think my work ethic is exactly a body part, love.” Tom smirks.

Y/N shakes her head. This was the most conversation he had ever held with her and he’s trying to make her divulge something she’s not comfortable with. “Sorry to disappoint you Tommy, but you’re a workaholic. Work ethic is etched on your face every single day.” She smirks as his expression falls. “But, if you must know, I like your eyes.”

Tom’s lips pull into a smirk, his eyes never leaving her. “Why?”

She interrupts Tom’s prying with another question. “Who was your first celebrity crush?” Y/N asks, turning to Tom who seems to be overthinking the question by the way his eyebrows are lifted.

“I think… Jennifer Love Hewitt.” Tom presses his button.

“Easy, Sean Connery,” Y/N says, quickly pressing the button.

Tom looks to her, seeing the way she gets giddier and giddier as the questions come and go. “Sean Connery?” he asks her.

Y/N trails her gaze from the teleprompter to Tom, her Y/E/C eyes meeting his. “Yes? Got a problem with that, Hiddleston?”

Tom shakes his head, chuckling, the very sound making Y/N shiver in delight. “No, love. I’d just never taken you for a girl that likes older guys. He was like what… 60 when you were born?”

“I like watching old movies. When I first saw him he was 30, that is, on the screen.” Y/N shrugged and giggled. She looked back to the teleprompter, missing the hopeful look in Tom’s eyes.

“What is the one thing you love in a man?” Tom asks, laughing at the way the question was formulated. “Well, let’s see. I like someone who is strong, who takes care of his body, has lots of money…” Tom counted on his fingers, making Y/N laugh. God, her laughter was definitely one thing he loved about her. He didn’t know why, but he just did. Maybe it was the way she could never fake her real laugh, no matter how good of an actress she was. She couldn’t mimic the way her eyes laughed as her lips pushed at her cheeks. She couldn’t mimic that melodious sound that just had him trapped, wanting to laugh along with her. It was simply and utterly entrancing and contagious.

The first time he met her, he didn’t know what to think. He watched her walking through the doors, her steps careful and calculated, but her smile more genuine than any he had ever seen. One look at her and he was definitely interested. Interested in finding out more about the girl who was so confident and at the same time, so bashful. He checked himself before he could do something stupid, since he didn’t know if he would even get the chance to know her better.

The second he heard she had been chosen as Loki’s love interest, he was over the moon. He thought that maybe, just maybe, he could get her to agree to go on a date with him. To talk about their interests and get to know each-other outside the workplace.

That dream was shattered as soon as he had learned that she was maybe just a bit too young for him. With nine years difference between them, he couldn’t imagine how she would ever say yes to him when she most definitely had better options out there. So, he ripped the band aid before he got himself hurt, and decided that it would be better if he didn’t get too close.

But now, after he had gotten a bit of insider info, he thought that maybe he had been a bit too harsh in his “not getting too close”. He had utterly avoided her, going as far as to not say hello. And even though his anxiety played part in that, he still felt awful. He had definitely been a dick.

“Tom?” Her voice snapped him out of his trance, his eyes finally focusing on the question.

“So, what about you, love? What do you like in a man?” Tom asked again.

Y/N looks to Tom, who’s obviously more interested in her answer than he should be. Her best guess: He’s messing with her. He figured out she likes him and he’s messing with her. “Well, I like someone who’s true to his feelings,” she says, staring him right in the eye. She presses the button, startling Tom as he shamefully lets his eyes fall to his own button.

“And that… was it! You guys better watch…”

“Actually, we have one more question,” Tom interrupts as Y/N’s eyes narrow.

“No we…”

“Yes, we do. I’m going to lay all my cards out on the table and say that I’d really like to take you out on a date.” Tom’s eyes don’t leave Y/N as the camera keeps rolling. He doesn’t care that the whole world will know about this. He doesn’t care, because he knows that whatever will happen after this, the world will have no say in. “So, last question: Will you go on a date with me?”

Y/N’s eyes staring deeply into his, searching for something that might tell her that he’s just playing. That this was just some type of publicity stunt to make the series more popular. But all that she could see was, honesty. Honesty and hope.

“O…kay?”

A smile pulled at Tom’s lips as he turned back to the camera. “Well, there you have it folks. This has been burning questions. Please go watch the new Loki series. Lots of mischievous love from us to you.”

The camera stopped rolling. Y/N and Tom stood up from their seats, turning to each-other. They could feel the eyes of those in the room focused on them, waiting to see what would happen.

“We should… probably talk more in private…” Y/N says, suddenly feeling bashful.

“Yeah, we should.” Tom couldn’t believe his luck. Even though it might’ve been for the camera and for the sake of dodging a scandal, she had still said yes. And he would most likely make the best out of it.

“So, what’s this about?” Chris asks as his best friend. The screen of his phone shows Tom, who’s obviously still in bed, having just been woken up by Chris’s call.

“Wait a second, mate.”

Chris watches as Tom stands up slowly, quietly walking out of his bedroom and into his living room, closing the door behind him. “What’s what about?” Tom asks.

Chris rolls his eyes, obviously annoyed with Tom’s secret-keeping. The whole world knows and he had to find out through a YouTube video. “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about, Tom. I know you know what I’m talking about. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?” Tom rubs the sleep from his eyes, making Chris’s eyebrows furrow. He was definitely surprised that Tom was still tired. If he had his math right, it should’ve been one in the afternoon in LA.

“Tell me that you’re dating Y/N!” Chris whisper-yells, not wanting anyone else to hear, just in case he’s wrong.

“Sorry, mate. I honestly thought you knew,” Tom laughed as he heard the door to the bedroom open.

“Hey, Chrisy!” Y/N said as she wrapped her arms around Tom’s neck, her face appearing on the screen.

“You guys are honestly the worst friends a guy can have! How long?” Chris asks.

“How long what?” Y/N kisses Tom’s cheek as she walks into the kitchen to get started on breakfast.

“Come on! How long have you two been together?!”

Tom looks to the ceiling, honestly amused at how angry his friend seems to be. “A few months?”

“A few MONTHS?!”

Tom chest shakes with laughter. “Yeah… since that Ellen interview? Right, love?”

