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mrs-stans · 4 months ago

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Meet the makeup wizard who transformed Sebastian Stan into ‘A Different Man’

By Josh Rottenberg

At the tender age of 5, Mike Marino saw “The Elephant Man” for the first time and his life was forever changed. When David Lynch’s haunting and heartbreaking story of the disfigured John Merrick would air on HBO in the early 1980s, Marino found himself horrified but unable to look away, sparking a fascination with prosthetics that would eventually lead him to becoming one of Hollywood’s top makeup artists.

“I was so afraid of it, but little did I know how beautiful that story was and how much of an imprint it would leave on my brain and soul,” says Marino, 47, who earned consecutive Oscar nominations in 2022 and 2023 for his makeup work on “Coming 2 America” and “The Batman,” the latter starring a totally transformed Colin Farrell. “If it wasn’t for that film, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing.”

But for actor, TV presenter and disability rights advocate Adam Pearson, Lynch’s film took on a more painful role in his life. Growing up in England with neurofibromatosis type 1, a rare genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow on his face, Pearson was often taunted by classmates who cruelly called him “Elephant Man” and other names. As he got older, he saw how movies routinely depicted people with disfigurements as freaks, villains or victims, stripping away their humanity. “There’s an element of laziness to it,” says Pearson, 39. “How do we show this character is evil? Let’s slap a scar on them.”

Now, through a twist of fate, the lives of Marino and Pearson have intersected on a very different project: the darkly funny, mind-bending psychological thriller “A Different Man.” Directed by Aaron Schimberg, the A24 film stars Sebastian Stan as Edward, a shy, disfigured actor working in New York City who undergoes an experimental procedure to transform his appearance, only to find himself losing the role he was born to play — himself — to a cheerful, outgoing man named Oswald with his same facial deformity, played by Pearson. Renate Reinsve (“The Worst Person in the World”) co-stars as a playwright whose latest work brings Edward’s identity crisis to a head.

“A Different Man,” which The Times called “a self-deconstructing meta-pretzel of a dark comedy” following its debut at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, tackles complex themes of identity, beauty and disability with a blend of Charlie Kaufman-esque surrealism and David Cronenbergian body horror. Along with Stan’s performance, Marino’s meticulously crafted prosthetics are key to bringing Edward and his inner agonies to life, reflecting the deeper emotional anguish of a man trying to escape his own skin.

“The movie portrays how the shell of who we are should not dictate our spirit and our personality,” Marino says. “I think it’s a very important film, much like ‘The Elephant Man�� was.”

When Schimberg first wrote the script, inspired by his own struggles with a cleft palate and his experience working with Pearson on his 2019 satire “Chained for Life,” he initially had no idea how he would actually pull off the film’s demanding prosthetics work. “I was sort of blissfully ignorant,” says Schimberg. “After Sebastian came aboard, we started cobbling the film together very quickly. It was only about a month before shooting that I realized this film was going to completely fall apart if we didn’t get this right. It was very down to the wire.”

Signing on as an executive producer for the film, Stan asked around about makeup artists in the New York area who could handle such a difficult job under that kind of time pressure. One answer consistently came back: “Literally everyone, hands down, was like, ‘You’ve got to get Marino,’ ” the actor recalls.

Though he was already busy with a job on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” Marino, who has done his share of more fantastical creatures, leapt at the challenge of re-creating a real-life disfigurement like Pearson’s. “I’m fascinated with people that have something going on with their skin because it’s just the most interesting, artistic, natural thing,” Marino says. “For me, there’s an amazing beauty to how Adam looks. This was not about a scary face or a monstrous person. I don’t like to do things like that with no soul or purpose.”

Marino’s passion for makeup and prosthetics took root early in life, inspired by industry legends like Dick Smith (“The Exorcist”) and Rick Baker (“An American Werewolf in London”). Growing up in New York, Marino started honing his skills as a preteen by practicing on his friends with latex, foam and various chemicals, destroying his bedroom rug in the process, to the chagrin of his parents. While still in high school, he mailed his portfolio to Smith and received encouragement and advice by phone from the makeup legend, who won an Oscar in 1985 for “Amadeus” and earned an honorary Academy Award for his life’s work in 2012. “Once he acknowledged me, it was like, OK, this is serious. There was no stopping me.”

After cutting his teeth on “Saturday Night Live” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Marino broke into film with the 2007 psychological thriller “Anamorph” and quickly became known for his versatility, seamlessly switching between fantasy creatures and more subtle, realistic applications. His work on Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” amplified the film’s psychological horror, while on Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” he enhanced the film’s digital de-aging of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino with carefully crafted prosthetics.

Outside of film, Marino created the Weeknd’s plastic-surgery-gone-wrong look for the singer’s “Save Your Tears” video. “It’s all problems to solve,” Marino says. “There is no playbook.”

Diving into “A Different Man,” Marino used photographs and 3D scans of Pearson’s face, which has undergone some 40 surgeries over the years, as the basis for a multi-piece silicone prosthetic that would work with Stan’s features. “There was no way I could completely replicate Adam’s exact proportions,” he says. “I had to make some aesthetic choices.”

While the makeup work in “The Elephant Man” benefited from that film’s grainy black-and-white cinematography, the prosthetics in “A Different Man” had to withstand more unforgiving scrutiny. To put his Edward face to the test, Stan would walk from Marino’s makeup chair to the set through the streets of New York and crowds of strangers, giving him tremendous insight into how people treat those who look different.

“I went to my old coffee shop and the same barista who’d served me for years couldn’t identify me,” Stan recalls. “I got to really feel people’s reactions in real time. There were people who couldn’t even look at me, other people were staring and sometimes you’d get a bigger reaction, like, ‘Oh s—, it’s the Elephant Man!’ As Adam puts it, you feel like public property.”

Pearson, who shares his character’s sunny gregariousness, encouraged Stan to think about it like he does with his own experience as a movie star. “I was like, ‘You don’t know the level of invasion I get with people pointing, staring and taking photos, but you do understand a very similar thing from this angle, so lean into that heavily,’ ” he says. “ ‘And if it makes you uncomfortable, lean into it further.’ ”

While wearing the prosthetics, Stan could only see out of one eye and had limited hearing in one ear, challenges that helped further inform his performance as a man who has learned to shy away from potential threats and insults. “Edward is a character that has had to endure a lot of emotional abuse and probably some physical abuse, so he is probably always on his left foot a little bit in case something happens,” Stan says.

As Edward’s face changes following his radical treatment, Marino made additional prosthetics showing the transition, including an “extremely soft, mushy version” that, in a particularly Cronenbergian scene, Stan could pull off in chunks.

Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot in “The Batman,” work for which Marino was Oscar-nominated. (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Marino’s talent for transforming stars is on full display in Farrell’s hulking, thuggish look as the Penguin in 2022’s “The Batman” and the new HBO spinoff series. “When Colin saw the sculpture I made, ideas started exploding,” Marino says. “Once we did a makeup test, it was magical — he knew how to speak, how to walk and he was already the guy.”

Marino, who is preparing to make his directorial debut based on a script he wrote set in the 1980s (“It’s deliberately not effects-heavy,” he hints), has lost none of his passion for the transformative power of latex and silicone since the days he was obsessively poring through issues of Cinefex magazine as a teenager. “If you think of Michelangelo showing beauty 500 years ago in painting and sculpture, I’m still showing that same beauty but in this new hyper-realistic way, in silicone,” says Marino, who named his makeup effects studio Prosthetic Renaissance. “It’s a very unique art. It’s like moving sculptures and paintings all at once.”

As for Pearson, if he were offered an experimental treatment to change his face, like in “A Different Man,” he says he wouldn’t take it. Despite the challenges it has brought him, Pearson believes his face has shaped the life he leads today.

“I joke with my friends that my disability does a lot of heavy lifting for my appalling personality,” he says with a laugh. “Everyone thinks it’s hard to go from non-disabled to disabled but I think the other way around would be even harder. The path we walk and the struggles we go through make us who we are and they’re inseparable from one another.”

#Sebastian Stan #Mike Marino #Adam Pearson #A Different Man #Los Angeles Times #Interview #mrs-stans

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lostonehero · 8 months ago

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More au of an au

"How did you meet my mother." Oscar's question was innocent enough after explaining he accidently telaported to the other universe Kayne can't go to.

A flash of fire and black eyes, and suddenly, he was back on a bloody battlefield. White feathers splattered in golden blood, and a man stands in the center. He was tall, muscular, and very not human. Three pairs of wings stretched from his back, a long tail stained in gold flicked behind them, and they had two pairs of horns on their head with a bright blue fire on each horn. His ears were pointed and eyes black as coal. Teeth sharper then a blade and tongue which was forked. Fur covered his body, only leaving his chest and stomach bare. Gold leaked from their mouths, and it burned against their skin. He held up his blade as Kayne approached. His voice was deep, and a human tongue Kayne never bothered to learn came from him.

Kayne flicked his fingers to destroy the interesting creatures, but nothing happened. He didn't know what the man said, but he had a blade in his guts before he vanished from the creature.

Kayne blinks, feeling something wet drip from his eyes, and his hand rests on his stomach. "I... uh..." He wants to hold onto the memory, but it trickled away like sand. "It was a battlefield, I think. I tried to kill her...no him at the time, but my powers had no effect. He stabbed me, and I ran away. I don't... I didn't understand his language because I didn't care to learn any human language at that time." He can feel himself smile. "He was the first ever creature to actually stab me. I was hooked before I even knew the blade was in my stomach." He has a dreamy look in his eyes.

Oscar pulls Kayne into a hug. "Sorry I made you cry."

"I'm crying?" Kayne reached to his face while in a hug, and he saw the pinkish hue of his tears. "I should try the seal again... uh let me know when little other you is visiting." He vanishes.

Oscar sighs. "Love you too."

.....

"What are you doing?" John asked first before he described the scene to Arthur.

Oscar looks up from the floor where a pentagram is painted in blood he got from Dennis. "Summoning the devil."

Arthur raised his brow. "Why?"

"Maybe I can break the barriers sealing off other realms if I try. I uh... I really don't know what I'm doing." Oscar looks embarrassed. "I just want to help."

Arthur smiles softly. "Do you need any help?"

"We can help! Arthur is very good bait." John exclaims.

Arthur sighs, pinching his brow. "John..."

Oscar smiles softly. "Thank you. Um, well, I know Latin and the incantation, so I'm going to try."

"Do you want me to stand in the circle?" Arthur tilted his head.

"You really probably shouldn't." Oscar takes a breath. "Dennis gave me enough to try different ways, so, um, let me try." He begins to chant, and a bright white light fills the room, and he is left on the floor bandages burning, and he's whimpering in pain as he curls up on the floor.

"Oscar!" Arthur rushed over to the floor. He can smell burnt flesh, and even though John was still blinded by the sudden flash, he didn't need it to realize what had happened. "Oscar, are you there? Say something, please."

Oscar groans and coughs deeply, and a mumbles falls from his lips along with black thick smoke. It sounds as if he was missing a tongue. He reached out to touch Arthur's hand.

A soft angelic voice laughs. "To think some filthy demon brake the barrier trapping us before hell. I should thank you." He had blonde hair and blue eyes and glowed. "Should have killed you with my mere presence, you... you... you're Lucifer's son." The confidence and boasting died as did the glowing as he pulled Arthur away and stared down at Oscar.

Oscar rolled to his side, trying to get up. He still couldn't talk, and smoke poured from his lips as he coughed and hacked.

The blonde man reached out and helped Oscar up. "You're stubborn like him... her... doesn't matter." The man seems to be studying Oscar eyes cataloging every scar on his exposed skin as his clothes burned away. He can recognize the burns of crosses, and he knew they were done on purpose. He hefts Oscar on his back. "Alright, come on, I'm sure you have someplace soft here."

Arthur follows behind. "What are you doing?"

"Who are you?" John growled.

The man continues up the stairs. "I am Micheal, I'm an archangel and brother to Lucifer. And to what I'm doing is getting this boy to a bed or a nest I honestly don't know how he was raised but I know for certain Lucifer didn't raise him the gates are still sealed."

.....

Micheal kept an eye on Oscar, who was out cold on the couch. He was in the recliner and looked to be in deep thought. "Did you do this to him?"

Arthur nearly jumped. "We- "

"Unlike you in your perfect little heaven, some of us had to deal with the consequences of a disaster." A woman Arthur knew to be Lilith spoke. "I could smell your wretched scent from anywhere, Micheal." She narrows her gaze at the golden cross in his hands. "And what do you plan to do with that?"

"It was supposed to be a gift, Lucifer requested it so Oscar won't be forced into a contract too young. Never had a chance to give it to old Lucy." Micheal holds the cross to his chest. "As much as I hate my sister, her son was not part of our conflict. Who harmed him?"

Lilith sighs. "He was just turning 5 when everything went bad to be simple with it. All I really know is that my own memory was suppressed along with Hastur's and even Nerophropte own mind. Oscar was sent back over 20 years, and he was taken into an orphanage."

"A church." Micheal grits his teeth.

"That is correct." Lilith frowns. "Everyone who wasn't trapped, became stuck. We don't have our realms anymore to access. Well, you angels do. Poor boy was probably just trying to see his mother and accidently opened the gates to heaven." She sighs deeply. "Can you believe he was a priest for a long time. I wish it didn't take me this long to remember him."

"What about Nerophropte?" Micheal tightens his grip on the cross.

"It's only been a year since he managed to really recall anything about his own son. He goes by Kayne now. His memories are still fractured, and he is trying, but he isn't the same creature either of us once knew." Lilith waves her hand. "Arthur darling, could you please go warn Charlie and Dennis before they return."

Arthur nods quickly before fleeing the room with John's guidance.

Lilith summons a blanket over Oscar. She takes the opposite recliner. "So the heaven gates are open again, and you choose to look over a nephew you refused to acknowledge."

Micheal purposely looked away. "Why is he so small? Why is he literred in scars? Why did he look so scared? He's supposed to be one of the most powerful creatures based on his lineage alone. He's so frail." He swallows. "I have never hated Lucifer enough to wish this upon their kin."

"So there is actual kindness in there." Lilith frowns and leans back. "This should have never happened. I even pity Nerophropte for this horrible tragedy." She brushes her hair out of her face. "Neither of them got to watch their boy grow up."

Oscar groaned from the couch, pulling both from their civil conversation. He takes a breath, spitting up a black ashen sludge. He makes a face as he sticks out his new tongue, which is forked. He reaches for his crosses, but they were all gone. "Where... where are they."

"I removed them." Micheal's frown deepens. "You can't heal properly with them on even if you are only half. Didn't anyone teach you that?"

Oscar flinched and curled up on the couch, hiding his face. "I-i, I'm sorry." He shudders and uses his wings to hide his body. Even the flame on his horns seemed to vanish. He was shaking as if he was terrified.

"No kid..." Micheal stops with a glare from Lilith.

"Oscar, do you know where you are?" Lilith's voice was calm eeriely so.

Oscar curled tighter in himself. He whimpered and mumbled the lords prayer in Latin, burning his tongue and causing smoke to pour from his mouth.

Micheal got up suddenly, and Lilith grabbed him. "You're supposed to be his guardian! Why the fuck are you letting this happen?"

"Micheal." Lilith growled. "What kind of abuse do you think a demon would face growing up as an orphan in a church?"

Micheal pulled away as if pieces were clicking together to form a picture that made him sick. "He's a fucking kid! Children are innocent, no matter their blood. For fuck sake even we have standards you like to point out we don't but even we draw a line at children." He turns away. "He has a mate marking you demons get. Where is his mate?"

"A man named Dennis Collins, Irish accent majority muscle, shorter than Oscar, has a beard and carries piano wire in his pocket." Lilith waves her hand. "Micheal, he will come here without our interference. He knows when Oscar is hurt."

"He's under contract... no he's..."

"His contract is fulfilled. Oscar owns him, and it's grown as a feedback loop. It's not entirely fully a mate bond, but stronger." Lilith pauses as she hears the front door slam open and shut and heavy boots trude inside. "Dennis."

A shorter man muscular, blue eyes and make you feel lost in the ocean and a short black beard to match his short black hair. He had a splattering of freckles on his face, and he was scowling. "Lilith."

"He tried to help Nerophropte open the gates of hell remove the barrier, but I assume due to the heritage of madness, he removed the barrier to heaven." Micheal stops and sighs, holding out a golden cross. "Do not allow him to wear this until he is healed." He vanishes leaving a pile of white feathers.

Lilith shakes her head. "He thinks he's back in the church as a child. He is reciting the lords prayer and needs someone to ground him."

Dennis grunts in acknowledgment and picks up Oscar in his arms. "Come on, my symphony, it's time to head to bed, and I'm going to tell you all about the garden that Hastur wants to plan even though it's fall nearing winter."

Oscar doesn't respond, but he stops praying.

.......

"You're my other daddy." A young boy stares up at Kayne.

"And you're little Oscar." Kayne smiles floating down.

"Where's the other me?" Little Oscar frowns.

Kayne strains a smile. After a rush of an explanation from Arthur, he knew he wanted to blame Micheal, but he knew better and didn't know why he shouldn't. "My Oscar is resting, he got hurt and needs time to recover."

"But...." Little Oscar looked close to crying. "But my mommy wanted to talk to him. I..." He stops as Kayne picks him up.

Kayne had a slight grimace through his smile as a headache threatened to break his mind. Holding the younger version of his son felt cathartic, like something slotted into place, and it made him yern for his own boy in his arms no matter how big he was. "It's not your fault."

Little Oscar reached up and touched Kayne's face. "Why are you crying?"

