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hustledimension · 5 months ago

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The Production of The Road to El Dorado

From here. Warning, fairly long

PAVING THE ROAD TO EL DORADO

No one can say for certain whether El Dorado is pure invention or a myth borne of the truth, but the legend of this lost city of gold has endured for over 500 years. Now DreamWorks Pictures takes audiences on a musical adventure to this fabled land, with the unlikeliest of guides—a pair of hapless miscreants named Tulio and Miguel.

Executive producer Jeffrey Katzenberg reveals that the central characters of Tulio and Miguel have their roots in the scene-stealing sidekicks found in virtually every animated favorite. "Having made these movies for a number of years now, I’ve always thought it would be a great idea to take what would ordinarily be the secondary characters—the dysfunctional losers, the comic relief—and send them off on some big adventure of their own."

"The flawed, but funny supporting characters are often the most interesting," director Don Paul concurs. "A main objective of this film was to break the mold of the typical heroic leading men with two scoundrels, who are anything but typical heroes."

The filmmakers add that the inspiration for Tulio and Miguel could also be found in the classic Hope & Crosby road movies and other popular buddy films over the years.

"The buddy relationship is the very heart of the story," says producer Bonne Radford. "They need each other because they’re both pretty inept. They’re opposites—Tulio is the schemer and Miguel is the dreamer. Their camaraderie adds to the adventure; you almost don’t need to know where they’re going or what they’re after, because the fun is in the journey."

The fun was also in recording the journey, owing mostly to Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh, the award-winning actors who gave voice to Tulio and Miguel respectively.

Producer Brooke Breton notes, "We brought them together to record, which is unusual in animation, and it was a delight. They had such a great time, and their energy and creativity elevated each other’s performances."

"Kevin and Kenneth are such great talents and each have an incredible sense of humor: Ken is very dry and witty; and Kevin is a natural comedian. They had such terrific chemistry, and it was marvelous to put them together and see what happened. We were able to incorporate a lot of their personalities in their characters, because, like Tulio and Miguel, they are something of an odd couple," Katzenberg says.

Kenneth Branagh remarks, "Tulio and Miguel are a great combination and it was fun to play that relationship opposite Kevin. Miguel is a romantic, who adores adventure and excitement. He’s a good foil for Tulio, who, by contrast, is much more of a cynic."

"Miguel is the idealist, and Tulio is the more earth-bound realist, so together they form one entire half-wit," Kevin Kline quips. "Tulio is always finding himself in these terrible life and death predicaments—often because of Miguel—but I think he really loves wheedling his way out of them. He’s an actor in a way; life for him is a giant improvisation."

That improvisational quality was perfect for each actor’s approach to his role. "Kenneth could go to the mike and immediately give me 15 separate interpretations of a single line. He’s amazing," director Eric "Bibo" Bergeron notes. "Any nuance we could possibly have needed was in the performance he delivered. For his part, Kevin would constantly try variations on his lines and came up with some wonderful gems. In some cases, we ended up using his ad libs, which are some of the funniest lines in the film."

"Everyone agreed our dialogue should have a more spontaneous feel, so Kevin and I had a lot of fun bantering and throwing lines back and forth," Branagh recalls. "In theory, that off-the-cuff quality might be harder to achieve in an animated movie where the process is so technical, but one of the most impressive things about this production was that the technical aspects didn’t eliminate imagination and invention from the process."

"Physically, it is more confining, but your imagination can really go wild," Kline agrees. "You can close your eyes and envision this magnificent city of gold, unlike live action, where there is some semblance of a set around you. In that way, animation is more freeing; you can take larger creative leaps."

Physical limitations were not an issue for the animation artists responsible for the visual manifestation of Tulio and Miguel on the screen. One of today’s leading animators, James Baxter, the senior supervising animator for Tulio, and supervising animator William Salazar led a team of 17 animators in bringing Tulio visually to life. Baxter observes, "We wanted a degree of caricature, so we took a broader, more comedic approach. Having someone as versatile as Kevin Kline to work with was a joy. His performance is so full of life, and it’s great when you have that kind of foundation on which to build your animation. We were able to be a lot more expressive and flamboyant."