“Yup!” Y/N says, coming back with two cups of tea in her hands. “Three months.” She sips from her tea, sitting down next to Tom who wraps an arm around her waist, pulling her closer. He sits his head on her shoulder, smiling widely at the camera.

“I really hate you guys,” Chris says, though he can’t help but smile at the sight of his two friends, together, sexual tension definitely long gone.

“No, you really love us.” Y/N makes a weird kissy-face towards the camera, making Chris laugh and Tom frown.

“Careful there, love. You’re making your boyfriend jealous.” Chris punctuates his sentence with a chuckle. “But I’m happy for you two. Just… make sure to not send the wedding invitation three months too late, okay?”

Tom and Y/N laugh, saying goodbye to Chris then cuddling on the couch. Enjoying their down-time together.

Tom looks down on his girlfriend of three months, and he can’t believe how lucky he is. He found someone who is so down to earth and so caring, what more could he want?

Y/N looks up to him, only to find him already staring down at her. “What’s on your mind?” she asks.

“Just thinking about how much I love you.” Tom’s lips find her in a slow, lazy kiss. “And thinking that we should probably thank Ellen for her stupid, little game.”

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today-only-happens-once · 6 years ago

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With Great Power - Chapter 1

Fic Title: With Great Power

Chapter: 1

Fic Summary: Thomas Sanders is just a regular social media personality. But when he gets bit by a spider during filming one of his YouTube videos, his whole life is about to turn upside down—whether he (or the aspects of his personality) want it to or not. Platonic LAMP/CALM + Character!Thomas. Spider-Man AU (but more the concept of Spider-Man and contains no spoilers for any particular movie/comic series).

Word Count: 3188

Warnings: (on a chapter-by-chapter basis) news broadcast discussing vehicle-related violent crime, Cartoon Therapy references (not significant to plot), spiders, spider bites, cursing, panic (but not an attack), death mention, nausea/vertigo, please let met know if I missed anything.

A/N: I went to see the new Spider-Man movie and got inspired. This fic is not based on the new movie, so no spoilers there; just inspired this project. It was one of those things that started as a small idea and soon snowballed into a locomotive trying to run me over with all the ideas I started getting for it. First multichapter project for this fandom, so… I’m both scared and excited to undertake this project. Deeply appreciate anyone willing to be along for the ride. <3 Please, please let me know your thoughts!

Extra shout-out to @creativenostalgiastuff, @vigilantvirgil, and everyone else who offered writing advice, reassurance, and encouragement through the chaos of my nerves and self-doubt in writing this first chapter. I appreciate the heck out of it.

Tags at the bottom.

When Thomas wakes up to the sun streaming in through the blinds of his bedroom window late Saturday morning, he contemplates rolling over and trying to go back to sleep. Filming for the next Cartoon Therapy had gone late into the night last night, and Thomas hadn’t collapsed into his bed until somewhere around 3 in the morning. He blindly reaches a hand out for his phone tossed haphazardly amidst the covers and squints blearily at it to check the time.

It’s almost noon. Besides, he has a text from Joan saying they have an idea about how fix part of the script that just hadn’t been working for them last night. They were already two days behind schedule. Thomas figures it’s probably time to get rolling.

He shoots a text back to Joan telling them to swing by whenever and they could head to the location. Kyle and Terrence were scheduled to stop by to film their part of the episode in the early evening, so if they hurried, they could probably knock out the script problem in the scene between Elliot and Picani before they arrived. If they worked late enough, they could maybe even make up one of the days they were behind.

Best laid plans, says a vaguely foreboding voice in Thomas’s head. He sits up and rakes a hand through his fading purple hair. He sends out a quick tweet, Busy day of filming ahead! Can’t wait for you guys to see this one, because he knows he won’t be online much at all today and locks his phone before quickly getting dressed.

He stumbles half-awake to the kitchen and pops a bagel into the toaster. He mindlessly turns on the television with the remote he’d set on the counter from the night before. The voice of a female news anchor fills the quiet apartment as Thomas turns to the refrigerator.

“—night. Police are interrogating the suspect now. According to preliminary reports, the man driving the bus claims to have no memory of the incident. The driver of the other vehicle is in critical condition, and two civilian deaths have been confirmed so far. The Congressman believed to be the actual target has issued no formal statement at this time, but he is expected to hold a press conference this afternoon.”

Thomas sighs as he reads the headline at the bottom of the screen. Bus Crash Is Suspected Assassination Attempt it reads in big block letters as the camera switches to an aerial view of the crash. Thomas’s chest twists with compassion.

The scene switches back to a different news anchor. “This is another installment in a long line of increasing instances of violent crimes and death brought about by people claiming to have no memory of the incident itself. And we have here with us an expert in—"

He’s pulled from the broadcast at the sound of the toaster popping up and a subsequent ding from his phone. It’s a text from Joan. We’re here. Thomas switches the television off and grabs his keys and phone, thinking in the back of his mind that maybe the next video they do ought to be a new installment of “reasons to smile”.

…

“Picani, there’s… something I should probably tell you,” Joan says, delivering their line as Elliot. There’s a pause, and then they shake their head. “Wait, I want to re-try that.”

Thomas gives Joan a patient smile and nods. Joan repeats the line, adjusting where they put emphasis and how long they paused before breaking character and giving a satisfied nod. They were happier with that take, and Thomas admits that their delivery fit the moment a bit better as well.

The lighting fixtures in front of the couch cramps the relatively small office space, and Thomas glances around the room as Joan responds to a text they apparently received from Terrence about costume design for Corbin. The blue Stitch poster, framed still from Spongebob, and Steven Universe merchandise hanging on the wall pop against the cream colored paint above the brown couch. It stirs—unexpectedly, although not for the first time—something inside of Thomas. A reminder of where he is, what he was getting to do every day…

Ten years ago, if you’d asked him, he never would have guessed that he’d be making YouTube videos full time. He’d graduated with a degree in chemical engineering, after all. But then he’d discovered Vine, and one thing led to another… and here he was. Writing, acting, directing, and producing videos for real life people who were incredibly kind and supportive of him. His life had taken several crazy twists, especially in recent years, but he liked where he was. He still had plenty of dreams and aspirations, but he was putting content out in the world that was making a difference to people. Making people smile. He was getting to do… really freaking cool things. Every single day.

“You okay, man?” Joan asks, breaking into his thoughts.