"Am I crying?" Kayne pauses and sighs. "My mind is broken, and I'm trying to fix it."

"Why?"

"I can't remember why, but I did verrrry bad things after it was broken. I forgot about you... my version of you and Lucifer. My memories are still fragmented. Trying to pull them together hurts, but it's working. I like to think it's working." Kayne smiles even through his tears.

Little Oscar puffs out his cheeks. "I don't know how to fix that."

"It's not your job to fix." Kayne hums softly, rocking little Oscar in his arms.

"Can I see the other me yet?"

Kayne laughs. "Come back another day. Tell Lucy a days rest will do him good."

Little Oscar huffs but vanishes.

Kayne wiped his face. "I'll wait here."

.....

"Didn't think you slept." Dennis sips his coffee.

"I don't sleep." Kayne lazily floats over. "Merely was thinking, Butcher."

Dennis raised a brow and sighed. He takes another sip before pausing. "You're early, little guy."

Big doe eyes stared up at Dennis, then to Kayne. "Is big me up yet? Mommy wants to ask him about...um... winter? She was being weird."

Dennis snorts, nearly spitting out his coffee.

Kayne thinned his lips, staring down at little Oscar. He knew exactly what they meant, and oh, just because their version of Oscar is young doesn't mean it's not a concern. "I'll go ask Oscar if he's ok to talk."

"Talk?" Oscar yawns, stepping into the living room. He was in just his boxers. His crosses were nowhere to be found he was rubbing his eye to try to wake up. "When did you get here, Kayne?"

Little Oscar had stars in his eyes. "Am I gonna get cool horns like you? Is the fire warm? You get more fur, that's so cool. I like your tail. You are getting a second pair of wings. I want a second pair. Mommy has three pairs of wings. You have a forked tongue! Daddy talks about Mommy's, but he says I'm too young to understand." He continues to ramble poking at every part on the older him that he thought was amazing.

Dennis looked close to losing it, laughing. "How about you let Oscar wake up a bit more?"

"But he's soooo cool." Little Oscar huffs as Kayne picks him up.

"Alright, little ball of entropy, give my boy some room." Kayne breaks out in a wide smile watching his boy's flames grow bright, and his face heats up a deep dark red.

Oscar swallows. "I uh... thank you." He wrings his hands. "What brings you here? Sorry I wasn't about yesterday."

"Mom was weird and wanted to ask you about winter. It's only autumn, dunno why she was being weird." Little Oscar jumps out of Kayne's grasp and points at Oscar feet and, more importantly, his heels where bone spurs come out for 3 inches. "Doe that make it feel like you're wearing weird girl shoes?"

Oscar blinks, staring at his younger alternate self. "No? I can't wear shoes like this." He pauses and hums for a moment. "It is almost winter she's probably asking about o- my... oh.... OH." The flame on his horns erupts again, causing Dennis to laugh. "Yeah... yeah, I'll come by to talk. Let me get my robe."

Kayne holds out a bright red robe. "Have fun tell the other me hello, and I want to talk."

Oscar grabs it glares at Dennis. "You're on the couch tonight."

Dennis snickers. "Aye, alright, I deserve that."

Oscar sighs and vanishes.

Kayne sighs. "Are you going to follow little entropy?"

Little Oscar looked up at Kayne. "No, it's gonna be dumb adult talking." He frowns. "I wanna hang out with big me he looks so cool. When will I look that cool?"

"Puberty most likely." Kayne sinks down. "My son here is a bit stunted, so his body is playing catch up. You'll get your stuff before he does."

"Stunted? I don't know what that means." Little Oscar frowns. "Did he get hurt?"

"He did." Kayne frowns. "I wasn't myself. I couldn't help him." He gasps as little Oscar tugs his hair.

"Other daddy isn't allowed to be sad." Little Oscar pouts. "Mr. Collins!"

"Out of my line of expertise, boyo." Dennis hums. "I can do breakfast however."

"Can I have what big me likes?"

Dennis chuckles. "Yeah, I can do that."

Kayne follows behind the two even though he won't eat.

.......

Oscar wraps his robe around him, greatly regretting not getting dressed beforehand. He was still sore, and Dennis didn't let him touch that new cross, which he guessed he understood. He just doesn't know how to manifest new clothing, and mending clothes was harder due to the spines on his back along with the wings and horns. He sighs as he knocks gently on the door in front of him. This was not a place on earth, but hell, a compromise in a sense.

The door swung open, and Oscar stumbled back. "Oh, my apologies. I expected you to just appear inside." The woman smiles and motions for him to come inside. "Interesting choice of outfit."

Oscar swallows. "It's early..."

"I'm merely teasing you, I know it's early." Lucifer smiles as Oscar enters. "I may have panicked earlier. Seeing you has got me thinking about my versions of you, and well, I have to know. Your father, and I'm assuming that they are similar enough to yours, they can choose when they go into that state and aren't at the mercy of seasons."

Oscar shifts nervously as the door shuts behind him. "I was um 18."

"That's older than normal." Lucifer frowns, studying his body, and she bites her lip. "You're stunted."

Oscar looked ashamed. "Kayne, my father says my body is playing catch up. I'm not entirely confident in myself without a cross on."

Lucifer cups Oscar's face in her hands. "Promise me you won't put it back on till the other me can look you over." She sighs. "Come sit. I'll make you breakfast."

Oscar cautiously takes a seat and blushes when he realizes his robe is wide open. "I didn't mean to flash you."

"Oscar, you're wearing underwear. You are no where near close to flashing me." Lucifer hums and turns on the heat on the stove. "Besides, I'm just another version of your mother it's nothing I haven't seen before. What do you want to eat?"

"Anything is fine." Oscar sighs. "I'm not picky."

Lucifer pauses. "Alright, I'm doing this, and I apologize to the other me."

Oscar looks up confused.

"Robe off." Lucifer doesn't wait for an answer with a flick of her wrist. The robe was in her hands. "Stand up."

Oscar tries to cover himself with his massive pair of wings, but it only reveals the scars from whips on his back.

Lucifer growls. "Oscar, I will only tell you this once. Do not hide yourself from me."

Oscar flinched and stretched his wings out to reveal the true extent of all the scaring over his entire body. He looked incredibly uncomfortable being exposed.

"Oscar, you aren't in trouble." Lucifer approaches slowly. "You're hurt, and most of this never properly healed. It's no wonder your true form is mostly from your father. My stuff is only superficial. I can't imagine how painful this is for you." Her steps are careful as she looks at his back. She can see a smaller second pair of wings barely emerge from Oscar's back. She can see bald spots in fur on his legs and arms and mostly his back. Bone spurs seem to be erupting in the bald spots as a defense to whatever was there to cause the bald spot and scarring. She takes a deep breath. "Oscar, I'm going to make you something comforting and set up a bath for you with some hell stones and brimstone."

"I should be getting back." Oscar jumps when Lucifer grabs his tail.

"I insist. I will set up a bath now you stay put." Lucifer doesn't leave room for an argument and scoops up her boy when he suddenly appears. "Hello my little monster, would you be a dear and go back and tell them I'm going to keep the other you here for a bit, and..." She summons a letter that already was written. "Give your other daddy this for me. Oh, and if you want to spend the day with Mr Collins, go ahead or go find the other Hastur."

Oscar takes the letter and smiles. "Can I take Faroe with me?"

"No, my little harbinger, Faroe is with her daddy." Lucifer hums for a moment. "Actually, come back in an hour or two. I'll have more stuff to send to your other daddy. Do you want to be Mommy's messenger today?"

"Like a mailman?" Oscar smiles wider when Lucifer nods.

"Yeah, and have fun with them, ok? Mommy is going to help the other you feel better." Lucifer smiled when her baby rushed to hug her.

"Thank you, Mommy! I'll be back. I love you." Oscar giggles and vanishes.

Lucifer turns back to the adult Oscar. She summons a large feast of comfort food on the table. "Eat, I'm setting up your bath. Nerophropte hasn't been back since he giggled about this worlds Dennis, and it's a surprise. But I married a being of madness and chaos." She puts Oscar in a chair and pushes him to the take covered in food. "I'll be back and you better be eating."

Oscar nods, hugging his chest. He felt exhausted, and a self-hatred wiggle it's way in his mind as he stared at the food. Why would she care about him? He's just a monster.

......

"I'm back! Mommy asked me to be a mailman!" Little Oscar giggles, grabbing Kayne's leg as he floats close to the ground.

"Little entropy!" Kayne laughs is cut off as the boy hands him a letter. He pauses as he reads, and he frowns as a serious expression rolls over his manic happiness. "Hmmmmm it seems you're going to hang out here."

Little Oscar nods. "Yeah!" He waves at Dennis, who nods seemingly understanding what is happening. "Mommy's gonna help the other me. She says he's hurt, but he doesn't look hurt, and he's smiling, so it can't be that bad."

Dennis sighs and takes little Oscar off Kayne. "Alright boyo, let's go find the detective and Hastur."

Little Oscar smiles. "Like an adventure?"

"Excatly." Dennis hums. "Would you be coming with us?"

Kayne shakes his head. "Afraid I have to meet an old friend. I'll be back you too." He vanishes from sight.

......

The water was boiling, but it felt amazing. Oscar sank down to his chin. The pain dulles to a quiet ache in his bones as he shuts his eyes.

"Oh."

A voice suddenly pulls Oscar out of that, and he stands up startled. He covers himself as a blush travels across his face. "I-i s-sorry."

Nerophropte shakes his head feet on the ground. "Absoutely not. Sit back down." Watches Oscar, sit back down, and he can see the sheer damage to his body. He can feel his shell crack from his simmering pure rage in his blood.

Oscar looked away, trying to hide himself in the red liquid. "Lucifer insisted I take a break in here. She wasn't happy. I didn't eat much and ushered me in here. Your Oscar is in my world." He swallows and stares down at the boiling liquid. "You uh just missed him. He was very excited to deliver messages between our worlds."

"What is the other me doing?" Nerophropte had a cautious tone in his voice as to not upset or scare this version of his son.

"Little me said he was talking to Micheal. He also made it clear to say that Kayne was holding him long enough that he took a nap. He wasn't able to tell me what the conversation was about. I can go and bring him back. I don't want to impose." Oscar goes to get up again.

A stern female voice interrupts. "How many fucking times do I have to tell you to sit and relax? You are not imposing, and this isn't a bother. My Oscar is having a fun time. You will sit there until I tell you to get out." Lucifer steps into the bathing room, arms crossed, and scowl on her lips. "I am not telling you again. You're going to fucking relax and allow yourself to heal or I will find a way to your world and dragging your mate here."

"Y-yes ma'am." Oscar sinks into the bath.

"And you!" Lucifer points at Nerophropte. "You are going to leave the boy be and let him relax. You are going to come in here help me make food for him and tell me excatly where the fuck you've been."

Nerophropte nods quickly, following Lucifer out of the bathing room. "You've seen him?"

Lucifer growls. "He has been trying to leave first the past three hours everything I try to help him heal or feed him. He's way too skinny and skittish." Her shoulders drop, and she lets out a heavy sigh. "He accidently opened the sealed heaven gates instead of hell. It only worsened his already frail condition. Do you have any idea how stunted he is? He doesn't remove the crosses he wears! Nerophropte, do you have any idea how painful that is, let alone dangerous? The only reason he hasn't accidently killed a large city with his demonic powers being suppressed and growing out of control is because of the side he gets from the other you!" She covers her face shaking. "Nerophropte, I can't imagine the sheer abuse he went through to twist his mind to think this was ok. He's not our baby, but he is."

"Lucifer." Nerophropte sounded deathly calm. "If I don't leave now, my shell will break, and I will scare him off. I agree, and I love you, but." A crack forms on his face and he vanishes.

"Mommy!" Her baby boy nearly startles her.

Lucider wipes her face and smiles. "Back already? Are you done having fun?"

Oscsr puffed out his cheeks. "Noooooo." He holds out a letter and a small box. "Mr. Collins wanted to give the box to Big me, and my other daddy wanted to give you that note. Also, can I sleep over? Pleaseeee! Noel is gonna teach me chess like the adults play, and Mr. Collins said if I stay over, he'll show me my other self favorite clothes and stuffed toys. Oh! And his favorite foods."

"Ok ok ok." Lucifer chuckles. "You have to behave and be Mommy's mailman if they ask to send letters." She summons her own few letters labeled for Dennis and Kayne. "Brings these over, and don't forget your little gruesome bear."

"Yay! Ok, Mommy, thank you!" Oscar grabs the letter and runs to his room to get his teddy bear and vanishes.

Lucifer sighs, opening the letter from the other Nerophropte. She grimaced reading the contents. It was as bad no worse than she could have imagined. She didn't need the context to know her other son was hurt badly, abused till the day he had his arm removed by force to save him. You can go blue in the face discussing the cruelty of herself or the old ones, but humanity had that special flavor that made her sick. There were other things in the letter, but they weren't as pressing. Kayne agreed to keep him here to heal, for as long as she was able. That world didn't have a hell for Oscar to heal, to have a single chance to properly recover and grow how he's supposed to.

Oscar sunk deep in the bath again, hearing footsteps approach.

"It's ok. I apologize for yelling before." Lucifer comes closer and hands over a small box to Oscar. "Your mate asked my boy to bring it for you."

Oscar reached out and took the small box and opened it to reveal a music box and a soft lullaby started to play. He smiles softly, placing it on the edge of the tub. "Alright, thank you. I'll stay here for a bit." He shuts his eyes and listens to the simple melody.

Lucifer sighs and nods knowing better than to pry.

.......

"Ok, I'm back relaxed and only destroyed like 6 cities." Nerophropte smiles.

Lucifer raised her brow.

"Ok, 22 cities, but I feel better!" Nerophropte smiles. "Not gonna destroy our home."

"Mmh." Lucifer sighs. "Oscar is asleep, and our Oscar comes back and is cuddled under his wing, wanting to surprise older him when he wakes up, but he also fell asleep. I've already taken a few photos, and if you wake them, I'm ripping out your heart."

Nerophropte gasps. "Let me see!"

Lucifer holds up the photos that her husband grabs. "I got Oscar to eat a bit more, but he's thin, thinner than he looks. I wish to discuss this with his mate, but unfortunately, neither of them know or understand demon needs or culture or even basic biology. He's obviously not getting the right nutrients. It's not his fault, and it's not Kayne's fault. The other yous memories are twisted, barely able to be focused upon to know what to do properly." She pulls at her hair. "I keep seeing him, and I think of our boy. I know we won't let that happen, but..."

Nerophropte hugs Lucifer tight. "We can help him, and whatever other version our boy finds and befriends." He smiles softly. "Did you hear anything from the other me?"

"Yes." Lucifer hands over a few letters. She waits for him to read through them before speaking. "Well."

Nerophropte frowns as he hands the letters back. "It's like a twisted mirror. I can see where my mind was taken apart. I am a being, a god of madness, but this... this I can remember these moments, but the way he states them, I can see the damage dome to his mind and how he's trying to force it to heal. It's actually disturbing." He floats down to have his feet on the ground. "That's not to say we are completely different, I'm certain I would act the same in his position, but he loves his Oscar, but he's forgotten how to do that properly. He doesn't have a version of you to help him."

Lucifer pulls her husband into a tight hug. "I'm sure the other me is doing their damndest to break out of hell. We've done it before and we'll do it again."

"Hell's been sealed before?" Nerophropte has a curious tone.

Lucifer chuckles and pulls away. "Oh, why do you think our first meeting was on a battlefield?"

"Wait... wait, Lucy, I want to hear the story." Nerophropte floats after Lucifer as she heads to bed.

......

"Good morning sleep-"

Oscar's eyes widen, and he falls onto his own bed after being startled. He lands on Dennis and covers his face. "Sorry."

Dennis cracks his eye open and yawns. "Thought you would stay longer to recover." He hugs Oscar from under him. "I suppose you'll have to be my heated blanket."

Oscsr blushes. "Dennis..." He takes a breath. "Are you alright. Did the other me cause trouble?"

Dennis chuckles softly. "Nah, the wee lad was merely a curious thing. Didn't cause trouble, and your father was his shadow. Innocent creature that boy is."

Oscar smiles softly. "Thank you." He pauses and pushes himself up and out of Dennis's grasp. He turns over and stares down at Dennis. "You're a bit pale."

Dennis sighs. "I'm always pale."

"Not this pale." Oscar moves to the side and sits up. "Dennis."

"Oscar." Dennis smiles softly, propping himself up to sit next to Oscar. "I'm fine. I'm just a little worn." He grabs Oscar's hand. "You look worse. Did they even feed you?"

Oscar huffs. "I'm not that bad." He stares down at himself. He makes a face staring at his ribs poking out. "I... I'll be better."

Dennis brushes hair out of Oscar's face. "Stay here. I'll make you some breakfast." He stops when Oscar grabs his hand.

"Stay with me a bit longer. You don't look well, and I know I can't make you rest, but just stay with me here." Oscar lays back down, and Dennis follows using Oscar's wing as a blanket.

"I suppose I could keep the detective waiting, and it's not like he isn't capable of making his own food." Dennis hums.

"Thank you."

.....

"Nerophropte, are you even listening?" A male voice made Kayne blink.

Kayne gripped his head. No, he was checking in on his Oscar and his consort. He isn't here. He didn't even know where here was. "This isn't real."

The man tilts his head and smiles. "This isn't real, but you should listen regardless."

Kayne scowls and goes to attack, but the man appears behind him.

"I'm merely a memory attached to well... what did I say?" The man shifts to the form of a woman. "To be bonded to a demon will always change their mate unless they too are demon."