"It’s actually easy to capture the outlines of the character when you have a voice talent like Kenneth Branagh," says Dave Brewster, the senior supervising animator for Miguel, who collaborated with supervising animators Serguei Kouchnerov and Bob Scott, and a team of 13 in animating Miguel’s every move. "His performance really influenced where we went with the character—facial expressions, attitudes…it’s all in the voice."

Kline offers, "I can see where the animators dovetailed certain expressions or gestures into the character, but I never feel like I’m watching myself when I’m watching Tulio. It’s great because he has a life of his own…he’s just sort of borrowed my voice."

"It amazes me how animators are able to form this marriage between what they have imagined and what they get when they hear and see you," Branagh states. "The miracle of making all that come together in an original creation is quite something."

Arriving in El Dorado, Tulio and Miguel add a new facet to their partnership in the form of a beautiful native named Chel. If Tulio and Miguel are not your typical heroes, then it follows that Chel is a departure from the usual animated heroine. "She’s remarkable, because in many ways, she’s a contemporary woman," Radford states. "She has tremendous strength, and is every bit as clever and devious as the men. She plays their game at least as well as they do…if not better."

"The combination of Chel with Tulio and Miguel makes for a very interesting trio," says Breton. "She adds an edge and an energy that counterbalances them, and eventually becomes a wedge between them."

Rosie Perez brings her distinctive vocalization to the role of the woman who is more than a match for the two con men. "Chel has Miguel and Tulio’s number the first time she lays eyes on them," Perez laughs. "I love her; she’s smart and sexy, does all the planning—and looks great doing it. She loves life, but she’s frustrated with her own life; she thinks El Dorado is her trap, representing all her limitations, but that’s not so. When she finds what she wants, the world just opens up to her."

Bergeron says, "Rosie has a such a spark. She was always in a great mood, laughing and having fun. She’s so full of life and has an attitude that added so much to Chel. We took Rodolphe Guenoden, the supervising animator for Chel, to New York for a recording session, and he noticed the way she moves. She’s always sort of dancing—there’s a little ‘groove’ to her even when she’s just talking—and he was able to incorporate that into his animation."

"What Rodolphe did with her facial expressions and her movements was right on the money," Perez declares. "He really brought out her charm. But," she smiles, "she’s much more toned than I am. I would never be confident enough to run around in a little outfit like that."

The actress also appreciated the depiction of Chel as a woman indigenous to the Latin culture. "I think the filmmakers have done a wonderful job in being sensitive to the portrayal of Chel and other characters as Latinos," Perez attests. "What they did was deal with her human side first before dealing with her outward appearance, and that’s so important. They approached the culture with a lot of respect. I think the Latin community is going to be very happy with this one, and it’s about time."

Another very respected member of the Hispanic acting community plays a lead role in "The Road to El Dorado." Edward James Olmos provides the voice of the Chief, and notes, "I love that the film and the cast have so much cultural diversity. It’s quite a combination, from Hispanic Americans to Europeans."

While he bears no physical resemblance to the imposingly large figure of the character, Olmos’ voice conveys the strength, wisdom and benevolence of a great leader. "The Chief is the voice of the people," Radford says. "He’s wise and loving and rules in a very gentle way. He’s not passive—he wields great power—but his wisdom shines through."

"He’s also a very smart man. You realize he’s been on to Tulio and Miguel from the beginning," Bergeron offers. "That blend of goodness and wisdom was something Edward could communicate with just his voice. He was the first person we thought of because we knew he could capture the warmth, the love and the authority of the Chief brilliantly…and he did."

"This is my first animated film," Olmos says, "and the fun I had was phenomenal. It was exciting to build a character completely with just your voice. It’s liberating, rather than confining, because you have to really feel what the character is doing. Then the animators come in and have to develop the expressions from just your voice. It’s exciting to watch it come together."

Frans Vischer, the supervising animator on the Chief, states, "Edward James Olmos gave this wonderful touch to his performance where he could say one thing, but you’d know he meant something completely different. His voice is low and calming and has an all-knowing quality, which is exactly what we wanted in the Chief."

In keeping with these attributes, Vischer and his team of animators also gave the Chief a physical grace disproportionate with his massive size. "When you see him standing there, you expect him to be a big klutz, but instead he moves with great dignity and elegance. We played with the contradictions of the character: when you first see him, you might have a preconceived notion that he’s big and dumb, but you soon discover that he is very perceptive, not to mention very graceful."