Thomas blinks and shakes his head. “Yeah. Sorry. Just zoned out, I guess.”

Joan quirks an eyebrow at him. “We can take a break if you need it.”

“I’m good,” Thomas replies, swiping the bangs out of his eyes. “Any update from Terrence?”

“He’s on his way.” Joan adjusts the hem of their skirt. “Kyle said he’d be a couple minutes late, but I told him that was fine.”

Thomas nods. “No, yeah. It’s all good.” He flips through a couple pages of the script, re-reading a few lines. Joan arches their eyebrows at him, but Thomas purses his lips in thought before looking back up. “I was thinking last night about this scene where they talk about Mitchell—" Thomas glances down at the script in his hands and cuts himself off at the sight of a huge, dark spider sitting on his hand. “Shit!”

Thomas jerks his hand hard. The spider goes flying through the room. His heart is pounding in his throat. “Where did it go? Where did it go?”

“What?” Joan asks, faintly alarmed. “Where did what go?”

“You didn’t see it?” Thomas asks them, incredulous. “It was huge and on my hand and---eugh.” He shakes his hand out again, shivers running down his spine.

Joan glances around the room. “You mean like a fucking spider or some shit?”

Thomas nods, cradling the hand it had been on. It’s no secret just how much he hates spiders. He knows it isn’t even entirely rational, but something just really freaks him out about them. And it had been big. And on him. Thomas fights back another shudder.

“Did it bite you?” Joan asks.

“Did it what?” The question itself is enough to send a ripple of alarm through Thomas.

Joan shoots him a look that is something between sympathetic and slightly amused. They hold out their hand. “Here. Let me see.”

Hesitantly, Thomas lets Joan take his hand and glances around the room while they investigate. His brown eyes scan the dark wood floor, the shelves along the walls, even the cream walls themselves. There’s no sign of the arachnid, and if he’s being honest with himself, he isn’t sure if that makes him more anxious or relaxed. He feels Joan rub their thumb across the heel of his hand, then pull it closer to their face.

“What’s the verdict, doc?” Thomas jokes when Joan doesn’t say anything for a moment. He can’t quite manage to sound as lighthearted as he wants to.

Joan sucks in a breath through their teeth and releases Thomas’s hand. “It looks like you might’ve gotten bit, but it’s not anything dangerous as far as I can tell. Maybe wash it out or put ice on it or something just to be safe? We’ve got time to kill anyway.”

Thomas blows out a breath and stands. He cringes a little as he realizes he dumped the script unceremoniously onto the floor when he’d seen the spider on his hand. He gingerly hops over the loose pages. “I’ll fix that,” he promises before hurrying out of the room and down towards the bathroom.

…

Thomas looks down at his hand as he runs cold water over it. The bathroom of the office space is empty on a Saturday afternoon. The fluorescent lights above illuminate dark tile, and a light blue wall does little to absorb the terrible bathroom lighting. He glances around—noting the dark blue stalls and pristine white sink—as if it will somehow distract him from the thoughts growing louder in the back of his head.

“Thomas,” Logan says as he appears behind the internet personality, his voice dripping in annoyance and frustration. He smooths his striped tie against his black polo as Thomas meets his gaze through the mirror. “Will you please explain to Virgil that the likelihood you are in any danger—immediate or otherwise—from a simple spider bite is miniscule at best?”

“Thomas,” Virgil quips as he appears beside Logan, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his hoodie, “will you please tell Logan that miniscule is not zero?” Thomas sighs and glances at the two’s reflection in the mirror.

Logan crosses his arms over his chest. “Virgil, I am quite aware that the quantity expressed by the term ‘miniscule’ is not equivalent to zero.” He waves a dismissive hand. “But worrying over such small odds—”

“I don’t know, kiddo,” Patton cuts in as he appears as well, his brow furrowed in concern as he briefly meets Thomas’s gaze through the reflection. The cat hoodie is tied around his shoulders. “Spiders kind of freak me out.”

“He has called them ‘creepy crawly death dealers’,” Virgil adds, pointing a finger at the father figure. “And that was when they weren’t even real.”

“Have no fear, Padré,” Roman announces, appearing behind Thomas between Patton and Virgil. The red sash stretched across his white suit stands out sharply against he blue bathroom stalls. “If such a poisonous pest were to harm our host, I will die defending you all—”

“Die?!”

“Actually,” Logan says, adjusting the frame of his glasses, “the spider would not be poisonous. I believe you are looking for the term ‘venomous’, in this instance. Something is only poisonous if the consumption of it results in sickness or death, whereas--”

Thomas twists the faucet off and turns around to his bickering personality traits. “Guys,” he says. “Can we just, like, chill? For one second?”

Virgil bites at his thumbnail, his gaze zeroing in on Thomas’s hand. “Is it red? Does it look infected?”

Logan moves to stand beside Thomas as the host takes a closer look at the appendage. Thomas shrugs as Logan looks back up at Virgil. “There may be some slight reddening of the skin,” the Logical Side explains, “but that is normal in this case.”

“Are you sure?” Virgil asks, a slightly challenging edge to his voice.

“Of course he’s sure, Virge,” Patton offers softly. “Besides, we trust Joan, right? And Joan didn’t seem to think anything was wrong or dangerous. Just thought we should clean it to be safe.”

Virgil takes a breath and nods. “Okay. Sorry, I just…” he trails off with a sigh and shoves his hand back into his pocket. He curls in on himself a bit.

“It’s all good, Virge,” Thomas assures him. “You’re just trying to look out for me. And I hear ya. But I don’t think we have anything to worry about.” He gives his Anxious Side a small smile and sees the corner of Virgil’s mouth quirk briefly.

“Cool,” he says, but the way his shoulders relax betrays the relief he evidently feels. Thomas feels the lingering tension release in his own chest too.

As the aspects of his personality sink out, Thomas grabs a paper towel and dries his hand before hurrying back to the office. It’s just a small spider bite. He has nothing to worry about.

…

When Thomas wakes up the next morning, it’s to his cellphone ringing. He scrubs a hand across his eyes and picks it up, seeing Joan’s smiling face and name on the screen. He swipes to answer it, pressing it to his ear.

“Yeah?” he asks, his voice gruff from lingering sleepiness. “What’s up, Joan?”

“I—Did you just wake up?”