"You... you..." Kayne stares at the figure who looks familiar but he couldn't place them.

"You. You what?" The figure laughs a mix of female and male tones together. "You're broken and don't know the truth from fiction the past from the future. I'm merely trying to help you put the pieces together. You're so desperate to remember that you've accepted something. I don't think any of the yous left have."

Kayne growls and lunges again, but the stranger dodges him.

"I'm not done, Nerophropte." The stranger smiles and shifts to a photo negative of Kayne. "Oh, who am I kidding? This would be way funnier." The stranger jumps at Kayne, and as soon as they touch, they fuse together.

.......

"Kayne? Come on, we don't need Oscar finding you here like this." Noel was shaking Kayne gently while he was on the floor.

"You are going to get us killed." Hastur hisses.

Noel groans as Kayne sits up suddenly and knock their heads together. "Fuck." He falls back and rubs his forehead.

Kayne blinks. "What was that?"

"You headbutted Noel." Hastur responds dryly.

Kayne pauses. "Something is different." He floats up rubbing his chin. "Oh, I don't know what it is, and it will drive me crazy. Tip of the tongue sort of thing. Yaknow?"

Noel sighs and gets up. "Right..."

Kayne snaps his fingers. "Ah, right, I was gonna see my boy."

"Oscar is sleeping." Dennis sighs and leans on the door frame to the hallway. He was paler than normal, but he didn't seem sick. He just had bruises by the top of his forehead equal distance from each other. "Don't wake him. He only came back because the other you startled him when he woke up."

"Oh, he accidently traversed dimension that's adorable." Kayne smiles with too many teeth. "Oh, he's probably going to be hungry! I think I can remember his favorite!" He vanishes.

"I'm going to hide my good pans." Dennis sighs.

"Before that, one what's up with the bruises and two I think Kayne actually fell asleep if only for a few minutes." Noel pauses as Dennis stares at him.

Dennis points to his forehead. "Horns, and boy you better not be fucking with me."

"Horns?" Noel hums. "Actually, that makes sense. It's odd it's taken so long..... yes, it does make sense. I'll explain later...." He pinches his brow and takes a breath. "Yes, I'm certain that kayne was in some sort of state. He didn't even react when I walked next to him or when I shook him."

Dennis frowns. "This is... I don't know what this means." He crosses his arms. "It would be wise not to mention it to Kayne."

"Agreed." Noel nods.

......

"Excuse me, not daddy." Little Oscar stared up at Kayne. "Why are your eyes weird?" He was holding hands with a woman.

The woman gave a strained smile and crouched down next to her son. "Go find big you."

Little Oscar nods and runs deeper into the apartment.

Kayne sunk down feet to the floor, his hands dripping a crimson liquid. "You're..."

The woman blinks and shakes her head. "I never thought.... I'm still...." She smiles softly and brushes back Kayne's short white wild hair. "You look tired."

"I don't sleep." Kayne's voice was oddly calm.

The woman chuckles softly. "Maybe you should try. Why are you covered in blood today?"

"I was going to make Oscar's favorite, but I don't... I can't remember what that was. I used to eat, right? It should be something like that." Kayne stops when the woman grabs his hand.

"Relax, it will come back to you. The me here is helping even if you don't think so. You've accepted the mating bond, but I never thought it would be possible." She smiles sadly, seeing a look of recognition in Kayne's eyes. "My, you seem to be a bit more stubborn than you then. I may have a bit of jealousy in my blood for myself here."

Kayne cracks a genuine smile. It's small and barely noticeable. "Thank you."

"Mommy, mommy!" Little Oscar was pulling an adult version of himself to her. "I found big me!"

Oscar yawned wearing a robe, but still no crosses. "Morning."

"Did you wake him up?" She crouched down to face her son.

Little Oscar puffs out his cheeks. "You wanted to see him."

"It's alright." Oscar rubs his eyes. "Sorry for vanishing."

The woman smiles and gets back up and brushes the hair out of Oscar's face. "It's quite alright, I just wanted to make sure you got back safe, and my little harbinger wanted to say good morning."

"Ah, good morning!" Little Oscar shouts and vanishes with his mother in tow.

Kayne smiles wide. "Are you alright?"

Oscar nods and hugs Kayne. "Wanna go back to bed." He yawns. "Mmh, really tired."

Kayne picks up his boy. "I'll take you there. I'll be there till you fall asleep."

"Thank you, dad." Oscar purrs softly.

......

"Back so soon?" The Stranger purrs.

Kayne gritted his teeth and lunged. He just goes through the stranger.

"As entertaining as it is to watch you flail around like a mortal in a box. I do have limited time, or I don't it really depends on you." The Stranher laughs and flicks their wrist, and thousands upon thousands of locked doors appear. "Huh, a bit on the nose as a metaphor, huh. Anyway, what do you think these are, Nero baby?"

Kayne growls. "It's Kayne."

"Yeah yeah whatever I don't care." Stranger sighs. "I'll hold your hand, sweetie, because I'm feeling nice." They float up and point to the doors. "Want me gone? Then you have to open every single one of these doors." He pauses and turns upside down. "Which if you haven't guessed are the memories you're after! Every one you figure out, I'll slowly vanish because I'm just you, well you with their head intact." He laughs manically. "You may ask why now? Why me? Where is this? Well, I was being nice, not generous. I'm only holding your hand because whatever little infection old Lucifer gave us with a successful mate bond forces me to. And man, is he a real tight ass. Oh, it reminds me why we fell in love. Oh well, you have to figure that out on your own! Tootaloo!"

Kayne hisses as the photo negative version of himself vanishes. He looks around this plane that makes no sense and the assortment of doors. He huffs and floats up to a single door. He reaches out and tries to touch it, but his hand goes right through. It kind of feels like viseria. He had to be logically. He hated that.

.......

#malevolent #oscar malevolent #kayne malevolent #arthur lester

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denimbex1986 · 1 year ago

Text

'For Andrew Scott, the Hot Priest questions are cooling down.

Yes, the affable Irish actor is still best known stateside as a devout dreamboat on “Fleabag” with Phoebe Waller-Bridge. But lately, he’s encountered more people who are eager to discuss "All of Us Strangers" (in select theaters now, nationwide Friday), a crushing gay romance that reckons with mortality.

“I was at the gym and this girl came up who’d just seen the movie,” says Scott, 47, still in his sweats as he refuels with scrambled eggs, toast and green juice. “Like all good art, it sparks a need in people to speak a little about their experience. I find it really moving they would trust me to talk about their lives – they feel like I’ve seen them.”

In the fantastical drama, Scott plays a lonely writer named Adam who ventures back to his boyhood home, where he discovers his long-dead parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell) are actually alive. Over many visits, he reverts to a childlike state: unpacking his old pajamas and past traumas and climbing into their bed for late-night heart-to-hearts. It’s a remarkably unguarded performance that could earn Scott his first Oscar nomination for best actor.

“He’s one of the most extraordinary human beings I've ever had the privilege of meeting,” co-star Paul Mescal says. “The work that he does in the film is a testament to the person he is. That kind of vulnerability is what’s present in his friendship with me.”

Adam’s parents died in the 1980s, and are still stuck in their younger bodies and mindsets when he returns home. As a result, Adam wrestles with their outdated ideas around homosexuality and what it means to be a man.

“There was so much nuance I wanted to get across that I needed the actor to really understand what that felt like,” writer/director Andrew Haigh says. “So when you see Andrew, that is genuine emotion that he cannot hide or escape. You can’t fake that.”

The film was shot in Haigh’s real childhood home, which added levels of responsibility and intimacy that Scott had never experienced before on a set.

“Because he offered that up, I was going to offer my own stuff up and give my experience,” Scott says. “Whatever it is that we created, it’s certainly authentic to both of us.”

Scott was born and raised in Dublin. His mom was an art teacher, while his dad worked at an employment agency. As a kid with a "very strong imagination," he enrolled in drama classes to help overcome his shyness. He got his start in a porridge commercial at age 6, appearing in other ads and theater before booking his first film, “Korea,” at 17.

Even at an early age, he felt different from his peers. His prized possession was a pair of binoculars, which reminded him of opera glasses from old movies (“Pretty gay, right?”). He remembers “the shame” of wanting to play with Barbie dolls, and the exhilaration he felt listening to disco legend Gloria Gaynor.

“I remember hearing ‘I Will Survive’ and thinking, ‘This song is for me!’ ” Scott says. “Not even knowing why – I was probably about 9. And then you find out 10 years later it’s a big gay anthem. That fascinates me because that has nothing to do with sexuality. That has to do with a feeling of otherness or defiance or drama.”

Scott came out to his parents in his early 20s, before publicly coming out in 2013 at age 37. At that time, he had already found success on TV with “Sherlock” and “John Adams.” But at the start of his career, people advised him not to speak about his sexuality, for fear that it might cost him roles.

“Coming out was the best thing that ever happened to me in relation to my work,” Scott says. “I got more opportunities. I felt like I was happier as a person. I was more experimental as an artist. Before that, you’re in a slightly speculative world where you’re thinking, ‘Well, if they saw this side of me, would I be (rejected)?’ Now, I don’t feel as defensive as I used to be.”

Working the awards circuit in recent months, he’s found camaraderie with other “incredible” gay actors including Colman Domingo, Jodie Foster and Jonathan Bailey.

“That community within my own life has become incredibly important to me as I grow older,” Scott says. “There’s something about having gay friends that is really special to me now. There’s a shorthand and hopefully an empathy among us.”

Like any actor, Scott never wants to be solely defined by his sexuality. “That’s one of the things that I think is a fear for a lot of queer people,” he says. “I don’t want that to be ignored, nor do I want to be drowning in that one attribute the whole time.” Luckily, “I’ve had an opportunity to play lots of different types of parts,” including a villain in the James Bond movie “Spectre” and a lieutenant in the war drama “1917.”

Next up, he stars in the Netflix series “Ripley,” which he describes as a “stunning” and “quite faithful” adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel “The Talented Mr. Ripley.” After leading a one-man “Uncle Vanya” in London last year, he would also like to do a musical (“But it’s hard because I can’t sing!”).

He recently got to watch “All of Us Strangers” with his parents, which they “loved.” Going forward, he believes the movie has made him a more open and confident performer.

“I’ve always brought myself to every character, but in this film, I certainly did more than any other one,” Scott says. “The fact that people have responded to it encourages me to share more. We’re not here long, so I’m just trying to be courageous in some way.”'

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inevitably-johnlocked · 4 years ago

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Hello Steph 😊 Do you have any BAMF Molly or just some good fics that feature Molly? I need some Molly love at the moment because I just read a fic where she "turns to the drak side" so to speak, and my heart 😭😭😭

Hey Nonny!

Ah I did a few comm. recs lists recently with Molly, but here are what I can offer you from memory, LOL. PLEASE add your fave Molly fics, guys! PLEASE NOTE these are fics I’ve read, and please check the sub-headings for a TONNE of stuff I haven’t read!! Big title so I can find it later LOL.

MOLLY PLAYS A ROLE

See also:

COMM RECS: Coming Out To Molly

COMM RECS: Molly with Women

COMM RECS: Molly and Greg Push John and Sherlock Together

COMM RECS: Molly as a Villain

Santa Knows by Itsallfine (T, 1,719 w., 1 Ch. || Christmas Party, Love Confessions, First Kiss, Fluff, Matchmaking, POV Sherlock, Pining Sherlock) – Sherlock and John both get exactly what they want from the Yard's secret Santa exchange. Pure holiday fluff.

What John Doesn't Know (Won't Hurt Him) by blueink3 (NR [T], 4,392 w., 1 Ch, || S3 Fix It, Pining Sherlock, Snippets of Life, Hurt/Comfort, Scars, Fluff and Angst, Five and One, Hopeful Ending, POV Sherlock) – Five people who see Sherlock's scars before John Watson. But Sherlock's secrets were never something he could keep from his blogger for long.

Thirty Three Hours Without John Watson by Bookaholic, mybrotherharry (M, 6,232 w. || First Kiss / Time, Pining Idiots, BG Mystrade, Crackish) – Sherlock can SO TOTALLY survive without John Watson. It should be a piece of cake. AKA the time when Sherlock braved grocery store lines for milk, purchased and gave away a box of tampons and figured out what the X-Factor is. Greg and Mycroft didn’t sign up for this shit. Next time, they are going to the Bahamas.

Wonderful, Etcetera. by VictoryCandescence (T, 16,955 w., 3 Ch. || Wonderful Life AU || Alternate Timelines, Brotherhood, Homophobia, Suicidal Ideations, Mentions of Drug Use, Friendship, Different TRF, Sherlock’s Past, Victor Trevor is Past Boyfriend, Depression, Hallucination, Love Confessions, Christmas, First Kiss) – Sherlock thinks everyone would be better off if he had never existed, including and especially himself. When he finds himself in a world in which his wish has been granted, he begins to think perhaps even he could be wrong – but it takes an unlikely chaperone to make him not only observe, but understand.

Insanity in the Middle by DotyTakeThisDown (E, 28,010 w., 8 Ch. || Equestrian Sports AU || Alternate First Meeting, POV John, Pining John, Bottomlock, Clueless Sherlock, First Kiss/Time, Passionate Kisses, Hand Holding, Caught Making Out, Bed Sharing, Spooning, Blow Job) – John is a world-class eventing rider with a gold medal and several four-star wins to his credit, but he's never won at Rolex. Sherlock is an up-and-coming rider taking the sport by storm.

Love or What You Will by miss_frankenstein (T, 31,987 w., 11 Ch. || College/Uni AU || Professor John, Ph.D Student Sherlock, Pining John, Poetry, Falling in Love / Slow Burn, Light Angst, Happy Ending) – John is an English professor who specializes in War and Post-War Literature and Sherlock is the brilliant yet impossible Ph.D. student assigned to be his TA because no one in the Chemistry Department is willing to put up with him. And - somewhere between Waugh and Plath, e-mails and takeaway, novels and villanelles - they fall in love.

The Wrong Wagon by DancingGrimm (E, 35,663 w., 20 Ch. || Alternating POV, Molly/ John [Molly pines for John], Public Sex, Casual Sex, Obliviousness, BAMF!John, Awkwardness, Angst & Humour, First Time, Virgin Sherlock, Jealous Sherlock) – Molly sees John in a new light and realises that she may have hitched her horse to the wrong wagon...or something like that. John pines for Sherlock and worries what he will think if he ever finds out. And Sherlock doesn't know what Molly's up to...but he knows he doesn't like it.

The Pieces That Fall to Earth by Itsallfine (M, 49,513 w., 84 Ch. || S4 Fix-It, Epistolary, Love Confessions, Slow Burn, Parentlock, Past Abuse, Coming Out, Internalized Homophobia, Questioning Sexuality, Mental Health Issues / Therapy, Angst, Happy Ending) – John and Sherlock have hit rock bottom, but with all their armor stripped away, they can finally speak honestly, seek healing, and find the truths that matter most. An epistolary post-s4 fix-it fic. Now complete. (This fic is rated T except for one very clearly marked and easily skippable chapter, which is rated M.) Part 1 of The Pieces that Fall to Earth

floating through a dark blue sky by Lediona (M, 58,966 w., 15 Ch. || Notting Hill AU || POV John, Celebrity Sherlock, First Date / Time / Kiss, Past Drug Addiction, Angst with a Happy Ending) – Of course, I’d seen his films and always thought he was, well, brilliant -- but, you know, a million miles from the world I live in. Or, when John is the owner of a travel book shop and the famous Sherlock Holmes stops in one day.

This Thing All Things Devours by cypress_tree (E, 63,844 w., 15 Ch. || In Time AU || Science Fiction, Dystopian Universe, First Meetings, Action / Adventure, Romance) – In 2169, time is money—literally. Humans are genetically engineered to stop aging at 25, when the numbers on their arm start counting down from one year. When that time is up, they die. The only way to get more time is to earn it, borrow it, or steal it.John Watson lives day-to-day in the crowded slums of Zone 13. He never imagined living any differently—until he meets the practically-immortal Sherlock, and helps him on a case to track a local time-thief...

Northwest Passage by Kryptaria (E, 95,157 w., 27 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Canadian AU || BAMF!John, Canadian John, PTSD, Anal / Oral Sex, Rimming, Emotional Hurt / Comfort, Drug Rehab, Falling in Love, Pining Sherlock, Love Confessions, Sherlock’s Violin, Panic Attacks, Switching, Anxious / Protective Sherlock, Hugs for Comfort, Suicide Mentions, Healing Each Other) – Seven years ago, Captain John Watson of the Canadian Forces Medical Service withdrew from society, seeking a simple, isolated life in the distant northern wilderness of Canada. Though he survives from one day to the next, he doesn't truly live until someone from his dark past calls in a favor and turns his world upside-down with the introduction of Sherlock Holmes." Part 1 of Tales from the Northwest

The Stars Move Still by BeautifulFiction (E, 96,022 w., 5 Ch. || Magical Realism, Demons, Slash to Pre-Slash, AU, Happy Ending, Souls) – "What could I want so desperately that would make me sell my soul? What could possibly compel me to surrender the part of myself that makes me who I am: the source of my magic, my self-control, everything?”