In stark contrast to the Chief is his nemesis, the High Priest Tzekel-Kan. Armand Assante, the voice of Tzekel-Kan, relates, "He’s vying for the Chief’s power, and believes when Tulio and Miguel show up on the scene that they’re his key to taking over the kingdom. His mistake."

"One of the best things about Armand’s performance is that he made Tzekel-Kan a multi-faceted character, as opposed to a one-dimensional villain," Don Paul says. "He gave him great strength and intensity, but was also able to bring a wry sort of comedic sensibility to the role."

"Tzekel-Kan is evil, but he enjoys what he is doing so much, that it makes him a lot more interesting and fun to watch," Radford agrees.

"I love doing villains, because they’re always the most fun," says Kathy Zielinski, supervising animator for Tzekel-Kan. "Armand gave us the kind of villain you love to hate. He was so great to watch record because he is so active and dynamic, even in front of a microphone. He gave us a lot of inspiration, and we put many of his actions into the character animation."

Assante recalls, "The sessions were fascinating for me because we were able to experiment and give a great deal of attention to the script. It’s a painstakingly slow process, but well worth it. One almost wishes that the amount of detail given to animation could be found in the live-action world."

In recording the dialogue for all the characters in "The Road to El Dorado," a lot of attention was paid to creating the kind of fast-paced, overlapping dialogue that is typically more common to live action films. Paul expounds, "We kept overlapping dialogue from one character to another, which is not traditional in animation, but we really wanted to give the banter between the characters a tighter rhythm. It boosted the energy and gave a unique style to the film."

One major member of the ensemble, however, never speaks: Altivo, the loyal war horse who joins Miguel and Tulio on their journey to El Dorado. Kristof Serrand, the supervising animator for Altivo, notes, "It’s all pantomime, which comes across in animation fairly well. I tried not to make him too cartoony; most of the time he moves like a real horse. But there are also shots of him doing things like climbing stairs, and there’s no way a horse can do that."

THE MUSICAL ROAD

Legendary recording artist Elton John serves as the musical narrative voice of "The Road to El Dorado," propelling the story via six original songs heard in the film, written by John and Tim Rice.

Katzenberg offers, "We wanted the songs sung by Elton to be the heart and soul of the movie—not only helping to tell the story, but revealing what’s happening beneath the surface."

Hans Zimmer composed the score, marking his first collaboration with John and Rice since their Oscar-winning triumph "The Lion King." Joining the team for this film is composer John Powell, who worked with Zimmer on the score.

"Having Elton, Tim and Hans together again on a movie is a dream for me," states Katzenberg, another "Lion King" alumnus. "To get to work with these guys is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I feel extremely lucky that it’s happened to me twice."

"The reason I loved doing ‘The Lion King’ and wanted to be a part of this film is the rapport I have with Jeffrey Katzenberg," Elton John says. "He’s inspirational; he makes me feel a part of the team, not just in terms of the music, but the film as a whole. He’s always willing to listen to what I think about the movie. Of course, then I have to let him say what he thinks about the music," John laughs.

"I wanted to do another animated film," he continues. "Of course, I’m lucky. I write the melodies, so compared to Tim, I have the easy job. Animation is a long process—the story evolves, the jokes change, the songs switch scenes…and through all that, Tim is rewriting lyrics. But it was just delightful to work with Jeffrey, Tim and Hans again. We have tremendous respect for one another, so it was truly a team effort."

The first song heard in the movie is the opening theme "El Dorado," which accompanies the vividly colorful creation of the mythical city. "It needed to be a majestical, up-tempo song to really catch your attention at the start of the film," says John. "Lyrically, it tells the story of how El Dorado was formed as a glorious gift from the gods, which visually matches the incredible opening of the movie done by the animators."

Before we can explore El Dorado, however, we first meet up with Tulio and Miguel in 16th-century Spain, where they are caught cheating in a dice game, putting the story in motion. The settings of the story in Spain and El Dorado had a strong influence on the songs by Elton John and Tim Rice, as well as the musical score compositions created by Hans Zimmer and John Powell.

"The music has to have an essence of the culture," John says. "All the songs in the movie are melodically linked because of their Latin roots."