Thomas glances at the clock on his bedside dresser. He was supposed to be at the office fifteen minutes ago. He scrambles out of bed. “If I say yes, will you hate me?”

“Yes,” Joan deadpans. Thomas huffs a faintly embarrassed laugh.

“I’ll be there asap,” he promises. He pulls the phone away from his hand and presses the red button on the screen to hang up. Except when he moves to pull his finger off the screen, it doesn’t move.

Thomas frowns, tugging harder to get his finger off the screen. He feels the joint stretch slightly, but the tip of his index finger stays stuck to the screen as if superglued on. When he tries to drop the hand holding the phone, it stays trapped to the device as well. Thomas feels his confusion only deepen. It’s not like the phone itself was sticky when he picked it up. So why the hell couldn’t he let go of it?

He tries wrenching both hands apart from the device at the same time. The feat, however, is to no avail; he feels a few of his knuckles pop and winces slightly. He takes a seat on the bed and looks closer at the device in his hands. It doesn’t appear to be covered in any residue. Neither do his hands.

Weird…

Thomas purses his lips, then wedges his feet up against his phone and tries to push it out of his hands.

It’s exactly the wrong thing to do, apparently. His phone stays glued to his hands and—much to his dismay—his feet. Thomas rolls back on his bed, his fingers and sock-clad feet stuck to his cell phone, causing him to be folded up in an awkward pretzel. Thomas stares at the white ceiling of his bedroom and sighs.

Maybe this is some weird fever dream. Something in the back of his mind reminds Thomas of the rumor that you can’t read while you’re dreaming, and he cranes his neck over to the shelf in his room. The fourth Harry Potter book sits on the corner and sure enough—even though he’s looking at it upside down—he can read the title easily enough.

Not a dream.

Huh.

Thomas takes in a deep breath and releases it slowly. Maybe he’s just psyching himself out or something. All he really needs to do is not freak out and just let go. Right? What was that breathing exercise Virgil taught him? In for four, hold for seven, out for eight? Thomas closes his eyes and tries it.

A moment later, he hears a quiet thump against the mattress and can flex his fingers. Thomas lets his legs fall over the edge of the bed and his arms flop to his sides and stares for a moment longer at the ceiling. If he’s being honest, he isn’t entirely convinced that what just happened was even real.

He blinks hard and shakes his head. He thinks about reaching for his phone again, maybe to text Joan or even send out a tweet, but he stops short. Maybe he’s being paranoid or stupid or superstitious but the suddenly the last thing he wants to do is touch his phone again. Thomas huffs a breath. He just needs to wake up more. A cold shower and he’d be good to go. And he’d never mention whatever just happened to anyone ever.

Thomas rolls off the bed and stands, raking a hand through his hair. He wanders over to his closet, stepping carefully over discarded dirty clothes that litter his floor. He sighs as he looks at his options, all too aware that he is running very late and yet somehow still unable to shake the uneasiness in his stomach from whatever it was that had just happened. He isn’t sure how to make sense of it other than to try to push it to the back of his mind.

Thomas shakes his head quickly and leans a hand against the wall as he attempts to focus on the clothes hanging in his closet. Just pick an outfit, Thomas, he tells himself firmly. You don’t have time for this.

He pinches the bridge of his nose and settles on a pair of jeans and one of the dark t-shirts on the hanger. He moves to pull his hand away from the wall to grab them, except… it’s stuck.

“What the…”

For all of Thomas’s efforts the past couple of minutes to push the alarm and confusion to the back of his mind regarding the instance with his phone, the panic slams back to the forefront. Thomas braces a foot against the wall and tries to wrench his hand free and then immediately feels like an idiot.

Because—and he feels like he really should have predicted this outcome of events—his foot sticks to the wall too.

Thomas grunts in effort, bracing the other foot against the wall up closer to his hand and pulls. He manages to wrench his hand free—the outer layer of paint rips off the wall where his hand had been and stays stuck to his fingertips and palm. He nearly loses his balance, his weight wobbling and his arms flailing in a frantic attempt to maintain his balance.

When he regains it, Thomas can feel his heart in his throat. He’s standing upright, on his feet. So why is he looking at his ceiling?

Because he’s standing on the wall. His feet are planted firmly against the beige wall, his body parallel to the floor, and Thomas suddenly feels faintly dizzy. He can feel himself swaying and blindly reaches his hands out to steady himself. He squeezes his eyes shut as his hands connect with something solid.

Maybe that whole thing about not being able to read while dreaming is a myth. This can’t possibly be real. For some reason, the thought eases the surge of panic-induced bile raging in his stomach, and Thomas feels his feet pull off from the wall. But they don’t land on anything concrete. Thomas feels a sharp pull in his shoulders, his feet dangling in the air.

When he opens his eyes, he realizes that the thing his hands had connected with when he’d started to sway was, in fact, his bedroom ceiling. Thomas yelps, kicking his feet back towards the wall. He isn’t sure if he’s relieved when they stick again.

Thomas hears a familiar whoosh and cranes his neck towards his bed, trying to not let dizziness over take him from seeing his bedroom upside down. Virgil is looking at up at him, his Anxious Side’s eyes wide and his hood pulled up over his sweep of bangs.

“Thomas,” he says, his voice loud and distorted. “We have a major problem.”

…

Tags: @helloisthisusernametaken, @ren-allen, @quoth-the-sparrow, @princelogical, @random-pianist, @ravenclawicecream, @erlenmeyertrash, @milomeepit, @at-least-seven-pretty-potatoes, @rileyfirstname, @pinkeasteregg, @sassy-in-glasses, @generalfandomfabulousness, @lacrimosathedark, @thepoolofthedead, @monikastec, @heir-of-the-founders, @yourworstnightmare999, @artistictaurean, @kanejandkruge, @cdragontogacotar, @candiukas, @damienswifeolicitydallysgirl, @angst-patton, @savingshae, @noneed4thistbh, @awesomelissawho, @unikornavenger, @bopthesnoz, @spiralofsilencetheory, @finger-gunsss, @crownswriter123, @swlotakulady34, @jemthebookworm, @blue-fluffy-dragon