Definitions by siennna (T, 101,528 w., 12 of ? Ch. || Dev. Rel., Pining, Fluff and Romance, First Kiss, Love Confessions, Fluff, Cuddles, Girl’s Night, Texting, Virgin Sherlock, Drunk Sherlock, Background Mollstrade, Hair Petting, Laying on Lap) – Sherlock’s journey in defining his flat mate and stumbling through the muddled world of emotion. {{This feels complete; the chapter count is listed as ? but I feel like it is done}}

between each beat are words unsaid by darcylindbergh, hudders-and-hiddles (T, 107,998 w., 215 Ch. || Epistolary, Slow Burn, Friends to Lovers, Angst, Happy Ending) – On their wedding night, John and Sherlock gift each other with the things they each said when the other could not hear, the things they each put down where the other could not see: a collection of writings that illustrate the way their love for one another has grown over the years. Part 1 of between each beat

The Burning Heart by May_Shepard (M, 119,150 w., 21 Ch. || Canon Divergence, Post-TRF, John’s Sexuality, S3 Rewrite, Pining, Angst with a Happy Ending, POV John Watson, John’s Gay) – When Sherlock dies, John Watson feels like his life is over too. He’s completely shut down, until Mark Morstan, a new nurse at John’s medical clinic, catches his attention, and helps him uncover the long buried truth of his attraction to men. Although he’s certain he’ll never get over Sherlock, John plans to move on, and build a new life with Mark, unaware that Sherlock is not quite as dead as he appears, and that Mark is hiding secrets of his own.

A Further Sea by i_ship_an_armada & ShinySherlock (E, 125,492 w., 23 Ch. || Historical Pirates AU || Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Doctor John / Pirate Captain Sherlock, Sailing, UST / RST, Masturbation, Action / Adventure, Mild Angst & Peril, Romance, Shaving, Molly/Janine, Bottomlock, Hand / Blow Jobs, Past Drug Use, Slow Burn, Mild Violence, Facial Shaving, Happy Ending) – Here be a tale of adventure for both body and soul, but beware if ye be not of stout heart, for this be piratelock, ya savvy? Luckless ship's surgeon John Watson takes a chance, and finds himself eye to eye with The Ghost, the scourge of the seven seas and a definite thorn in the side of the blaggard, James Moriarty. But when John finds there's more to this most cunning pirate than be meetin' the eye, he has to choose... is it a pirate's life for him?

The Horse and his Doctor by khorazir (T, 129,003 w., 13 Ch. || Horse / Vet AU || Magical Realism, Horses, Vet John, Horse Sherlock, Implied Alcoholism) – Invalided after a run in with a poacher in Siberia, veterinary surgeon John Watson finds it difficult to acclimatise to the mundanity of London life. Things change when a friend invites him along to a local animal shelter and he meets their latest acquisition, a trouble-making Frisian with the strangest eyes and even stranger quirks John has ever encountered in a horse.

Performance In a Leading Role by Mad_Lori (E, 156,714 w., 21 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Hollywood / Actor AU, Secret Relationship, Falling in Love, Slow Burn, Romance, Coming Out, Fluff and Angst, Pining) – Sherlock Holmes is an Oscar winner in the midst of a career slump. John Watson is an Everyman actor trapped in the rom-com ghetto. When they are cast as a gay couple in a new independent drama, will they surprise each other? Will their on-screen romance make its way into the real world? Part 1 of Performance in a Leading Role

Mise en Place by azriona (M, 161,004 w., 28 Ch. || Restaurant (Kitchen Nightmares) AU || Sherlock is Gordon Ramsay / Celebrity Sherlock, Restauranteur John, Harry Plays Prominent Role, Alternating POV, Mutual Pining, Cranky Sherlock, Bed Sharing, Slow Burn) – John Watson had no intentions of taking over the family business, but when he returns from Afghanistan, battered and bruised, and discovers that his sister Harry has run their restaurant into the ground, he doesn't have much choice. There's only one thing that can save the Empire from closing for good – the celebrity star of the BBC series Restaurant Reconstructed, Chef Sherlock Holmes. Part 1 of Mise en Place

#steph replies #johnlock fic recs #molly fics #molly plays a role #my fic recs #Anonymous #long post

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lightsonparkave · 3 years ago

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HAPPY TWO-YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO LIGHTS ON PARK AVE! 🎂🎉 In celebration of LoPA’s birthday (August 22, to be exact), all of the prompts from the previous year are up for grabs.

Round 24 will end on August 31, 11:59 PM ET (what time is that for me?).

As always, you’re free to jump in whenever you’d like during the round, a wide variety of work types is accepted, and there are no minimum work requirements. Unfinished works and works for other fandom events are allowed. You can find more information about Lights on Park Ave and the participation guidelines here.

Here are all 149 prompts. Go crazy and have fun! 🎈

ROUND 13: TIME

A quote about being infinite in the present moment from The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“Vellichor,” the the strange wistfulness of used bookstores

“How long is forever?” dialogue from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

“Time” - Hans Zimmer (Inception OST)

A quote and gifset from Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival (2016) about the nonlinear structure of time

Agnès Varda’s portraits when she was 20, 36, and 80 years old

A John Irving quote about what time does to the people who matter to us

Ten traveling back to see Rose on New Year’s Day in 2005 before he dies and reincarnates in Doctor Who

Future inventions in 2015 as seen in Robert Zemeckis’s Back to the Future Part II (1989)

A quote about what time does for wounds

ROUND 14: LIMINALITY

A photoset of various liminal spaces

Illustration of a black cat in front of a red-lit house with the caption, “They say no one is living here—but the lights come on, once every year”

A photoset of Victorian-era spirit photography, an art form that attempted to capture the ghost of a deceased loved one

Information on the famous Mojave phone booth, a lone telephone booth in the middle of the desert that received calls from all over the world

Rosemary Ellen Guiley’s The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits Third Edition’s definition of “witching hour”

Illustration of a ghost train on an abandoned trestle bridge in the Pacific Northwest

A quote by Isabel Allende about spirits coming out at night in the library

Gifset of the spirit world in Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001)

Illustration of a neon roadside sign of a motel that only appears at night by a long-forgotten highway

“Pacific Coast Highway” - Kavinsky

A gifset quote from The Twilight Zone (1959)

Scenery from Twin Peaks season 1 (1990)

A quote about something shifting into a strange, new place inside of a person from Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

ROUND 15: LOSS

A quote about being lost and found by someone special by Sue Zhao

A photo of the Mildred, wrecked off Gurnard’s Head, Cornwall in 1912

A quote about ephemerality and the beauty of it from Troy (2004)

Two paintings of people visiting ruins by Caspar David Friedrich

A quote about desire and loss by Lara Mimosa Montes

A photo of an overgrown, abandoned conservatory

A passage about what disappears and what remains in ruins from Suicide by Édouard Levé

Dialogue about gratitude for people who aren’t meant to stay in your life but shape who you are from BoJack Horseman

A scene from Fleabag where the Priest chooses God over Fleabag and gently tells Fleabag that her love for him will pass before they part ways

A prayer to St. Anthony, patron saint of lost things, people, and souls

Oscar Wilde’s tomb in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, covered in lipstick kisses from admirers

Photos of a cemetery statue in Austria, wrapped in branches and dead leaves, holding a single flower

ROUND 16: DEVOTION/SERVICE

A gifset of Kevin on the phone, telling Chiron he’ll cook food for him from Barry Jenkin’s Moonlight (2016)

Buttercup’s monologue to Westley about how she would do anything for him from The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Gifs of Merlin saying that he was born to serve Arthur from BBC’s Merlin

An excerpt about giving all of oneself to someone despite what it costs from House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

A gifset of various times Jaime and Brienne demonstrate their loyalty to and love for each other in Game of Thrones

A gifset of all the different ways Cliff is there for Rick in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

A gifset of Nadia deciding to be by Alan’s side no matter what in Russian Doll

“Devotion” - Ocean Vuong

A gifset of Bond comforting a traumatized Vesper in the shower in Casino Royale (2006)

A gifset of Sookhee refusing to leave Hideko, saying her job is to look after her in Park Chanwook’s The Handmaiden (2016)

ROUND 17: DREAMS

A dreamscape gifset and quote about repressed thoughts in dreams and the Internet from Satoshi Kon’s Paprika (2006)

A gifset of Mitsuha and Taki finally meeting in their own bodies in a dream from Shinkai Makoto’s Kimi no Na wa (Your Name) (2016)

A quote by Tinker Bell telling Peter Pan where he can find her and where she’ll always love him in Steven Spielberg’s Hook (1991)

The scene where Keating tells his students that poetry, beauty, romance, and love give life meaning in Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society (1989)

An animated illustration of a storefront called “Hauntings” with a flickering “99¢ dreams” neon sign

Various dreamscape scenes and a quote about ideas being the most resilient parasite from Christopher Nolan’s Inception (2010)

A quote about how all living beings must dream to survive reality from The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

A comic about people we love taking turns to visit us in dreams every night

Lovers and Sleeping Couple, two drawings by Egon Schiele

A quote about belief in a better world by Robert Frobisher to his lover, Rufus Sixsmith, in Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

A quote about the feeling of falling in love lingering when you wake up from a dream in Alexis Dos Santos’s Unmade Beds (2009)

A photo of subway graffiti by an unknown author insisting that they’ll never give up making the world a better place to live in

ROUND 18: PHYSICAL TOUCH

A scene about how to return a stolen kiss from Daniel Ribeiro’s The Way He Looks (2014)

A line about kissing someone the way a flower opens from “I Know Someone” by Mary Oliver

A gifset focusing on showing affection and care through hands from Park Chanwook’s The Handmaiden (2016)

A passage about two people leaving invisible marks on each other through the accumulation of touches over the years from A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood

Two conversations about never being touched before and only being touched by one person from Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight (2016)

Going from yearning to touch someone but stopping oneself to being allowed to touch them from Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy

Moving art of two bodies made of stars and the cosmos embracing

A quote about maintaining sanity by touching someone but being separated despite proximity from The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

A line about proving that one still exists and is real through touch from On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Different touches between Villanelle and Eve expressing violence, threat, sexual tension, comfort, and companionship in Killing Eve

A juxtaposition of two scenes from Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love (2000) of Su Li-zhen rejecting and accepting Chow Mo-wan’s hand

A compilation of marble sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Syd (Chris Evans) trailing kisses down London’s back in London (2005)

ROUND 19: IMMORTALITY

James Baldwin talking about how art helps you discover that people before you have experienced the same thing as you and you are not alone

Dr. Brand saying that love transcends time and space in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014)

Nadia and Alan meeting for the first time as they’re about to die and relive the same day again in Russian Doll

The loneliness of losing everyone by having a long life as expressed by Ten in Doctor Who

The doomed eternal time loop romance of Simon and Alisha from Misfits

A quote by Edvard Munch about becoming eternal through the flowers that grow from his body after death

Nagai Kei recalling the traffic accident that killed him and triggered his immortality, making him one of the rare persecuted humans to possess the power, in Ajin

A collection of moments from Jay Russell’s Tuck Everlasting (2002)

A quote by Mary Wollstonecraft hoping for something that lasts inside the heart

Various scenes with Jack Harkness from Doctor Who

Aya telling Asou-kun to live on and live forever as she nears the end of her life in 1 Litre of Tears

An excerpt about the immortalization of the self through love from “Love of the Wolf” in Hélène Cixous’s Stigmata

A collection of scenes from the Black Mirror episode “San Junipero”

Naoko telling Toru to always remember her and remember that she existed in Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Dom explaining to Ariadne that he uses the PASIV to dream as it’s the only way that he can be with his wife and children in Christopher Nolan’s Inception (2010)

ROUND 20: POETRY

“I’m Going Back to Minnesota Where Sadness Makes Sense” - Danez Smith

A line about wanting to forget how much you loved someone and then actually forgetting from Bluets by Maggie Nelson

“Perhaps the World Ends Here” - Joy Harjo

“In Time” - W. S. Merwin

“By Small and Small: Midnight to Four A.M.” - Jack Gilbert

“Magdalene: The Addict” - Marie Howe

“Wild Geese” - Mary Oliver

“Morphology 2″ - CJ Scruton

“20″ from Moscow in the Plague Year by Marina Tsvetaeva

“To Hold” - Li-Young Lee

ROUND 21: LONGING

“I Loved You Before I Was Born” - Li-Young Lee

A poem about longing for someone through worlds by Izumi Shikibu

A gifset of Marianne and Héloïse falling in love from Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

“Make Me Feel” - Janelle Monáe

A quote about living in longing being better than realizing that longing from 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

“I Want You” - Mitski

Orpheus and Eurydice in Hades - Friedrich Heinrich Füger

Long definition of the word “saudade”

Definition of the word “hiraeth”

“Something About Us” - Daft Punk

Two lines about burning quietly from the poem “The Pillowcase” by Annelyse Gelman

A conversation about wanting each other after decades of separation from Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory (2019)

A Hanahaki disease mood board

“Shrike” - Hozier

Two lines about wanting someone to return from Herakles by Euripides

“Love of My Life” - Queen

“Eyes, Nose, Lips” - Taeyang

A screenshot of Kathy and Tommy holding onto each other desperately from Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go (2010) and a quote from Kazuo Ishiguro’s eponymous novel

ROUND 22: YOUTH

“Perfect Places” - Lorde

A piece about realizing you’ll never be this young again, but it’s the first time you’re this old by Kalyn Roseanne Livernois

A conversation between Neil and Mr. Keating about Neil feeling trapped and unable to live the life he wants because of his father from Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society (1989)

An excerpt about being too young to know how to love properly from Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” - Arctic Monkeys

Elio’s father telling Elio not to try to rid himself of his sorrow and pain—and with that joy—which he feels so strongly because he’s so young from Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman

A quote about how everything feels final to young people because they’re experiencing it for the first time from Middlemarch by George Eliot

Lara Jean telling Peter that she had to make it seem like she liked him to deal with her love letter fiasco in Susan Johnson’s To All the Boys I Loved Before (2018)

Rue and Jules dancing together and partying it up in Euphoria

“Le Plongeoir” by Laurent Roch

A quote about being pushed into adulthood and not being ready from Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

A photo of a roller rink illuminated by pink and purple lights

Pastel photo series of Coney Island by Mijoo Kim and Minjin Kang

“Hips Don’t Lie” - Shakira feat. Wyclef Jean

“Young Dumb & Broke” - Khalid

Different moments accompanied by the letter to Mr. Vernon at the end of detention from John Hughes’s The Breakfast Club (1985)

Various scenes and a quote about growing up and realizing life isn’t like a fairy tale from Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Stills of the young lesbian couple in love from the music video of “You Know” - Jaurim

Lines by Effy about her emotional and mental struggles from Skins

Nathan chiding the group for not taking advantage of their superpowers as young offenders from Misfits

ROUND 23: HEDONISM

A passage about giving into passion and losing control from The Secret History by Donna Tartt

“Thot Shit” - Megan Thee Stallion

An aesthetic photoset of the Greek god Dionysus

A quote about living for ecstasy rather than balance from From a Journal of Love by Anaïs Nin

A photo of an anonymous person in nothing but a silk robe and lingerie

A photo of Donatella Versace lounging in a chair, surrounded by shirtless, muscular men sunbathing around her in Capri, Italy in 1994

An aesthetic photoset based on The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The music video for “Heartless” by The Weeknd

A plea for summer to never end from Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman

“Plastic Love” - Mariya Takeuchi

A gifset from the music video of “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd, a continuation of the “Heartless” music video

“XS” - Rina Sawayama

A gifset from the music video of “Body” by Mino

Photos of people dancing at the legendary Studio 54

Photos and a description of the party scene at Studio 54

Chris Evans and Evan Rachel Wood hooking up in a car in the “Gucci Guilty Black” commercial

#stevetony #steve/tony #superhusbands #stony #stevetony prompts #stony prompts #lightsonparkave #round 24

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oftincturedwords · 4 years ago

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For the unique writing ask: 18 (+ loved your answer on (I think it was) 1, about the platonic love. I totally agree with you ^^)

unique writing asks🖋️ : accepting !

18. What writers have inspired you with their use of language? What are some of your favorite quotes?

i’m glad to hear more are of that opinion , thank you for saying so ! platonic love is just as important as romantic love , it’s sad that it’s usually brushed off as not or that it must develop into romantic love to have any merit.