#sanders sides #sanders sides fanfiction #platonic lamp/calm #platonic lamp/calm fanfiction #sanders sides au #spider-man au #with great power #chapter 1 #tw cursing #tw nausea #tw violence mention #excited for the things that lie ahead in this fic #first chapter needed to set some things up #but i hope you enjoyed it #ive got a lot in mind for this story #ill stop rambling in the tags now #ksjfskdfjlskjf #new year new fic i guess hah

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myfriendpokey · 6 years ago

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easy like sunday morning

I know it sounds funny but I just can't stand the pain.. Given the volume of critical writing on difficult games in recent years isn't it time to talk about some easy ones? Everybody loves talking about, 'Sekiro', but no-one ever talks about, 'Felix The Cat (NES) (1992)', a delightful game with many levels that stands out in my childhood memory as being one of the very few games I was ever able to complete within the Xtravision rental window. In these notes I try to lay down a preliminary basis for felix the cat studies.[1]

1. Firstly what is easiness, is it a quality or the absence of a quality, of a texture? I'd like to focus here specifically NOT on games which deliberately avoid the idea of 'challenge' altogether (Proteus, etc) but instead on games where challenge is both theoretically present and totally perfunctory, where it's both possible to die, and just easier not to.

2. And the strange sense of waste that this creates - the waste in having something and not needing it, of having some productive capacity lie fallow. The dream is to always have both an affordance and something to flex it on, in perfect sync. There are situations where exercising some affordance might give a bad outcome (use sword on king to increase crime meter etc) but in general the universe is set up so that your acting, your being, your bodily striving has a useful and productive effect on the world at large – we hope, ha ha ha. We have no reason to doubt that we use our affordances, rather than that our affordances are using us. In an easy game this relationship becomes more uncanny - we get a sense of how an affordance can be baggage, a kind of painful excess of productive energy that comes with a vague, felt obligation to use it all up in some manner. The machine speaks through us just as much as if we were playing any bullet hell - but it does so less through an overload of stimulus than through lack of it, through opening a space, which the ambient noise of the body then rushes to fill. The aimless, stupid twitching of our flesh as it burns off all the energy which is socially and economically surplus to requirements is directed and made visible, jumping back and forth onscreen in the mocking form of a smiling platform cat, a form of automatic writing.

3. I'd actually like to avoid making a moral or political case for easy games as having some intrinsic social value (that they resist the 'investment' of skill mastery, that they undercut feelings of power and control, or that they indeed actually represent a new form of meta-difficulty in testing your ability to reject false measurements of success and artificial scarcity and that therefore playing Goldeneye with infinite ammo cheats on is praxis or something.[2]) These might be useful qualities at some moment or another - but I think they also show the strange, magic-eye effect, of trying to write about easiness in itself, writing about absence without just converting it into another kind of presence (I'm sure I have failed multiple times and will fail multiple more). So easiness in videogames is constantly at risk of becoming just a different kind of difficulty, or some form of symbolic content - rather than the lack of such difficulty, or the lack of such content... In the context of videogames, a new media form busily involved with stockpiling content and meanings and symbolism and justification of all kinds, in trying to fill itself up and out, the idea of their emptiness is somehow quite threatening.[3]

4. Difficulty in games tends to be framed as a challenge to the primacy of the self, or as an estrangement, something that pushes you out of your comfort zone. It wakes you up, makes you more alert. Easiness by comparison is a sop to the self - indulgent, a narrowing of horizons. Easiness is mainstream, difficulty is avant-garde - and discussions of difficulty in games tend to draw a lot upon comparisons to older avant-garde art or literature. I'm in favour of avant-garde videogames but i think part of claiming that tradition should be a willingness to critique it, too. For example, difficult games are some of the most popular ones to stream - are these challenging the self? To an extent they allow the performance of the self, as manifested in angry outbursts, "reacting" in some characteristic manner, individuating oneself through accomplishment or distinctive playstyle, demonstrating personal qualities such as persistence and strength of will, very little of which could be said to come through in your average Felix The Cat longplay. And while Marvel movies and longrunning tv shows are seldom difficult in the same way as experimental art they do at least tend to gesture at the idea and feeling of a certain difficulty, an emotional strenuousness, a conflict to overcome. We don't just get a whole movie of Spiderman trying on 100 different hats. Some kind of difficulty is prized in both cultures, with the difference being that of location and degree. The idea of the modernist shock, the abrupt estrangement that jolts the (presumably bourgeois, etc) viewer out of their habitual comfort zone, sits awkwardly against comparatively more recent concepts like Naomi Klein's idea of the “shock doctrine” or Paul Virilio's writings on the bombarded, exhausted viewer - or indeed with that most modern form: the hot take, the truly gratuitous and combative opinion, tossed at the unsuspecting for the sake of wreaking minor carnage. The succession of shocks here don't so much disturb the self as confirm it as a thing apart, defined in negative against the tumult outside and valued as a refuge from that outside. Maybe we take it to the gym now and then, we test it out upon some pre-selected object of difficulty to keep it in shape, but afterwards the gate goes down and the wall goes up. I don't think difficulty is bad or illegitimate but if psychic reconfiguration is the goal then how about a modernist slackening instead? In the vein of Stein, Pessoa, Walser, Musil - "the game without qualities". Lured into roaming outside of its protective carapace the brain starts to dissolve, sprawl, melt into gloop, be devoured by ants.

5. Experience of playing an easy game: there’s no pushback, there's no skill check , a string of easy victories lead you forward without realising, or leads a part of you forward, there's no moment where you have to pull yourself together and decide just how much more of your time you wanna spend on this thing, a chirpy character onscreen is declaiming "GREAT!" and "SUBURB!" as you shoot pellets at more enemies, whatever aimless drive or impulse you flicked toward this thing to test it has not yet slowed down or returned, it's like dropping a pebble down a well, and waiting for the sound, and waiting forever - and then there's a plop! and whatever the process was, it's finished, you blink, try to remember what you were doing, wander off, still adjusting to the light.

6. The history of aesthetics is that of converting new kinds of necessity into new kinds of virtue [4]. Difficulty is a virtue in videogames, but it started out as a necessity, as well - as a prefab form handed down from the old mechanical amusements, a way to aestheticise (and commercialise) material resistance at a time when material resistance was almost all that videogames had to offer[5]. As certain kinds of difficulty emerge as objects of attention a reversal takes place: instead of difficulty being a way to engage with videogames, videogames become a way to engage with a certain kind of difficulty. Difficulty becomes a sign that unites a diffuse and heterogenuous field of garish electronic debris into a single medium and an aesthetic – this becomes part of what videogames *are*, and persists even when the original reasons for that difficulty become less and less present, and as 'difficulty' comes to exist mainly as a set of inherited structures and modes of representation (health bar, life counter etc). To make something that looks like a videogame in every way but has no difficulty is in a way to re-historicise it, to cut the thread which holds all the parts together - now the game collapses into a set of disembodied effects, sounds, gestures, machinery, which exist not so much as the expression of an aesthetic as an expression of the material history behind that aesthetic. The easy game is not a game but a kind of game-byproduct, an industrial accident that gives clue to the inner workings of the machine.

7. The mysterious purgatory that is the solved or near-solved state of a videogame, aimless and uncanny, an image of fulfilled desire: maybe not your desire, but somebody's, or some part of you. Think of playing with cheat codes: a few minutes ago you might have been desperate to get BLUE SWORD [RARE], now you can't get rid of the things. A routine complaint in popular longform games is that people just end up getting too much money and not having enough endless pits to dump it all into (thorstein veblen real??). And this is a known thing and trite to even remark upon and usually the point where the discussion turns into pop-psychology liturgy of how the human brain is "broken" and "hard-wired" to need new challenges and etc. I don't care, I'd like to spend more time within this twilight area, to construct as diligent and thorough a map of its empty rooms and blockages and tiny, shifting, hypersubtle moments of enjoyment or deep melancholy as the one we already have for Diablo clones and similar. I think here of stuff like EJ Gold's games which claim to depict (indeed, allow you to perform rituals within) the bardo realms waiting after this world, where you roll around endless corridors collecting icons to accumulate money and charisma for your next life, and where for some reason there's a button to fire out pellets despite there being no enemies to kill. Videogames are depressingly, predictably excellent at producing new manifestations of inferno; I think, for the same reasons, that they could produce some very interesting paradises as well.

Is Felix The Cat a good game? Or is it in fact the only game, and also i'm dead and my spirit has been trapped inside of it? I hope the above comments make my feelings known. All i can do from here is recommend you watch Docfuture's Sonic Easy Mode video, and contemplate the world that could have been.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-ef8SD9gUg

[1] Just imagine it - instead of endless essays on "how completing, not completing, not playing VIDEOGAME made me a better person, worse person, more divorced person delete as appropriate" we would instead get endless essays on "how playing VIDEOGAME left me more or less the same person, I suppose, I don't really remember. But I did like the beach level".

[2] Having said this I of course realise that this is totally inevitable and look forward to BABYMODECORE, the videogame movement for people who always instinctively pick the lowest difficulty setting and want to reclaim such powerful formative experiences as beating up on the test dummy character in Tekken (and being scared that one day he'd glitch out and hunt me down instead)

[3] I wonder if part of the hatred for "asset flips" that they just replicate the shape of a videogame without filling it up with justificatory content, abstracting it somehow.

[4] Mangled from a line in F. Jameson's "Marxism and Form"

[5] Like early digital forms of old mechanical arm wrestling machines and punching bags - which slowly became part of that mysterious stock repository of ancestral videogame dream imagery, the minigame collection.

#felix the cat #easy games #commodores 64

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artificialqueens · 6 years ago

Text

Five Times People Caught Adore & Bianca: Behind the Scenes (Biadore) - doctor bitchcraftt

Companion to the full Five Times People Caught Adore & Bianca, explaining what the two of them were *really* up to when they were discovered.

Read the original stories: Season six, Courtney Act, Michelle Visage, Shangela, Alyssa Edwards

A/N: As the situations and explanations grew continuously more ridiculous, the explanations had to be almost completely mundane. Let me know if you’d like to see me write these for Courtney and Michelle’s chapters. Xoxoxoxo, bitchcraftt

********

Black and White Drama - Season Six

Walking back into the workroom, Bianca took one look at the confab taking place in the corner and made a neat 90-degree turn to her alcove instead. While she wouldn’t mind talking with Darienne and DeLa, the last thing she wanted to deal with was the oncoming bout of drama Laganja was doubtless going to stir up.

The rhinestoned evening gloves went back into their mesh bag, followed by her bracelet and heavy earrings, then her wig separated back into sections (most definitely not thrown into a pile like some of the other queens). Rubbing the indent on her shoulder, she unclipped the oversized sculpted bow, leaving her in just the bodice and ballgown skirt.

A quick glance around didn’t produce anyone who could help her out of the gown. All of the other girls were still across the room focused on the lipsync surprise. Adore was the only other one in the process of de-dragging, but it looked like she was too busy untucking to bother.

Bianca pulled the stuffing out of her bra cups before sucking in and twisting her arms to reach for the hooks and zipper. The bodice came undone with a bit of effort and she started in on the skirt. After hours on stage and in the lounge, she would be more than happy to have its weight off her padded hips.

The zipper slid down a couple of inches before getting stuck, and she rolled her eyes. Of course.

Turning her back to the mirror, she could see where the zipper was hung up on the crinoline hoop. She lifted the entire skirt far enough to slide her fingers under the catch, hoping to work it loose by feel. It seemed to be snagged on several layers of fabric, which meant she was probably going to need help to avoid ripping any seams.

“Well shit,” she muttered, hiking up the skirt again to give it another try.

She repeated the process again; this time when the zipper came back up, it caught on part of her corset lacing. Giving a frustrated tug only resulted in pulling the lacing further, cord caught between the zipper teeth and hoop casing. The sudden constriction surprised her into to dropping the skirt, its momentum yanking things even tighter.

Bianca gritted her teeth and made another attempt at getting free, but everything was too tangled at that point.

“Ah…” Her voice came out thin and breathy. Cursing silently, she leaned out to see if Laganja was done with her moment.

Nope. Maybe Satan was actually here today.

Instead of wasting air to yell, she grabbed the nearest small object (a box of bobby pins) and lobbed it across room. It bounced off Adore’s back and she jumped in surprise, looking left and right, but didn’t turn around.

The next thing to hand was a large sequined flower, which tangled itself in Adore’s wig. She finally looked in her direction in confusion before responding to the urgent ‘come here’ gestures, tights halfway down her legs.