&& i’m so happy that you asked this question ! i was really hoping that someone would send this one in , so thank you !!

one author who inspires me in my writing is patrick o’brian because of his descriptions in his writing. i love the detail he places in describing a scene ! i’ve hear some say he’s too descriptive but i love that , it’s truly helps me see what’s happening in my minds eye & i think a lot of authors nowadays rely on the reader to fill in the blanks or just assume what’s happening / the finer details of a scene / the microexpressions & subtle notes within body language or tones. which is fine , but i do much prefer & feel all the more inspired when i read an author’s in-depth descriptions. ( not to mention i love the dynamics between aubrey & maturin <3 ) he inspires me to add how much detail i want , that no amount of detail is too much.

favourite quote(s) : “ For a moment Jack felt the strongest inclination to snatch up his little gilt chair and beat the white-faced man down with it ; ” — Master & Commander ( book 1 ) , it’s thought by jack about stephen upon their first meeting , this line never fails to make me laugh when i read it because stephen can be so pretentious & jack just wanted to enjoy the music agdjfkglg but hey they turn out good friends in the end

““ Jack, you've debauched my sloth. ”” — H.M.S. Surprise ( book 3 ) , said by stephen when he came back from a lesson in teaching bonden to read to find that jack had got his sloth drunk on grog & cake , it’s just a very funny line & i find the interaction between jack & the sloth rather adorable the entire thing. although i don’t condone his actions in giving the animal alcohol , that is bad.

i fear this post would get too long if i were to quote my favourite descriptions from patrick o’brien or any more quotes from him , but i will mention another funny one is when stephen basically trips over the ship’s cat down a hatchway & when i believe it was a wombat of stephen’s tried to eat Jack’s hat , when jack called stephen to help him , the doctor just said it wouldn’t hurt the wombat ahdkflglg. another sweet one is when jack accepts hollom as midshipman even though there’s hardly room on Surprise for him , jack suspects hollom is near tears at the look on his face & changes his mind.

another author who i very much love is j.r.r. tolkien. again i love his attention to detail in describing things. as well as all the detail he placed into his world building for his books , creating his own languages & all the names / maps , events , theology , etc. that he created or took influence from to create middle earth & all its content. plus the overall stories ( meaning the hobbit & lotr ) are inspiring in themselves. as well i love his words choice / sentence structures , it’s reads wonderfully & archaic when i love ! he inspires to me add details that some may not think of & to add detail wherever i see fit.

favourite quote(s) : “ All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. ” — The Fellowship of the Ring , The Lord of the Rings ( book 1 ) , i like this quote because it simply sums up that our time is important & we must do our best to spend it how we see fit because it is our time & our life. I just remember this quote being very impactful to younger me when i first read it & it still rather is.

i love all the scenes in two towers with gimli , legolas , & aragorn as well. not a specific quote but their interactions are some of my favourites , their dynamics & path are something i can always reread & never tire of <3

again there are several quotes i could take from tolkien’s works to say here as a favourite , but this answer is already so long. i apologise. this is a topic i could converse about over countless hours.

as well i want to mention c.s. forester because his descriptions on sailing are very good & too i like that hornblower is a very flawed yet brilliant character who battles with low self esteem , he just seems a very real character. so it’s definitely an influence to ensure characters i write aren’t glorified to the point of being without flaw or always choosing the correct course the first time. let your character screw up & make mistakes , have doubts & be human. that’s what he inspires me to do when i write. ( as well bush & hornblower <3 love those two )

favourite quote(s) : directing you to this post of mine so as not to add more words here but it’s very much one of my favourites.

too i love the scene between hornblower & kennedy in Mr. Midshipman Hornblower when they get caught by bolton being absolute dorks. it’s nice to see a lighter side to hornblower. same with the scene in Lieutenant Hornblower after bush hear that hornblower has been promoted & they drink , bush is still recovering & gets a bit drunk so hornblower is helping him away & bush is just grinning & singing ‘he’s a jolly good fellow’

&& some honourable mentions since this response is getting rather long ; jane austen , mary shelley , charles dickens , bram stoker , leo tolstoy , william shakespeare , john flanagan , neil giaman , terry pratchett , c.s. lewis , alexander dumas , oscar wilde , ernest hemingway , madeline miller , f. scott fitzgerald , tim o’brien , & etc. so many others.

*please note that it is the writing of these authors that i adore & take inspiration from , this does not i particularly praise the author as a person

#snidgethex #answered ask #thank you for sending this in !#although i think i may have misunderstood favourite quote for favourite scene in some parts #:| oops

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crowdvscritic · 4 years ago

Text

round up // NOVEMBER 20

Hi, I’m tired. Actually, my friend Celeste created a piece of art that puts the emphasis needed on that sentiment:

I’m very tired. November felt like it was three years and also felt like it went by in a blink and also I’m not sure where October ended and November began—how does time work like that? (I’ve yet to see Tenet, but maybe that will explain it.) But like Michael Scott, somehow I manage, and lately it’s been like this:

Late-night Etsy scrolling. Browsing beautiful, non-big-box-store artwork is very calming just before I go to bed. I’d recommend Etsy stores like Celeste’s chr paperie shop, which I know from experience is full of great Christmas gift ideas.

Taking a day off of work to do laundry. I’m not sure if it’s more #adulting that I did that or that I was excited to do that.

Eating Ghiradelli chocolate chips straight from the bag. I actually don’t recommend this as a healthy option, but this is also not a health blog.

Watching lots and lots of ‘80s movies. One day I’ll ask a therapist why this decade of films is so comforting for me despite its many flaws, but for now I’m just rolling with it.

Reading. Have you heard of this? It’s a form of entertainment but doesn’t require screens—wild!

Memes. All good Pippin “Fool of a” Took jokes are welcome here.

Leaning into the Christmas spirit by ordering that Starbucks peppermint mocha, making plans to watch everything in that TCM Christmas book I haven’t seen, and keeping the lights on my hot pink tinsel tree on all day as I work from home.

This month’s Round Up is full of stuff that made me smile and stuff that sucked me into its world—I think they’ll do the same for you, too.

November Crowd-Pleasers

Sister Act (1992)

If in four years you aren’t in an emotional state to watch election results roll in, I recommend watching Whoopi Goldberg pretend to be a nun for 100 minutes. (Though, incidentally, if you want to watch that clip edited to specifically depict how the results came in this year, you’ll need to watch Sister Act 2.) This musical-comedy is about as feel-good as it gets, meaning there’s no reason you should wait four more years to watch it. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 7.5/10

Nevada Memes

Speaking of election results, Nevada memes. That’s it—that’s the tweet. Vulture has a round up of some of the best.

youtube

SNL Round Up

Laugh and enjoy!

“Cinema Classics: The Birds” (4605 with John Mulaney)

“Uncle Ben” (4606 with Dave Chappelle)

RoboCop (1987)

I’m not surprised I liked RoboCop, but I am surprised at why I liked RoboCop. Not only is this a boss action blockbuster, it’s an investigation into consumerism and the commodification of the human body. It’s also a critique of institutions that treat crime like statistics instead of actions done by people that impact people. That said, it’s also movie about a guy who’s fused with a robot and melts another guy’s face off with toxic sludge, so there’s a reason I’m not listing this under the Critic section. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 8/10

Double Feature – ‘80s Comedies: National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983) + Major League (1989)

The ‘80s-palooza is in full swing! In Vacation (Crowd: 9.5/10 // Critic: 8/10), Chevy Chase just wants to spend time with his family on a vacation to Wally World, but wouldn’t you know it, Murphy’s Law kicks into gear as soon as the Griswold family shifts from out of Park. The brilliance of the movie is that every one of these terrible things is plausible, but the Griswolds create the biggest problems themselves. In Major League (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 6.5/10), Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, and Wesley Snipes are Cleveland’s last hope for a winning baseball team. Like the Griswolds, mishaps and hijinks ensue in their attempt to prevent their greedy owner from moving the Indians to Miami, but the real win is this movie totally gets baseball fans. Like most ‘80s movies, not everything in this pair has aged well, but they brought some laughs when I needed them most.

This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens (2020)

They’re born a minute apart in the same hospital, but they don’t meet until their 30th birthday on New Year’s Day. So, yes, it’s a little bit Serendipity, and it’s a little bit sappy, but those are both marks in this book’s favor. This Time Next Year is a time-hopping rom-com with lots of almost-meet-cutes that will have you laughing, believing in romantic twists of fate, and finding hope for the new year.

Double Feature – ‘80s Angsty Teens: Teen Wolf (1985) + Uncle Buck (1989)

In the ‘80s, Hollywood finally understood the angsty teen, and this pair of comedies isn’t interested in the melodrama earlier movies like Rebel Without a Cause were depicting. (I’d recommend Rebel, but not if you want to look back on your teen years with any sense of humor.) In Teen Wolf (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 5/10), Michael J. Fox discovers he’s a werewolf.one that looks more like the kid in Jumanji than any other portrayal of a werewolf you’ve seen. It’s a plot so ‘80s and so bizarre you won’t believe this movie was greenlit.

In Uncle Buck (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 7.5/10), John Candy is attempting to connect with the nieces and nephew he hasn’t seen in years, including one moody high schooler. (Plus, baby Gaby Hoffman and pre-Home Alone Macauley Culkin!) This is my second pick from one of my all-time fave filmmakers, John Hughes (along with National Lampoon’s Vacation, above), and it’s one more entry that balances heart and humor in a way only he could do. You can see where I rank this movie in Hughes’s pantheon on Letterboxd.

Lord of the Rings memes

This month on SO IT’S A SHOW?, Kyla and I revisited The Lord of the Rings, a trilogy we love almost as much as we love Gilmore Girls. You can listen to our episode about the series on your fave podcast app, and you can laugh through hundreds of memes like I did for “research” on Twitter.

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson (2019)

Most adults are afraid of children’s temper tantrums, but can you imagine how terrified you’d be if they caught on fire in their fits of rage? That’s the premise of this novel, which begins when an aimless twentysomething becomes the nanny of a Tennessee politician’s twins who burst into flames when they get emotional. The book is filled with laugh-out-loud moments but never leaves behind the human emotion you need to make a magical realistic story.

An Officer and a Gentlemen (1982)

Speaking of aimless twentysomethings and emotion, feel free to laugh, cry, and swoon through this melodrama in the ‘80s canon. Richard Gere meanders his way into the Navy when he has nowhere else to go, and he tries to survive basic training, work through his family issues, and figure out his future as he also falls in love with Debra Winger. So, yeah, it’s a schamltzier version of Top Gun, but it’s schmaltz at its finest. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 7.5/10

November Critic Picks

Double Feature – ‘40s Amensia Romances: Random Harvest (1942) + The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)

Speaking of schmaltz at its finest, let me share a few more titles fitting that description. In Random Harvest (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 8.5/10), Greer Garson falls in love with a veteran who can’t remember his life before he left for war. In The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 8.5/10), Gene Tierney discovers a ghost played by a crotchety Rex Harrison in her new home. Mild spoiler: Both feature amnesiac plot developments, and while amnesia has become a cliché in the long history of romance films, Harvest is moving enough and Mr. Muir is charming enough that you won’t roll your eyes. You can see these and more romances complicated by forced forgetfulness in this Letterboxd round up.

The African Queen (1951)

It’s Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn directed by John Huston—I mean, I don’t feel like I need to explain why this is a winner. Bogart (in his Oscar-winning role) and Hepburn star in a two-hander script, dominating the screen time except for a select few scenes with supporting cast. The pair fight for survival while cruising on a small boat called The African Queen during World War I (in Africa, natch), and the two make this small story feel grand and epic. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 9/10

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

A young man’s (Dennis Price) mother is disowned from their wealthy family because she marries for love. After her death, he seeks vengeance by killing all of the family members ahead of him in line to be the Duke D'Ascoyne. The twist? All of his victims are played by Sir Alec Guinness! Almost every character in this black comedy is a terrible person, so you won’t be too sorry to see them go—you can just enjoy the creative “accidents” he stages and stay in suspense on whether our “hero” gets his comeuppance. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 8.5/10

Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1937)

What would you do if you found out you were to be someone’s eighth wife? Well, it’s probably not what Claudette Colbert does in this screwball comedy that reminds me a bit of Love Crazy. This isn’t the first time I’ve recommended Colbert, Gary Cooper, or Ernst Lubitsch films, so it’s no surprise these stars and this director can make magic together in this hilarious battle of the wills. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 8.5/10

The Red Shoes (1948)

I love stories about the competition between your life and your art, and The Red Shoes makes that competition literal. Moira Shearer plays a ballerina who feels life is meaningless without dancing—then she falls in love. That’s an oversimplification of a rich character study and some of the most beautiful ballet on film, but I can’t do it justice in a short paragraph. Just watch (perhaps while you’re putting up your hot pink tinsel tree?) and soak in all the goodness. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 10/10

The Third Man (1949)

Everybody loves to talk about Citizen Kane, and with the release of Mank on Netflix, it’s newsworthy again. But don’t miss this other ‘40s team up of Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles. Cotten is a writer digging for the truth of his friend’s (Welles) death in a mysterious car accident. Eyewitness accounts differ on what happened, and who was the third man at the scene only one witness remembers? 71 years later, this movie is still tense, and this actor pairing is still electric. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 9/10

The Untouchables (1987)

At the end of October, we lost Sean Connery. I looked back on his career first by writing a remembrance for ZekeFilm and then by watching The Untouchables. (In a perfect world I would’ve reversed that order, but c’est la vie.) In my last selection from the ‘80s, Connery and Kevin Costner attempt to convict Robert De Niro’s Al Capone of anything that will stick and end his reign of crime in Chicago. Directed by Brian De Palma and set to an Ennio Morricone soundtrack, this film is both an exciting action flick and an artistic achievement that we literally discussed in one of my college film classes. Connery won his Oscar, and K. Cos is giving one of the best of his career, too. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 9.5/10

Remember the Night (1940)

Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in my favorite team up yet! Double Indemnity may be the bona fide classic in the canon, but this Christmas story—with MacMurray as a district attorney prosecuting shoplifter Stanwyck— is a charmer. I’ve added it to my list of must-watch Christmas movies—watch for some holiday cheer and rom-com feels. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 8.5/10

Photo credits: chr paperie. Books my own. All others IMDb.com.

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aion-rsa · 3 years ago

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Django Unchained, Halloween III and Clerks II Are Streaming Free on Plex This Month

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This story is presented by Plex

Streaming is getting expensive. What started as the cheap alternative to let you watch all of your favorite content and cut the cord on your cable subscription has ballooned into an arms race where one must shell out cash to several different providers just to watch their favorite movies or shows. Thankfully, Plex TV is here to entertain you and provide some relief to your wallet.

Plex is a globally available one-stop-shop streaming media service offering thousands of free movies and TV shows and hundreds of free-to-stream live TV channels, from the biggest names in entertainment, including Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, Lionsgate, Legendary, AMC, A+E, Crackle, and Reuters. Plex is the only streaming service that lets users manage their personal media alongside a continuously growing library of free third-party entertainment spanning all genres, interests, and mediums including podcasts, music, and more. With a highly customizable interface and smart recommendations based on the media you enjoy, Plex brings its users the best media experience on the planet from any device, anywhere.

Plex releases brand new and beloved titles to its platform monthly and we’ll be here to help you identify the cream of the crop. View Plex TV now for the best free entertainment streaming and check back each month for Den of Geek Critics’ picks!

DEN OF GEEK CRITICS PICKS

Django Unchained

The second of Quentin Tarantino’s revisionist history lessons, Django Unchained is a provocative, post-modern Western film that mixes the widescreen sensibilities of Sergio Leone with Tarantino’s own gonzo impulses to create something hyper-violent, subversively funny, and more than a bit uncomfortable. Jamie Foxx stars as a slave freed by a German bounty hunter played by Christoph Waltz. Waltz won an Oscar for his performance as the kind German that takes in the stoic but savvy Django as his partner. Together, they travel the pre-Civil War South, killing slavers and savage men. Eventually, they embark on a more personal mission, as Django intends to free his beloved wife from a sadistic plantation owner played by a scenery-chewing Leonardo DiCaprio. With anachronistic needle-drops, hands-over-eyes horrors, and more blood than a donation bank, Django Unchained is an epic, entertaining revenge fantasy for the ages.

Silver Linings Playbook

From director David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook is a screwball romantic comedy for the modern age. Despite inviting, yet livewire lead performances from Jennifer Lawerence and Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook really shines as an ensemble: Robert DeNiro, Jackie Weaver, Chris Tucker and Anupam Kher bring fully-realized characters to life in just a handful of scenes. Based on Matthew Quick’s novel of the same name, Silver Linings Playbook finds Bradley Cooper as a man who has been released from a psychiatric hospital a bit too soon. He’s frantically trying to prove that he’s bettered himself in an effort to win back his wife, but when he meets the equally unstable and filterless character played by Jennifer Lawerence, unusual sparks fly. Combining the familiar tropes of a sports film with unorthodox romantic leads, Silver Linings Playbook is a crowd-pleasing watch that creates harmony out of dysfunction.

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations

It never mattered where Anthony Bourdain was going, we just wanted to be along for the ride. We lost the soulful, iconoclastic bad-boy of the culinary world far too soon, but he left behind a treasure trove of rewarding travelogues that tackled culture, social dynamics, and most importantly, food. Whether he was weighing in on a world-famous culinary hotspot or peeling back the curtain on a hole-in-wall gem, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations was always thoughtful, fearless, and never less than authentic. It’s the rare show that is as educational as it is entertaining, hosted by a candid host who knew how to travel, knew where to eat, but most crucially, knew how to connect with people. Reality TV doesn’t get realer than this.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

Following the mind-boggling success of the original Halloween, director John Carpenter had a clever idea. Instead of churning out sequels starring Michael Meyers, Halloween would become an anthology series, with each new film telling a spooky tale centered on the October holiday. The concept was inevitably scrapped, but Halloween III: Season of the Witch suggests that maybe Carpenter and co. should have stuck to their guns. Taking inspiration from Invasion of the Body Snatchers and working off a concept that Carpenter described as “witchcraft meets the computer age,” Halloween III: Season of the Witch finds a doctor and the daughter of a toy maker trying to uncover the horrifying truth behind the town of Santa Mara, home to Silver Shamrock, the world’s largest manufacturer of Halloween masks. Intelligent, surprising, and disturbing, Halloween III: Season of the Witch is due for a critical reevaluation that heralds it as one of the most ambitious horror movies of the ‘80s

Clerks II

With the recent announcement that Clerks III has started production, it’s the perfect time to revisit Kevin Smith’s first-sequel to his independent film phenomenon, Clerks. Clerks II picks up with our titular clerks Dante and Randall 10 years after the events of the first film. The Quick Stop has gone up in flames and been replaced with a Mooby’s fast food restaurant. Dante and Randall toil the day away with their sheltered co-worker Elias and too-cool for minimum wage manager Becky. While the film tackles adult male friendships and middle age complacency, it’s main appeal is still sitting around, shooting the shit with your pals and listening to their expletive-filled rants about Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, or whatever pop culture fascination that they’re hung up on. Come for the surprisingly poignant story about Dante deciding to leave his friend behind, stay for Jay, Silent Bob, and a donkey.

New on Plex in August – Full List of Titles

Army of One

Dark Tide

Deadfall

Django Unchained

Escape from Alcatraz

Feast

Ismael’s Ghost

Kickboxer

Lucky Number Sleven

The Naked Gun 2-1/2: The Smell of Fear

The Naked Gun 33-1/3: The Final Insult

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!

Pulse

Redemption

Seabiscuit

Silver Linings Playbook

Skyfire

Wind River

Still streaming on Plex:

2:22

The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

22 Bullets

24 Hours to Live

3rd Rock from the Sun

6 Bullets

99 Homes

A Little Bit of Heaven

A Walk in the Woods

Aeon Flux

After.Life

Afternoon Delight

The Air I Breathe

Alan Partridge

ALF

Alone in the Dark

Amelie

Answer Man

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations

Arthur and the Invisibles

Battle Royale

Bel Canto

Bernie

Better Watch Out

Black Books

Black Christmas

Black Death

Black Sheep (2006)

Blitz

Blood and Bone

Bobby

Bronson

The Brothers Bloom

The Burning Plain

Cagefighter

Cake

Candy

Cashback

Catch .44

Cell

Chain of Command

Child 44

The Choice

Clerks II

Coherence

The Collector

Congo

Cooties

Cops and Robbers

The Core

The Cotton Club

Critical Condition

Crossing Lines

Croupier

Cube

Cube 2

Cube Zero

Deadfall

The Death and Life of Bobby Z

Death and the Maiden

Death Proof

The Deep Blue Sea

Deep Red

Derailed

The Descent Part 2

Detachment

The Devils’ Rejects

Diary of the Dead

Distorted

District B13

DOA: Dead or Alive

Dragged Across Concrete

Eden Lake

Edison

Europa Resort

Falcon Rising

The Fall

Fido

The Fighting Temptations

Filth

Find Me Guilty

Fire in the Sky

Fire with Fire

Flirting with Disaster

Flowers of War

Flyboys

Force Majeure

Formula 51

Four Lions

Frailty

Frank

Freeway

The Frozen Ground

Getting to Know You

Ghost in the Shell

The Ghost Writer

Ginger Snaps

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest

The Girl Who Played with Fire

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

God Bless America

Goon

Goya’s Ghosts

Grand Isle

Grave Encounters

A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints

Halloween II

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

Hannibal Rising

Happythankyoumoreplease

Hard Candy

Hell’s Kitchen

Hester

High Rise

Highlander

Hobo with a Shotgun

The Homesman

The Horseman

The Host

House of 1000 Corpses

House of the Rising Sun

How I Live Now

The Humanity Bureau

The Hunter

I Give it a Year

I Saw the Devil

I See You

I Spit on Your Grave

Ida

If Only

The Illusionist

In Hell

In the Blood

In Too Deep

The Infiltrator

Interstate 60: Episodes of the Road

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

It’s a Boy Girl Thing

Jeff, Who Lives at Home

Jo Nesbo’s Headhunters

Joe

John Dies at the End

The Joneses

Juliet, Naked

Just Getting Started

Kevin Hart: Cold as Balls

King of New York

Kinky Boots

The Kite Runner

Knight of Cups

The Last Days on Mars

The Lazarus Project

Leaves of Grass

The Legend of Hercules

Lethal Eviction

The Limey

Lionheart

A Little Bit of Heaven

A Long Way Down

Love Story

Maggie

The Maiden Heist

A Man Called Ove

The Man from Earth

The Man from Nowhere

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

The Matador

Mesrine Killer: Instinct

The Messenger

Middle Men

Midsomer Murders

Misconduct

Miss Potter

Monster

Monsters

Mother

Mr. Church

Murdoch Mysteries

National Lampoon’s Van Wilder

Never Back Down: No Surrender

Noah

The Oxford Murders

The Paperboy

Paycheck

Personal Effects

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unexpectedreylo · 5 years ago

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Here It Is: My Spoilerific Review/Post Mortem of TROS

When I saw The Last Jedi two years ago, the movie haunted me for days, for weeks, for months. It inspired the imagination, dragging me into the world of Reylo and reassuring whatever reservations I had about the post-Lucas sequel trilogy.

The Rise of Skywalker haunts me too but more in a “Demon House” kind of way. It fires up the imagination, but more in the sense that it keeps you up at night thinking of all of the ways it could’ve been better.

This isn’t to say I hate the movie. I don’t. It’s not even entirely or mostly bad which is what makes it extra frustrating. You can laugh your way through a total disaster like “Cats” or “The Room” but a movie with plenty of promise and of talent behind it that makes some bad decisions is tragic. Especially since this is the closing chapter to a trilogy and the saga itself.

You can see there are bones for what could’ve been a really good, maybe even great movie. One of my favorite parts was the opener where Kylo Ren literally descends into hell/the underworld to confront the devil for no other reason than he didn’t even want Satan above him, a man who serves no gods or devils. (That right there is a classic Byronic hero.) Exogol is a great haunted house/spooky setting. The revelation that it was Palpatine manipulating him all along was a shocker and makes Ben’s story that much more poignant. I also really liked the contrast with Rey’s introduction, a beautiful shot of her in the verdant forest floating among rocks as she’s meditating. She is Persephone in her element (which makes the ending all that more baffling but don’t worry, I’m getting to that).

This sets the stage for the revelation that the two are part of an intriguing concept, a Force dyad, kind of a Star Wars version of soulmates maybe even twin flames. The two just had to acknowledge the feelings between them, reunite, and take out the Sith trash while Rey finally confronts her own dark side. I don’t mind the latter concept at all because with the trilogy’s thickest plot armor, I think it’s valuable to put her in some peril and to have her better understand Kylo/Ben.

Abrams also wanted to recapture the feel of 1980s blockbusters like the Indiana Jones films or The Goonies, both made by his old mentor Steven Spielberg. That’s most palpable when the Space Scoops Troop, er “trio,” falls into quicksand and pokes around an underground cave looking for one of the film’s many MacGuffins. Abrams does good set pieces and powers them along with snappy dialogue. Like TFA, it’s peppered with some genuinely funny scenes.

If nothing else, you can’t blame the cast for any of the film’s problems. Everyone does the best they can with what they’re given and the long-standing chemistry between various pairs (Adam and Daisy, John and Oscar, Adam and Harrison Ford for example) do a lot to serve their scenes. I think Oscar’s best scene was when he confesses to Leia lying in state that he doesn’t know if he can be the leader the Resistance needs. It’s an honest, human moment. Daisy continues to infuse Rey with her natural luminance. I particularly liked the few quiet moments she has, such as meeting the children on Pasaana or healing the snake. It shows her compassion and foreshadows healing Ben.

Daisy does pretty well with what she is given about struggling with her dark side. (Remember, she didn’t write her own screenplay.) Maybe it’s unpopular to say this but I kind of liked her brief turn as “Dark Rey.” I have no doubt had she turned dark she would be pretty scary. Her desire for revenge and fear of her own nature--driven by genetics or not--were intriguing concepts and I thought she tried to make the most of it in her performance.

Ah Adam Driver. God bless that man. He brings his considerable A-game 100% of the time no matter what and it shows. He could sell sand on Tatooine. I have no idea why they put the mask back on him other than a marketing department decision as I suspected, but taking it off when he’s making his appeal to Rey before she leaps out to the Falcon carries a gravity few people can pull off. His reconciliation with Han was one of the film’s highlights. For once the repetitive nature of the script actually worked in TROS’s favor, as Kylo retraces his steps in that fateful scene from TFA and finds a way to clear his conscience. I also think this was originally meant to help the audience forgive him, especially since right after this he renounces the dark side. Which makes later choices baffling, which I’ll get to. Driver’s shiniest shining moment though is when he is once again Ben Solo. Deprived of dialogue for the rest of the film other than “ow,” he nevertheless manages to convey a different personality that is very much Han Solo’s son. His fight scene is right out of a 1970s martial arts movie, imbued with determination and sass. I want to see a trilogy about THAT guy.

The Reylo scenes are, well, until it goes south, wonderful. Some of us would’ve preferred a lot less fighting but I see it as mostly Rey trying to deny herself and Kylo not being sure if he really wants Rey to turn to the dark side. (On that note, I wish we’d seen Rey’s vision of sharing a throne with Kylo rather than just hear her talk about it.) As I predicted, the turning point of the relationship came after the lightsaber battle on the Death Star wreckage. I find it interesting that Kylo hesitates to kill Rey--partially because of his mother’s influence--and it’s she who could’ve killed him. She immediately recognizes the dark side was turning her into something she didn’t want to be and nearly costs her the man that deep down she loves. She heals him completely and along with her confession that she would’ve taken Ben’s hand, his soul is nearly healed by the power of love alone. Which makes the film’s later choices baffling. If you think about it, Ben’s turn is even more dramatic than Vader’s. Vader chose his son over the Emperor at the last minute, some inkling of his light still there shining through at the right moment under duress. Ben flat out rejects the dark side of his own volition. That is pretty powerful. Which makes the ending far more painful.

Rey and Ben’s one big romantic moment was tender and sweet and that was a pretty good kiss. We finally get to see Ben’s big toothy grin. Even though we all hate it, Driver did an amazing job conveying first his sorrow over Rey, then his relief, his joy, his love, and finally his strength leaving him.

Visually, the film looks great. I think J.J. did an even better job shooting this film than TFA. Adding to the visuals is the fabulous art direction. They hired supervising art director Paul Inglis immediately after his previous flick Blade Runner 2049 came out, and that decision paid off. This leaves the film with a number of beautifully-rendered scenes, whether it’s the haunted house scary underworld beneath Exogol, Kylo Ren’s starkly white quarters, the landscapes of Pasaana, the stormy seas around the Death Star II’s wreckage, the shot of Rey hesitating in the Star Destroyer’s hangar before leaping out to the Falcon, or Rey meditating among the floating rocks during her introduction.

I liked D-O and Babu Frick. I even liked the lady who complimented Kylo’s helmet.

Where do I start having problems? The first time I saw the movie the scenes with Leia didn’t bother me but the second time I saw it, it was far more apparent they wrote around the bits of footage they had left. It was a valiant effort to make Carrie Fisher part of the last film she never had the chance to perform in but it didn’t feel organic. Since Leia dies during the movie anyway, I don’t know why having her pass away offscreen in between TLJ and TROS is less merciful to the audience than having her body lie beneath a sheet for half the film. No wonder Billie Lourd skipped the premiere of this flick. I couldn’t take it if it were my mother either.

On my second viewing, the Resistance base scenes started to get on my nerves. Maybe it’s because I got tired of looking at the same group of like 10 people over and over. Maybe I was annoyed that the only purpose of those scenes was to earnestly spout exposition. Now, exposition is important. I’m surprised Abrams, notorious for not bothering with it even if it’s necessary, even did this much. But there was something about George Lucas’s Rebel base scenes that made these people look and act like guerrilla soldiers. Maybe it was Lucas’s experience shooting films with Navy guys as a student, or his documentary style. Abrams’s Resistance behave more like college students and activists than soldiers.

But TROS’s biggest problems lie in its breakneck pacing and its writing. Parts that should’ve had greater emotional resonance don’t because it moves along too fast. I would’ve sacrificed one of the set pieces/action scenes or chuck one of the pointless new characters for the sake of deepening the relationship between Kylo and Rey or showing us more Ben Solo.

Some of the characterizations seemed off. I know a lot of fans are deeply unhappy Rose Tico didn’t get to do much but I was surprised to see her in it even to the degree she was there. What gets me about the whole Rose thing was her relationship with Finn is totally forgotten FOR NO REASON. Really, why drop it? There was no narrative purpose for doing so!

General Hux is totally wasted in this film, reduced to little more than a cameo. Sure it might be a surprising twist that “I am the spy!!!” (LOL) but his reasons for it are totally OOC. He might despise Kylo Ren but to the point of helping the Resistance? This is the guy who cheerfully blew up the Hosnian Prime system and wanted to blow up more. He’s evil, a psychopath, a true believer in the First Order. He might give the Resistance a tip that would result in embarrassing Kylo Rey and use that to start a coup against him but just helping the Resistance out of petulance and spite? Nah.

Poe tries in this film to be a combination of rogue and deadly earnest idealist, but you generally don’t find those two qualities in the same person. One second he’s talking about smuggling space dope, the next second he’s saying stuff like “Good people will fight if we lead them!”

Finn, God love him, is reduced to largely running around yelling, “Reeeey!” and eagerly trying to tell Rey something but the film never really got around to what it was. It wasn’t until a Q&A session that Abrams revealed Finn was trying to tell Rey he was Force sensitive (something that should’ve been developed over the course of the trilogy). Abrams had time to show us a random lesbian kiss for representation points, but no time for Finn to tell Rey he was Force sensitive? Huh?

The story not only contradicts the previous films--I wonder if Abrams even saw his own movie TFA much less anything else besides the OT--it contradicts itself throughout. Palpatine’s return is never really explained and his motives with Rey keep changing. MacGuffins are added on top of MacGuffins with side missions thrown in. Chewbacca is blown up then he’s miraculously alive on another transport we didn’t see. Abrams and Chris Terrio didn’t just add to Rey’s origins, they blatantly spackled over it and TLJ’s overall message. Discovering one is of evil origins is a gothic storytelling trope but really, it should’ve been developed since the first film so it doesn’t feel like whiplash from something else. Everyone keeps telling Rey don’t be afraid of who you really are, but Rey ultimately does nothing but run from who she really is. With each reversal, retcon, or contradiction in the film, it leaves a mess. We’re supposed to believe Rey was better off sold to Unkar Plutt than be with her not-so-bad parents? Who the bloody hell had sex with Darth Sidious? You mean to tell me Luke and Leia knew all along Rey was a Palpatine but they never bothered to say anything and somehow they had more confidence in her than in their own flesh and blood? Oh while we’re at it, I noticed the second time I saw the movie they straight up gave away Ben’s death before it happened! WTF? “Leia saw her son’s death at the end of her Jedi path.” It seems like Luke and Leia were resigned to Ben’s fate as some horrible destiny that couldn’t be changed but Rey was still an open book to them. That’s so stupid and really fellow OT fans, how does this respect our childhood faves? Han comes off as the only decent person in this thing.

Rey and Ben taking on the Emperor was a great applause moment, the dyad unified against the ultimate evil. For the most part it was fantastic...until The Yeetening. Two things annoy me about the remainder of the conflict against Palpatine. One, Rey and Ben should have destroyed Palpatine together. If Rey could do it on her own then what the hell did she need Ben for? He could’ve sat out the rest of the movie at Starbucks and remained alive while Rey killed Palps on her own. There’s no point to their combined power because it wasn't necessary. Two, while poor redeemed I-turned-back-to-the-light Ben was crawling up the pit with no help from anyone, every good guy we ever knew of in Star Wars, even from the cartoons, is giving a voice over pep talk to Rey. (It seems cheap too since we don’t see the characters. Avengers Endgame did this kind of thing far better.) How about if the pep talk was given to the BOTH of them? That Anakin Skywalker, the man Ben had idolized, had time to say “wakey-wakey” to his tormentor’s granddaughter and not his own grandson is appalling. The third thing is while Darth Vader defeated Palpatine with the love for his son and his long-gone wife, Rey defeats Palpatine simply with power. Rey and Ben’s love for each other could’ve been the force that defeats the Sith once and for all but for some reason it doesn’t occur to Abrams and Terrio.

I could’ve forgiven most of this--the jar of Snickles and all--had they got the resolution right. But they didn’t.

ROTJ and ROTS’s endings were masterful. ROTJ gives you an idea of what trajectory our heroes were likely to follow: Han and Leia were going to end up together, Luke was going to bring forth the next generation of Jedi. ROTS sets up Obi-Wan on Tatooine, Yoda on Dagobah, Leia on Alderaan, Luke on Tatooine, Darth Vader on a Star Destroyer, and poor Padmé on her way to Star Wars Heaven. I have no idea what happens to Finn. Maybe he’ll train with Rey. Maybe he’ll go to college. Maybe he’ll backpack through Europe. I have no idea. His story just stops. Same deal with Poe. Aside from getting shot down by Zorii, what’s he going to do? The film gives zero indication. It goes from the Free Hugs session to Rey squatting at the old Lars homestead.

The biggest crimes though occur to Ben and Rey. Ben’s death sucked all of the air out of the film. Yes, it’s beautiful that Ben loved Rey so much and so selflessly he was willing to surrender his life for hers. It’s beautiful that it never mattered to Ben who Rey was, whether it was “nobody” in the last movie or the granddaughter of his tormentor/enemy in this one. Had the Palpatine concept been there all along, there would’ve been something sweet about healing the rift originating in the prequels. But I wanted Ben to live. I wanted for once for someone to address the issue of atonement but Terrio and Abrams were too lazy to bother. If The Grinch could be redeemed AND find atonement with those he wronged in a 30 minute Christmas special with commercials, then why not Ben Solo in a 150-minute movie?

I could have lived with a sacrifice arc though had it been handled correctly. But they flubbed it big time. The sacrifice isn’t honored at all. He just dies, he vanishes as Leia’s body vanishes, and he’s “never to be seen again.” Or mentioned. Rey barely reacts on camera. It’s as though reviving Ben from certain death, choosing good over evil, making a valiant attempt to save his girlfriend armed only with a blaster, and giving his life for hers weren’t valued by anyone. The movie didn’t give a damn. When Vader died in ROTJ, he at least had final words with Luke who then burns Vader’s remains on a pyre. We see Anakin restored to his true self join the Force Ghost crew at the end of the movie. We got none of this with Ben.