”Why’s your neck all blotchy and stuff?”

Even in her current predicament, Bianca had to fight the urge to roll her eyes.

“ ‘M stuck,” she gritted out, pointing at her lower back and trying to stay calm. Never let a bitch see you sweat. “Can’t breathe.”

Adore immediately reached for a pair of scissors, but Bianca shook her head. Comprehension dawned (thankfully) and Adore stepped behind her, trying to untangle the snag but only succeeding in making it worse still. Bianca groaned, then grabbed her arm and lifted the front of the skirt.

”Hoop’s caught…underneath.”

Adore dropped to her knees in front of her, frowning before sticking her head under the skirt, pushing aside layers of tulle until her hands met at the bottom of Bianca’s corset.

Bianca's ears were starting to ring, and she dropped the skirt to grab Adore’s shoulders for support, breathing in shallow pants. Sweat dripped from her hairline, and she really hoped that the skirt wouldn’t require a repair job.

”Oh god, hurry up,” she forced out. There was no way she was going to create reality tv drama by passing out on camera - particularly when the operators were all too busy filming in the corner to notice. So much for safety on set.

“Think I’ve got it?” Adore’s voice was muffled by tulle and organza. Whatever she did next loosened things enough for Bianca to draw in a little more air.

”Yes, almost there…I can feel it. Watch the teeth,” she added as Adore tugged on the zipper.

“Chill, girl,” came the response from somewhere near her right hip, “I know how to use one.”

The tension in her corset eased all at once, and she heaved a huge breath. Considering how little she knew about dress construction, Bianca had to give Adore credit for persistence (and not calling the other girls over to laugh).

Right as the skirt came loose accompanied by a wave of relief (or maybe that was the blood rushing back into her midsection?), Laganja, DeLa, Darienne, and Joslyn tumbled to the floor less than ten feet away with a loud exclamation.

Bianca really didn’t want to ask.

********

My name is Adore Delano and I’m a messy slut - Shangela

The door swung shut after Katya, who called out something in Russian and was off in a cloud of blonde hair and eyeball-printed polyester, following Violet, Detox, and Alyssa.

Bianca added a couple more pins to make sure her wig was secure and gave it a last blast of hairspray, eyeing the arrangement of curls with a critical eye. Beside her, Adore was frowning into the mirror as she dug into her bag of lipsticks. Several tubes were laid out alongside opened lip liners, but she tossed the last one down with a groan.

”Something wrong?” Bianca spoke around the bobby pin between her teeth.

”None of these are right.“

Once she could see the other side of Adore’s face, Bianca paused to take in the whole picture. A series of roughly oval shaped blotches of lipstick covered the side of her neck, in no apparent pattern. Combined with her red-smeared mouth, she looked like a vampire movie gone wrong.

”Crime scene realness?”

Adore slumped even further in her chair.

“See, I had this idea for photos. Like how I’m always saying I’m a messy slut?”

”…right.” She raised an intrigued eyebrow, not sure where this was going.

”I wanted to make it look like the morning after. You know, one of those nights you wake up after and don’t remember what happened until you look in the mirror?”

Bianca considered her glum expression in silence for a minute before giving into the urge to try and make her smile instead.

“Want me to give it a shot?”

Receiving a shrug in response, she grabbed a makeup wipe and reached for a lip liner. Unfortunately, a few minutes of experimenting with different colors and products left them with only marginally better results.

“None of it looks real enough,” she admitted reluctantly. “Too bad Katya isn’t here, she’d probably bite your neck for free if you asked.”

Adore paused in scrubbing her neck clean for the fifth time.

”I dunno if the lipstick would show up anyway. Guess I’ll have to do something else.”

Bianca hated the look of defeat, no matter the cause. The colors all went on well enough, but it seemed impossible to reproduce the distinctive lip-print texture.

“Hang on. What if - let me see -”

She reached out to steady Adore’s chin, dusting her neck with loose powder to create an even surface. Applying a fresh layer of lipstick, she leaned in and quickly pressed her lips to the freshly powdered skin, ignoring the bitter taste of makeup mixed with remover.

Adore eyed the results in the mirror and perked up. “Huh.”

”Not bad, actually.” Bianca had to admit it looked far better than their best attempts at drawing.

”Looks real. I mean it is real, just it shows up pretty well.”

Bianca nodded and scrutinized her own face, checking for smudges.

“You know…”

”What?”

”Wanna do the rest?”

“Seriously, queen?" Bianca fixed her eyes on Adore’s best hopefully innocent expression in the mirror. "The things I do for you.”

Several coats of lipstick later, Adore’s neck was decorated with enough red lip prints that it resembled a Valentine’s Day card.

”That good?” At this rate, she would have to redo her lip liner. Again.

”It needs more, but I dunno how to make it scream ‘messy slut’ to the camera.”

”I thought that would be obvious without the makeup.”

”Fuck all the way off. Although,” Adore tilted her head in a way that usually spelled trouble, “what about hickeys?”

“For real? I swear I’m gonna go get Katya.”

“Please B? Just pretend I’m-“

“Finish that sentence and I really will cut up your wigs.”

Bianca gave her a dead eye stare, receiving only a pleading pout in response.

"Fine. Up,” she pointed at the vanity table, “if I’m doing this right, I can’t lean down that far.”

“You’re the best, B!”

With one more long-suffering huff, she picked a spot over Adore’s collarbone and pressed an open-mouthed kiss onto the skin. Deliberately not thinking about what it would look like if anyone walked in, Bianca bit down carefully.

Half a second later, she reeled backwards, stars exploding behind her eyes.

“What the fuck?" Bianca gingerly touched the bridge of her nose where it had collided with Adore’s shoulder when she flinched.

"Sorry!" Adore sounded simultaneously apologetic and trying to fight off giggles. "That tickled bad. Promise I won’t do it again.”

Gripping Adore’s arms firmly to anchor herself, Bianca leaned back in.

“Try not to break my nose this time?”

“Can’t help it, it’s a big target.”

“You’re lucky I love you, bitch, because this is just weird.”

********

The Naked Truth - Alyssa Edwards

Bianca didn’t so much wake up as be bludgeoned into consciousness by the headache. She might have been able to ignore her throbbing temples if they hadn’t been accompanied by the feeling of her brain sloshing around inside of her head. Her chest felt horribly heavy, and the sheets might as well be a sauna.