It’s also the most frustrating and disappointing disruption of a romantic arc since 1980′s “Somewhere In Time.” In that film, Christopher Reeve travels back to 1912 and finds true love with Jane Seymour. Everything is going great and Reeve’s character has made the choice to stay in that time and marry Seymour. Then he pulls out a 1979 penny and is sent “back to the future” as Seymour screams. At least that film though had the decency to reunite the love birds in the afterlife. Which might explain why the movie still has a cult following to this day. Tragic love stories always make sure there’s some kind of catharsis for the audience. Rose takes Jack’s name, lives her life as he asked her to do for him, tells his story, and reunites with him when she dies. Romeo and Juliet are united in death and the healing of their respective houses begins. Even Padmé got a state funeral and had the legacy of her children. There was no such catharsis for Rey and Ben.

Rey ends up right where she started: alone and in the desert. She got the Dorothy ending, there’s no place like home. But the difference is Dorothy is a child not yet ready for the big scary world and the answers to her problems weren’t out there but right where she was. Rey is a grown woman. She should’ve been treated like one. Instead she is deprived of her lover/soulmate and while such a separation should have been painful, it doesn’t even register. She has a “found family” but they’re not there with her. She’s in a home others tried to escape from, haunted by ghosts instead of being among those she loves. Taking the Skywalker name seems tacked on, as though they realized if the name is to live on somebody needed to take it. Why not then just have made her Han and Leia’s or Luke’s daughter in the first place? It’s worse when you remember it’s a Palpatine who’s usurping the name. Or when you realize she’s still hiding who she is.

Here’s what would’ve been better. Rey tells the Resistance about the pure selflessness of the Skywalkers and she wants that to be the core value of the new Jedi going forward, where every new student was going to learn their story. Then we see her anywhere but Tatooine, happy and surrounded by students of all ages. Maybe Finn training too. She sees the approving Force ghosts of Leia, Luke, and Anakin. Then Ben, clearly a different entity, materializes beside her.

Or something, anything other than what we got.

It’s as though they kept making story decisions without giving any thought at all to their implications. They tried to do too much while being lazy about it. They went for expedience--copy pasting ROTJ when convenient--over meaning.

The ending accomplishes what no other Star Wars film has done to me in 42 years of being a fan...it broke my heart and fulfilled my worst suspicions about where the ST was going to end up, largely due to its deflating ending and terrible denouement. It leaves for me and many other fans a big gaping open wound, not closure.

Ultimately the sequel trilogy’s biggest flaw is that there clearly was no plan. What we got was a billion dollar game of exquisite cadaver with no real design for characters, their arcs, the story, or even what message these films are supposed to have. Every decision was based on the director’s own ideas along with corporate meddling. So we get conflicting ideas and blatant spackling over what the last director didn’t like. Was Kylo Ren meant to be a guy we love to hate or a lost boy we want to come home? Was Rey a heroine we can all aspire to be or a lost princess of darkness? What the hell was the point of Finn or Poe? What does this add to the saga overall aside from more stuff? Who are these films even for, old OT fans or young fans? I believe it’s this lack of a plan that has generated so much confusion and bitter internet wars among fandom.

#reylo #tros review #spoilers #rey #ben solo #kylo ren #ben solo deserved better #rey deserved better #we all deserved better

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back-and-totheleft · 4 years ago

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An epic memoir for an epic life

In a 1992 interview with Arthur Miller, Charlie Rose asked him what quality the great playwrights have shared in common, distinguishing them from the not so great ones in any given age?

After a pause to gather his thoughts, Miller replied that the “big ones share a fierce moral sensibility” and that “they are all burning with some anger at the way the world is.” “The littler ones,” Miller continues, “have made their peace with it. The bigger ones can’t make any peace.”

Oliver Stone is an artist whose work (his early work especially) is, as with Miller’s and all the “bigger ones”, suffused with the passion and fire of a man who refused to make peace with the world he both experienced and observed around him after serving two tours in Vietnam as an infantryman, prior to emerging determined to live life on his own terms or not at all.

The period covered in Chasing the Light runs from Stone’s his childhood and formative years all the way to the mountaintop that is Oscar night in 1987, when he picks up the Oscar for best director for Platoon, which also wins the award for best picture, editing, and score. In between we are taken on a journey of Sisyphean magnitude as he battles to overcome personal demons as a result of fraught-ridden teenage years in the midst of his parents’ divorce, which shatters any semblance of security and certainty he’d enjoyed as a child of relative privilege and affluence. Those demons were key in his decision to volunteer for Vietnam, which he does bent on either death or spiritual rebirth in this hell of his own choosing.

Greek mythology is a key theme in the book and in his life during this seminal period — in particular the epic character Odysseus (Ulysses in Latin), hero of Homer’s epic poem, the Odyssey, and also a key character in its prequel, the Iliad. Stone uses Odysseus as his inspiration in choosing to forego the safe and steady path of convention and instead embrace the wisdom enshrined in Nietzsche: “The secret of realizing the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment of existence is: to live dangerously!”

Stone’s struggle to mount the ramparts of the fortress that is Hollywood would have broken the spirit of all but those in possession of the kind of adamantine tenacity and perseverance that takes you to the edge of madness. Reading of his struggles, his years of rejection, of climbing the ladder of hope only to be kicked off it again, you are reminded of the agony of Vincent Van Gogh, expressed in his letters to his brother Theo, or of Knut Hamsun in his classic semi-autobiographical novel Hunger, chronicling his early failed attempts to establish himself as a writer.

To wit: Hamsun: “I was conscious all the time that I was following mad whims without being able to do anything about it … . Despite my alienation from myself at that moment, and even though I was nothing but a battleground for invisible forces, I was aware of every detail of what was going on around me.”

Stone: “I drew hurt and perverse pride in being able to take rejection. Yet my wounded ego interfered with my ability to understand the reasons for these rejections….Beyond the paper world of rejection, there was also the in-person wound of being told no in face-to-face meetings — when they could be had — the hard-to-come-by lunches, the unreturned phone calls.”

In one the most powerful passages in the book, Stone garners renewed strength from visiting his beloved grandmother in Paris on her deathbed. Amid the flux and tumult of his parents’ split during his adolescent years, she had been both sanctuary and emotional anchor.

But then: Meme [grandmother] wanted me to go — quickly, before it was too late. I couldn’t hear but it was clear what the shades were saying: We, the dead, are telling you — your lifespan is short. Make of it everything you can. Before you’re one of us.

After many fits and starts, Stone’s breakthrough comes through his writing — first with Midnight Express, for which he wins the Oscar for best adapted screenplay in 1979, and then Scarface in 1983, a cult classic to this day. The writing in both movies crackles with a rare kinetic energy, jolting you out of your comfort zone with the unvarnished truth of the human condition in situations of extremis. If the famed and controversial Method system of acting has its parallel in screenwriting, Oliver Stone was perhaps its first and still most notable exemplar.

But despite his success as a writer, Stone’s calling is as a writer/director, with his fierce sense of how his words and vision should be captured on screen driving him on through setback after setback, until in 1985 with Salvador (released in 1986) his moment of truth arrives. The drama involved in getting it over the line more than parallels the drama captured onscreen.

At the time, Salvador’s impact on the conscience and consciousness of America when it came to the disjuncture that exists between the mythical depiction its role in the world as a force for good, and the grim truth of its litany of crimes in places that most Americans, trapped in a bubble of celebrity culture and a news information ghetto, don’t even know exist, can’t be underestimated. Salvador was crucial moment in my own political awareness, as someone who grew up in Scotland on a diet of American pop culture and Hollywood movies, becoming imbued in the process with the idea of America as the place to be, the place where you had to be if you wanted a shot at an exciting, meaningful and fulfilling existence.

When it comes to Platoon, there really is nothing more to say or write that hasn't already. It remains the Paths of Glory of our time, a withering riposte to the flag-waving, chest-beating, unthinking patriotism on the part of those whose belief in the myths of Americana personified by John Wayne and the heroes of Iwo Jima has trapped them in a prison of false consciousness. Platoon — not only a masterful movie in its own right in terms of its writing, acting, cinematography and brute authenticity — exploded in the midst of Reagan’s America as a subversive and delicious j’accuse, levelled at a status quo which two decades on from the social upheaval of the sixties, had sought to repackage and resell Vietnam to the American people as a noble if failed attempt to thwart a Communist drive for world domination in service to the God of democracy.

The movie’s depiction of the internecine struggle that rages within a combat platoon polarised along racial, class and cultural lines mirrored and still mirror the faultlines which continue to polarise American society today. In this respect, Platoon is as much social commentary as it is a dramatic piece, retaining its force and relevance thereby.

Throughout the book Stone writes with commendable candour about his fears and insecurities, his relationships, and also his lapse into Hollywood hedonism and drug use, which all serves to make him three dimensional and relatable in equal part.

Ultimately, in reading Chasing the Light, you are reminded of Theodor Adorno’s admonition that “Behind every work of art lies an uncommitted crime.” If Stone had not succeeded as an artist and his creative powers applied constructively, you come away from his story convinced that those powers would have found destructive expression, given what he experienced in Vietnam and his struggle to readjust thereafter. Given his remarkable body of work, we can only be thankful that the former rather than the latter prevailed.

-Jon Wight’s review of Chasing the Light, Medium, Aug 31 2020 [x]

#oliver stone #chasing the light #books #reviews #medium

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jamesginortonblog · 5 years ago

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He's just broken the nation’s hearts as the tragic anti-hero of BBC One’s Sunday-night sensation The Trial Of Christine Keeler – but James Norton’s next role has made the heartthrob actor “proud to become an honorary Welshman”.

In the title role of new film Mr Jones, Norton – already a favourite with bookmakers to be the next James Bond – takes on one of the most challenging projects of his career, playing a real-life yet forgotten hero from Wales who dared to combat and uncover one of history’s most shameful episodes of “fake news” from nearly a century ago.

James Norton at the Mr Jones screening at the London Film Festival

“Playing Gareth Jones was sometimes a tough call,” says 34-year-old Norton, known to millions from small-screen hits Grantchester and Happy Valley.

“In fact, when I first got the part and they told me it was going to be a Welshman who spoke both fluent Welsh and Russian, and all of it in a Welsh accent – that felt a bit scary!”

He needn’t have worried. As Gareth Jones, the mild-mannered young Western Mail reporter who travelled to Russia in 1933 and ended up blowing the whistle over the appalling truth about Stalin’s “Utopian” regime – and a hushed-up famine that killed untold millions – Norton presents us with a charming, softly-spoken hero with just a hint of a refined Welsh lilt.

It’s a million miles from those cliched, grating attempts at Welsh accents so often taken on by other English actors. ( Stephen Graham’s DCI “Taff” Jones in ITV’s White House Farm, anyone?).

Reports have emerged this week of Gareth’s great-nephew attacking the film for having “invented multiple fictions” – but as far as Norton is concerned, he feels the film stands as an honest and heartfelt reflection of Gareth’s character and incredible yet fatefully short life.

“We decided it was important to respect and honour Gareth’s journey – this Welshman from a small coastal town who ended up on this huge, bizarre and brave mission taking on one of the pillars of the 1930s political landscape in a very dangerous, pre-war Communist Russia,” says Norton, who worked with two Welsh dialect coaches to perfect his accent.

“So it made sense that Gareth would have maybe intentionally softened his Welsh accent, having been educated at Cambridge, in order to ingratiate himself in the community and then travelling the world. We wanted to keep it there without making it too distracting.”

Nevertheless, Norton – London-born but raised in North Yorkshire – was still required to speak Welsh in a few scenes, and Russian as well.

“I’ve never spoken either language before and I’m not a linguist – so I had my work cut out,” says Norton, who can also currently be seen on the big screen in the Oscar-nominated hit movie Little Women.

“But for those few months, I was very proud to become an honorary Welshman. My scenes with Julian Lewis Jones as my dad – when Gareth goes home to Barry – were challenging, but Julian was amazing helping me with my Welsh.

“Julian occasionally texts me in Welsh now, which is hilarious, as I think he’s forgotten I don’t actually speak a word!

“It’s pretty nerve-racking doing scenes where you’ve got to speak in a particular accent opposite someone who’s completely fluent in that language, so to have Julian put his hand on my shoulder and say, ‘You’re doing good, kid!’ was so reassuring.”

Learning dialogue for his Russian scenes was even harder.

“I had to learn all the Russian phonetically – it’s like learning music,” he explains. “I’d spend hours walking around wearing earphones and I’d look like a crazy person talking to myself, repeating phrases animatedly. But now I have Russian people coming up to me in the street, speaking Russian at me!

“Weirdly, I’ve done three jobs where I needed to speak Russian – War And Peace, McMafia and now this. I seem to have become the go-to guy for English-speaking Russian roles!”

The new film Mr Jones, directed by internationally-renowned Polish film-maker Agnieszka Holland, begins with Gareth Jones gaining fame in the early 1930s after his report on being the first foreign journalist to fly with Hitler.

Gareth, who’d graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1929 with a first-class degree in French, German and Russian, has also landed the job of foreign affairs advisor to former Prime Minister David Lloyd George.

With the Russian “utopia” all over the news, Gareth is intrigued as to how Stalin is financing the rapid modernisation of the Soviet Union and in March 1933 he decides to travel to Russia in an attempt to get an interview with Stalin himself.

However, on hearing murmurs of a government-induced famine – a secret carefully guarded by the Soviet censors – Gareth travels clandestinely to Ukraine, where he witnesses the atrocities of man-made starvation, as all grain is sold abroad to finance the Soviet empire’s industrialisation.

Deported back to the UK, it’s the Western Mail that publishes Gareth’s article revealing the horrors he has witnessed, but the starvation is denied by Western journalists based in Moscow, all under pressure from the Kremlin. As death threats mount, Gareth has to fight for the truth – and, meeting a young author called George Orwell, Gareth shares his findings... helping to inspire Orwell’s great allegorical novel Animal Farm.Gareth’s great-nephew Philip Colley made headlines recently, accusing the film’s scriptwriter of “inventing multiple fictions”, including wrongly suggesting he was an accidental cannibal.

Colley told the Sunday Times: “In the film, they have got [Gareth] up a tree eating bark, eating human flesh, tripping over dead bodies. They’ve made Gareth a victim of the famine, rather than a witness.”

Norton, however – interviewed prior to Colley’s remarks – says he received plentiful support from a number of Gareth’s surviving relatives, who came to early screenings of the film.

“They were all lovely in their support and they gave us their seal of approval, which was very touching,” recalls Norton.

“Our film’s screenwriter, Andrea Chalupa, was in touch with a lot of them early on. There’s so much literature and academia about Gareth’s work as a journalist, but Andrea found out some lovely titbits about his more private character.

“For example, when he went home to Barry he’d love being with his nieces and nephews and he became a big kid. His great-aunt told Andrea about one day when he came back home and he was rolling around with them like a labrador. That kind of story was invaluable to me.

“He wasn’t just this very earnest, principled man, there was a childlike, playful quality to him and he was almost a little bit gauche, a little bit awkward. You also want to honour his memory for his family.”

The main source of the film is a biography of Jones entitled More Than A Grain Of Truth, written by Gareth’s niece Dr Margaret Siriol Colley (Philip’s mother) and his great-nephew Nigel Colley (Philip’s brother), both of whom share a credit as the film’s historical advisors.

The book sparked Chalupa’s interest and she started corresponding with Margaret Colley soon after its publication. When Margaret died in 2011, aged 85, Chalupa remained in contact with her son Nigel, who became “heavily involved” in discussing ideas for the film. Nigel died in 2018.

Filmed predominantly in Poland, homeland of Warsaw-born director Agnieszka Holland, Mr Jones does contain some breathtaking snowbound scenes shot in Ukraine, where Gareth gets first-hand sight of the horrendous famine.

“We filmed in a tiny little place called Doch, which is three hours north of Kiev, in the middle of nowhere,” says Norton. “We’d drive for hours on these very unsafe roads, jangling your bones around. It was freezing cold in the snow.

“It was so remote that we had to put the word out to local farmers to come along as extras and we had a strict cut-off time – we had to wrap up at 5pm because they all had to go back and feed their animals!”

When it came to filming the scenes in Wales – notably Barry and the Western Mail’s offices in the film’s gripping finale when Gareth’s whistle-blowing scoop hits the presses – Norton reveals: “I’m really sorry to say they’re all filmed in Scotland! About an hour north-east of Edinburgh. A lot of those villages there have a quality of that small fishing town, for the Barry scenes.

“The other reason is that the film is partly funded by Creative Scotland and there’s that responsibility you feel to film there. But I think it worked well. It was a shame not to film in Wales, but we had a fantastic collection of Welsh players there, including Julian, so it felt home from home.”

Agnieszka Holland, of course, is not the first female director to work with Norton. He acted under the helm of Greta Gerwig on Little Women and with a largely female crew on the six-part TV drama The Trial Of Christine Keeler, which finished last Sunday, earning him rave reviews for his heartbreaking performance as Stephen Ward, the tragic scapegoat figure in the Profumo affair which brought down the UK government in the early 1960s.

“I’ve not gone out of my way to work with female directors, but I have great agents who always look for the best projects – but I really hope it’s a sign of the times,” he says. “The Christine Keeler story has never been properly told from a female perspective before, so that was the real attraction. Agnieszka, meanwhile, is the best of the best – the fact that she’s a woman is almost irrelevant.”

How does he feel about the fact that Greta Gerwig has been denied a Best Director Oscar nomination for her lauded version of Little Women, in which Norton plays eligible suitor John Brooke to Emma Watson’s Meg March?

“I can stand as witness to Greta’s brilliance and the fact that Little Women is up for Best Film and Screenplay is testament to her brilliance,” says Norton. “She singlehandedly redefined the story for a modern generation and it would have been wonderful to honour that in the nominations for direction – so it’s a horrible and unfortunate omission.”

It was while starring in McMafia, the gritty 2018 BBC1 thriller series with scenes of him bow-tied and gun-toting, that Norton’s name was first added to the list of contenders to play James Bond when Daniel Craig retires from the role after the next 007 movie No Time To Die. Remind him of that now and he laughs it off.

“It’s very humbling, it’s lovely and bizarre to be included in that conversation, but beyond that it’s all very speculative,” he says. “I think at the moment everyone’s concentrating on Daniel Craig in his final Bond film – for me, he’s a fantastic Bond and I’m sad he’s retiring.”

Right now, however, it’s Mr Jones and the legacy of that film’s largely unsung Welsh hero that are uppermost in Norton’s agenda. Tragically, Gareth Jones’ life was cut short on the eve of his 30th birthday in 1934, when he was allegedly shot by Mongolian bandits while travelling in Japanese-occupied China on a fact-finding tour.

“There’s much speculation about Gareth’s death at such a young age and there was a lot of evidence suggesting that it was orchestrated by the Soviet forces as revenge for his blowing the whistle on the hidden famine,” says Norton.

“His stories in the Western Mail were incredibly important. The more we can learn about Gareth Jones and recognise his extraordinary legacy, the better. And the fact is that right now, as politics becomes more polarised, we need more people like Gareth – investigative journalists to uncover the truth, with no ideological agenda attached.

“If this film encourages any future young Gareth Jones, then that’s fantastic. It’s a crime we don’t know more about these forgotten events and hopefully this film will remedy that.”

#James Norton #Gareth Jones #Mr Jones #interviews #article

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msclaritea · 5 years ago

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~Mr Azira Phale, Angel~

It struck me during the church scene that perhaps the Germans were calling him Mr. Fell because they thought Phale was his last name. So, I took a closer look at the two halves that made the whole.

~Azira

...Arabic in origin, it means A Rising Star. Interestingly, Pre-Islamic Arabia practiced Vedic religion, and in Vedic Astrology, Azira is a common name for babies born within Krittika Nakshatra, the older name of the Pleides Constellation.

Krittika..."literally means a "sharp flame" or "sword of fire." Alternatively, the word "Krittika" may be derived from the Sanskrit root krit, which means "to twist threads" or "to wind as a snake." This clearly is related to the symbology of the Caduceus and the May Pole. The root 'krit' also means "to separate, cut asunder, or divide." This secondary meaning refers to the division of souls into two groups that occurs on the Day of Illumination. The subtle energy associated with the Pleiades constellation is considered a Sword of Fire because it cuts asunder or separates knowledge from ignorance. It separates light from darkness."

~Phale

The name is actually of what is known as Pictish-Scottish origin. "The Picts were a confederation of Celtic language speaking peoples who lived in what is today eastern and northern Scotland during the Late British Iron Age and Early Medieval periods. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from early medieval texts and Pictish stones. Their Latin name, Picti, appears in written records from Late Antiquity to the 10th century."

"This interesting surname is of Scottish and Irish origin, and it is an Anglicized form of the Scottish Gaelic "MacPhail", and the Irish Gaelic "MacPhoil", both patronymics from the Gaelic forms of the given name Paul, derived from the Latin "Paulus, meaning "small", and is has always been popular in Christendom."

Now of special note is Paul, the Saint, originally Saul of Tarsus, considered by many to be the actual founder of early Christianity, who very much believed in Angels, spoke of them appearing to him, and who at first, was bent on persecuting Jesus, only to become an Apostle after he appeared to him in the famous story of his travels on the road To Damascus. I came across an eye-opening article, theorizing that not only were Paul's writings edited and twisted, making him a patriarchal misogynist, but that he in fact believed in equality, was hugely inspired by Plato, and may very well have been Gay.

From: The (Possibly) Gay, Elite Apostle Who Believed in Radical Equality for All by Jay Parini

"I tend to agree with Bishop John Shelby Spong, a brilliant theologian and church leader, who argues that Paul was “a rigidly controlled gay male,” as he writes in Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism (1991). Be this as it may, Paul was clearly at war with his own body, tormented by the idea if not the reality of sexual desire, and eager to withdraw into the company of his male companions: Luke, Timothy, Silas, and others. His conflicted feelings about his own sexual nature may account for the “thorn in his flesh” that he wrote about in his second letter to the church at Corinth. (2 Corinthians 12:7-9)"

Galatians 3:28: “In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free man, neither male nor female. In Christ, all of these are one.” ~Saint Paul~

Saint Paul was later decapitated by Nero! Oh, and one last thing...

Azira is actually a girl's name.

BUT WAIT...THERE'S MORE.

For those who have looked closer, you may have discovered that Petronius worked for Nero.

Petronius was chief advisor to Nero and helped with the planning of all debauchery, orgies, feasts and crimes. He was known as Arbiter of Taste.

And Petronius wrote the infamous Satyricon.

Influence Of The Satyricon Upon The Literature Of The World.

"...It is to the author's recognition of the importance of environment, of the vital role of inanimate surroundings as a means for bringing out character and imbuing his episodes and the actions of his characters with an air of reality and with those impulses and actions which are common to human experience, that his influence is due...This class of literature, though modified essentially from age to age, in keeping with the dictates of moral purity or bigotry, innocent or otherwise, has come to be the very stuff of which literary success in fiction is made. One may write a successful book without a thread of romance; one cannot write a successful romance without some knowledge of realism; the more intimate the knowledge the better the book.."

"Petronius writes cynically and satirically about Roman decadence, about a society that’s corrupt and materialistic. Paul, to a certain extent, is writing about the same thing. He is certainly not humorous most of the time; he’s expressing his straightforward outrage about what he is seeing around him."

Petronius, set up for a treason charge by a rival, was threatened with death but chose to take his own life in quite a dramatic fashion, which is described in the notes to Satyricon. He died a year before Paul.

*Satyricon is compared often in style to Au Rebours by Joris-Karl Huysmans, and one translation published in Paris,1902 has been attributed to Sebastian Melmoth aka Oscar Wilde.

Now, was St. Paul an influence in any way on Shakespeare? The Bard of course wrote about Religion and Politics in his plays but due to his enormous influence, St. Paul managed to touch Shakespeare's place in a much different way. This has led to the discovery of a place I had never heard of from this time period...and a new head canon.

During Shakespeare’s lifetime, the area around old St Paul’s Cathedral was a hive of activity and industry...the main gathering place for acquiring (and spreading) news and gossip, purchasing the latest fashions and commodities, and, of course, for being seen. Under its Nave, as known as Paul's Walk, while the people who went there and into the churchyard were known as Paul's Walkers.

Complaint of Thomas Dekker in 1608:

‘What swearing is there; yea, what swaggering, what facing and out-facing? What shuffling, what shouldering, what jostling, what jeering, what biting of thumbs to beget quarrels, what holding up of fingers to remember drunken meetings, what braving with feathers, what bearding with mustachios, what casting open of cloaks to publish new clothes.’

Indeed, with its dozens of booksellers, Paul’s Churchyard was the centre of the London book trade, and was popular throughout the entire country.

"Booksellers on Paternoster Row became a source of competition in the latter half of the century, eventually winning the prominent position in London bookselling, but Paul’s maintained its supremacy well into the seventeenth century." This link has a beautiful rendering that can be expanded to show the individual publishers."

I imagine Aziraphale would have spent hours here, likely with Crowley beside him, eagerly pouring over the thousands of books available, excitedly meeting other writers, getting lost among a mixture of saints and sinners, just enjoying humanity. And I head canon that THIS is what gave Aziraphale his idea to open a bookshop.

What kept bringing me back to St. Paul?

It's imposing presence caught my eye during the WW2 sequence. Turns out, it was bombed during the last days of December 1940, but survived due to the hard work of British firefighters.

“There are a lot of secrets in the design—a lot of buried subliminal stuff,” he reveals, noting that he hopes an eagle-eyed fan will find all the Easter eggs in Good Omens." Michael Ralph, Production designer, who also says that he based Azira's bookshop on the design of a compass.

Purposeful or no, using St. Paul as a guide through Good Omens has been a fun history lesson.

@consulting-nerd-of-many-things @ineffable-janthony @feifeicuttie @sarahthecoat @honeybeelullaby @echosilverwolf @englandwouldfalljohn@thegoodomensdumpster @fuckyeahgoodomens @artfulkindoforder @iamjohnlocked4life @artemisastarte @fellshish @brilliantorinsane

The Satyricon

https://www.uscatholic.org/church/scripture-and-theology/2012/04/putting-paul-his-place

The Influence of St. Paul on Shakespeare

An awesome podcast That Shakespeare Life on St. Paul's Bookshops

x x x x x x

#Aziraphale #Name Origin Meta #St. Paul #Founder of Christianity #Bible Studies #Arabic Origin #Vedic Astrology #Good Omens #1st GO Meta #aka DymphnaSaints #TRMOJAS #shakespeare #Old St Paul's Churchyard #Paul's Walkers #WW2 #I wish someone would include the churchyard in a film or documentary

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ashleyjouharphotowords · 5 years ago

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‘Getting ready to rock - and why we still love a festival, 50 years after Woodstock’.

A potted history of the Music Festival, written for the Superstock Image Library.

Peace and Love, man. And believe it or not, Mozart.

In 18th Century England, the cathedrals would fill with the festival-goers of the day, keen to hear the sublime music of Mozart, Beethoven and Rossini. These gatherings were some of the first music festivals in existence.

The word ‘festival’ itself was first recorded in the English language in the middle of the 16th century. It derives from the word ‘feast’, celebrating the harvest.

Before that, in ancient Greece, they used to hold The Pythian Games, a festival of culture in which art, dance and music were performed, pre-dating the sporting aspects of the games.

Of course 1969’s Woodstock Festival is probably the most famous festival of all and the one that expanded 1967’s Summer of Love experience to really put festivals on the map.

In Bethel, upstate New York between 15 and 18 August 1969, 500,000 hippies sprawled out watching performances by, amongst others Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Santana, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Grateful Dead and The Who.

The myth persists that it was all ‘peace and love’ and spaced out bliss for those that were there. The reality, particularly for the bands was somewhat different. The Who’s singer, Roger Daltrey recalled “We were due on in the evening but by four the next morning we were still hanging around backstage in a muddy field waiting. And waiting some more.”

This really goes against the grain of the legend of Woodstock, especially when Daltrey goes on to say “Three days of peace and love? Do me a favor. It was crazy even before we arrived. Pete (Townshend) spent several hours in the traffic jams. Other artists didn’t make it at all. The whole place was chaos.”

A few months later on Saturday 6 December of the same year a free concert at Altamont Speedway Race Track was held, featuring bands such as Crosby Stills, Nash and Young, Jefferson Airplane and The Rolling Stones. Thrown together and badly organised, The Grateful Dead declined to play in the end because the atmosphere at the festival was turning increasingly ugly as the day wore on.

When The Stones finally went on stage as the headline act, the Hell’s Angels, who had incomprehensibly been drafted in as security were in fact causing most of the trouble. A melee broke out during The Stones’ performance of ‘Under my Thumb’ resulting in the death of 18 year old Meredith Hunter at the hands of one of the Hell’s Angels.

This concert really signified the end of the Sixties, and the idealism of the hippies was stripped away to reveal the ugly side of the counterculture that now existed underneath.

It’s interesting that the perceived carefree legacy of Woodstock, as well as some of its late 60’s fashion has informed the look and feel of subsequent festivals; and still does to this day judging by the flowers in the hair, the face painting and the skimpy fashions at this year’s Glastonbury festival.

Perhaps Woodstock marked the moment that ‘counterculture’ really entered the mainstream and started to become commoditised. It’s no surprise that things have moved on considerably since 1969 and these days there is an explosion of festivals every summer, in the US, the UK and across Europe.

Woodstock wasn’t America’s first festival though. One of the first was the Newport Jazz Festival, that took place in Rhode Island in 1954 in front of 11,000 people, who had flocked to see legends such as Billie Holiday, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie perform.

And over in the UK, there was The Reading Festival, which is the world's oldest popular music festival still in existence. Starting in 1961 and still going strong today, it has always embraced all genres of new music and therefore stayed relevant to the music fans who attend. Notable bands who have performed there over the decades include Long John Baldry, Georgie Fame, Fleetwood Mac, Deep Purple, Cream, The Jam, The Police, The Cure, Iggy Pop, AC/DC, Blur, Pulp, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Eminem, Nirvana… and countless more.

Not long afterwards, in 1967, as the Sixties ‘happened’ in America, its youth embraced the ideas of peace, love, counterculture, and escaping from the rigid conventionalism of their parents’ generation. To prove it they embraced the Monterey International Pop Festival, witnessing the famous moment in Jimi Hendrix’s slot where he sets his guitar on fire. It was also where Janis Joplin really arrived on the music scene as a force to be reckoned with and where The Who launched themselves to conquer the US market. This is where ‘The Summer of Love’ officially started.

Meanwhile in the UK, The Doors, Joni Mitchell, Supertramp, Leonard Cohen, Joan Baez, Chicago, Procol Harum and of course Jimi Hendrix and The Who played to over 600,000 people on a small island off the south coast of England. The year was 1968 and The Isle of White Festival was born.

Some of the biggest bands in the world have played Isle of White since the early 2,000’s including The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Foo Fighters, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Pearl Jam, Kasabian, Amy Winehouse, Kings of Leon, Jay-Z, Muse, The Strokes, Coldplay, The Sex Pistols, Fleetwood Mac, The Police and Blondie.

And of course there’s Glastonbury, possibly biggest current festival in the world. It came into being on 19 September 1970. Sadly, Jimi Hendrix never had the opportunity to perform there, as the day before the inaugural event, he died in his London Apartment.

Founded on the ethos of the hippie counterculture, the Glastonbury festival site still has areas called Green Futures, The Wood and Healing Fields and includes dance, crafts, poetry and spirituality alongside its cutting edge music. Nowadays the festival has hundreds of thousands of fans attending each year and it has become huge business, with the event even offering cash point machines, deluxe tent accommodation and high class catering.

The popularity of music festivals spread throughout the world in the 70’s and massive events started to pop up everywhere, from South America to South Africa. The counterculture vibe that started in the 60’s continued to be felt over next two decades as different subgenres of rock were born – from punk to metal and beyond.

The Burning Man Festival, which takes place annually on the bed of an empty lake in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, was founded in 1986 by San Francisco artist Larry Harvey. His idea was to get a small group of people together on the Summer Solstice and burn an 8-foot wooden effigy of a man.

Burning Man is really an experiment in temporary community – something that extends the original hippie ideal and brings it bang up to date. Its counterculture roots also show themselves with its anti-consumerism stance and interest in self-expression. There is a sense of ‘anything goes’ at Burning Man with activities like performance art, using light or fire, nude body painting and the creation of ‘mutant vehicles’ which to mind the action sequences in the original Mad Max movies.

In neighbouring California, The Coachella Festival launched in the 90s, on the back of a concert by Pearl Jam. Like other music festivals, it includes art installations and sculptures, along with Rock, Pop, Hip Hop and Electronic Dance Music. In 1999, 10,000 people came to see Beck, Jurassic 5 and Rage Against the Machine perform. Today the festival has around 75,000 visitors and has featured some landmark moments like Daft Punk’s revolutionary LED-lit pyramid and Tupac’s posthumous performance via hologram.

We should also mention ‘Acid House’ music and the rave culture that spread first across the UK in the late 80’s and then across Europe and back to the US, on the back of the ‘House Music’ scene that came out of Chicago a couple of years earlier. Epitomised by the yellow smiley face graphic, House music encouraged both community and freedom of expression through dance. Alongside the clubbing, blissed-out groups of ravers, fuelled by the drug of the day, Ecstasy began to meet inside large warehouses and at massive outdoor events in fields, to dance through the night, in what became known as The Second Summer of Love.

Today’s music festivals are almost like mini corporations encompassing everything from retail to tourism and fine dining. But they allow us experiences. A study by ticketing agency Eventbrite revealed that Millennials value experience over ownership: 78% would rather pay for an experience than for material goods, compared with 59% of boomers (born 1946–1964).

Festivals may have lost some of their counterculture credentials - but they are still incredibly popular events in the social calendar and as human beings, we all embrace the idea of community and coming together and experiencing things collectively. Particularly when it’s accompanied by great live music.

#woodstock #festival #rocknroll #livemusic #the who #jimi hendrix #the rolling stones #photography #rock photography #ashleyjouhar

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inevitably-johnlocked · 4 years ago

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any new historical AUs? anything from the 1150s to the 1950s works for me lol

Hi Nonny!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh sadly I haven’t read as many historical fics as I would have liked to, unless you count the TAB/Victorian AUs I’ve read, LOL. I’ll give you most that I have personally read (I omitted the majority of the Victorian AUs I’ve read, please check out the link in the See Also section), AS WELL AS stuff on my offline MFL list, and please do check out the “see also” lists for others that people have added, and hopefully some lovelies will add their own fics for us!

So if any of y’all are currently writing any or have some faves (especially regency AUs, I haven’t read any and am interested in trying one out) please let us know!!

HISTORICAL AUs