There was a reason she liked to stick to wine. This felt like the mother of all hard alcohol hangovers.

Opening her eyes didn’t help much, because all she could see was a mass of dark hair that seemed to be covering her entire face. Last night was a slightly blank spot, and Bianca closed her eyes again and tried very hard not to move.

Did she pass out before de-dragging? It didn’t happen often these days, but it was always a possibility. That might explain why she was having trouble breathing, except the constriction stretched unevenly from just under her collarbone on the right down across both hips.

A low groan directly into her ear made her flinch hard enough that her head started spinning.

Shit.

What was most definitely not a corset resolved itself into an arm and leg rather effectively pinning her in place, at least until the hangover wore off enough that she could pry the limbs off.

Bianca tried to turn her head to see who might be sharing her bed, feeling stubble brushing against her cheek.

At least it probably wasn’t a woman. That would be even more awkward.

Whoever it was had their face pressed against her shoulder, breath fanning hot over her throat. Another groan that sounded more alert was followed by lips pressing purposefully up the side of her neck and the hand starting to slide teasingly across her ribs.

Great. A morning sex person. After whatever night she’d had, that was firmly off the table.

Bianca glanced down her own body and silently thanked whatever deity watched over drag queens as the MEOW tattooed on the hand currently roaming her torso swam into focus.

Identity panic resolved, Bianca set about trying to get free.

”Ahh-“ The name caught in her dry throat, and she tried again.

”Adore.”

”Mmmmm….whuh?” Adore nuzzled the skin behind her ear.

”Do you mind?”

The fingers stopped mid-caress, and Bianca relaxed when the lips pulled away from her neck. She’d tease Adore about mistaking her for trade after the hangover wore off.

“Sorry.”

Her sense of relief vanished as she suddenly became aware of two things.

One, Adore was naked. That in itself wasn’t an unusual state of being, although she always wore at least underwear to bed if they were sharing.

Two, and more distressingly, Bianca realized that she was too.

Frozen in place, she met sleepy green eyes with a look of dawning panic as Adore pushed herself up on one arm and raised the other hand to her face. Glancing down their bare bodies, she voiced Bianca’s sentiments perfectly.

”Oh fuck.”

****

Being a drag queen meant viewing your sisters in various states of undress with the same disinterest as when they were clothed. The ABCD shared dressing rooms often enough that most of the time, no one even bothered to go into the bathroom to tuck, and Adore was notoriously unselfconscious about standing around in a skimpy thong or nothing at all.

A drunk Adore was handsy and flirtatious, and being drunk with Bianca tended to erase their already barely existent sense of personal space. They’d fallen asleep together countless times over the years in any number of locations (tour buses, taxis, Courtney’s living room floor), to the point that waking up tangled around each other was the closest thing to normal.

None of that made waking up naked in bed together any less awkward.

Bianca yanked the sheets around her waist as Adore scrambled back with what was probably an identical expression of shock.

”Ummmm.”

Adore frowned around the pillow she had clutched to her chest. One eye still had a mostly intact winged liner and streaks of dried melted mascara ran down her other cheek. Bianca turned to her own reflection in the mirror above the desk, cringing when it revealed actual raccoon-like eyes from the mess of dark eyeshadow smeared up her forehead.

They stared at each other for a few seconds longer, until Bianca thought she could keep her voice steady.

“Do you remember last night?”

“Uhhh…we did a show. At that club?" Adore moved the pillow to her lap and tilted her head in thought.

”…yeah. After that,“ Bianca groaned. "Also, where the hell are our clothes?”

“Oh. Here?” She leaned across to the other bed, lifting a pile of pleather and mesh that squelched unappealingly, water dripping onto the carpet. “Think yours is over there?”

The sequined mini dress she’d worn to perform in was laid on a towel across the table next to the sections of her wig, tights draped over the back of one of the chairs. She lifted the dress, ignoring the cold air hitting sensitive body parts.

“B?" Adore had come around the bed and was standing on the other side of the table, wringing water into the wastebasket. “What are you doing?”

Bianca raised her head from sniffing at the dress fabric. “Smells like bleach.”

“Is it cum?”

“For fuck’s sake Delano, how much cum would it take to soak an entire dress? I’m not that much of a whore. And it looks like water.”

“…actually, mine does too. And I am that slut.”

“Not helpful.”

Her heels were underneath the chair, one on its side and slightly damp. The other was upright with a small puddle of water still inside, the smell even stronger than her dress.

Sitting back down on the bed, Bianca felt more pieces slide together in her brain with an almost audible click.

“Alyssa bought us shots. We walked back after, pretty sure we weren’t breaking any public decency laws.”

“Being naked is natural. People are uptight.”

“Still not helping."

"Ummmm.” Adore paused with her tongue poking out of the side of her mouth. On anyone else, it would have looked ridiculous.

“Hey, I remember! There were hot guys in the pool.”

“…chlorine.”

“Oh. Oh! Right.”

“Bet you went in fully dressed.”

Adore fumbled on the other nightstand for her phone, scrolling to the camera roll, then burst out laughing.

Bianca snatched it from her unresisting fingers and blinked in surprise. The last photo was a selfie, with a grinning Adore in a sopping wet wig, makeup running down her face. Next to her, a much less amused and equally waterlogged Bianca, normal pouf of curls hanging limp across her shoulder and eyelashes missing.

“I’m not going to ask how I ended up in the pool, but I’m willing to bet it’s your fault.”

“Hey! That’s not fair.”

“It’s usually your fault.”

“…true.”

Someone knocked on the door, startling them both. Bianca checked the clock - 10:30 am. Probably one of the other queens wondering where they were.

Alyssa’s voice came through the door, loud and clear, and she sighed. Shifting, she checked for something to put on, but other than the still-wet drag, there didn’t seem to be anything else to hand. The knocking became more insistent, and Bianca called back a reply.

She looked at Adore, who shrugged and stood up to start digging in her suitcase.

“Great,” Bianca muttered, grabbing a pillow off the bed. “the Haus of Edwards is going to have a field day over this.”

#rpdr fanfiction #bianca del rio #adore delano #biadore #canon compliant #fluff #humor #five times people caught adore and bianca #doctor bitchcraftt

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