"An interesting element of the music is that we have Spanish, Latin American and South American music intersecting in a harmonious way," Zimmer adds. "I love those musical styles, so it was great to do a little ‘knitting’ between them. At the same time, it’s not an anthropological study; it’s a fun movie, so we used several instruments that didn’t even exist in those days. It’s a bit of a cheat, but that’s the idea: to find the culture and then try to cross its borders for a broad audience."

Zimmer also broke tradition by not using a full orchestra for much of the scoring. The characters’ individual themes are performed by small ensembles to achieve an intimate sound, as heard in Chel’s theme, aptly titled "Cheldorado." Gifted guitarist Heitor Pereira from Brazil, a former member of the rock group Simply Red, plays all the acoustic and Spanish guitar compositions in the film.

In addition, Zimmer relates, "I saw this unbelievable group called Triology perform in Cologne. They have a sound like nobody else, and I knew they’d be perfect for this film. The hard part was telling Jeffrey that, instead of an orchestra, I wanted to use this avante garde string trio I had found in Germany. My thinking was, ‘yes, we’re the team from ‘The Lion King,’ but now let’s see who we can bring into this team and really make it different.’ I think it worked out really well."

Getting Tulio and Miguel from Spain to El Dorado leads to the song "The Trail We Blaze." Lyricist Tim Rice offers, "‘The Trail We Blaze’ is the film’s road song. It’s two guys going to conquer the world, full of ambition and dreams. They haven’t yet been disillusioned by anything."

The two friends come to what appears to be a dead end, when they meet Chel, a beautiful native girl who is as determined to get away from El Dorado as they are to get in. Though hardly a willing guide, Chel is the reason Tulio and Miguel finally arrive in the magnificent city of gold. When the High Priest, Tzekel-Kan, declares them to be gods, Tulio and Miguel realize that being the fulfillment of prophecy could be very profitable. Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh perform "It’s Tough to Be a God," the only song in the film not sung by Elton John.

Branagh remarks, "We both like to sing, and it was an incredible treat as an actor to be able to sing music by Elton John and the extremely witty lyrics of Tim Rice, and then to work with the brilliant Hans Zimmer in the studio. That sort of opportunity rarely comes along, so it was great fun to come into the recording studio and have a chance to play."

"We had great times with Kevin and Kenneth jamming in the studio," Zimmer recalls. "I had to ignore the directors and producers looking over my shoulder and let zaniness prevail. That was the atmosphere I was trying to create, and it worked perfectly with the type of song it is."

"It’s first and foremost a comic number," Rice says. "It’s meant to be funny, but at the same time, it’s illustrating the strange position that our two heroes have gotten themselves into."

During their time in El Dorado, Tulio and Miguel find themselves enticed by the charms of the city—but not the same charms. Tulio is falling in love with the seductive Chel, while Miguel is beguiled by El Dorado and its people. The song "Without Question" accompanies a montage sequence in which Miguel explores the city, becoming more and more captivated by its treasures, having nothing to do with gold.

"It was originally written as a love song between Tulio and Chel," John reveals, "but it also came to represent Miguel falling in love with the place."

Paul says, "Because of that song, you really feel and understand that moment when Miguel is not seeing the city through a con man’s eyes anymore."

Being drawn in different directions eventually pulls Tulio and Miguel apart, putting a break in their friendship they may not be able to bridge. The song "Friends Never Say Goodbye" is about these two best friends facing separate futures for the first time. "They have had an almighty row, and now are going their separate ways," Rice notes. "But we’re hoping they will patch things up, so the title is somewhat optimistic."

"They have both found what they were looking for in life," says Bergeron. "But they discover the one thing they have to sacrifice in order to realize their respective dreams is their friendship, which ultimately means the most to them. So in the end, the story is about how lucky we are to have that true friend we can depend on, not just when things are great, but when the chips are down."

The final song heard in "The Road to El Dorado" is "Someday Out of the Blue (Theme From El Dorado)," which plays over the film’s end credits. The song, with music by Elton John and Patrick Leonard and lyrics by Tim Rice, will be the first single from the album Elton John’s The Road to El Dorado. The album’s release is scheduled for March 14, and the single will be available in stores on April 4.

DIGITIZING EL DORADO

The animators took the blending of traditional and computer animation to a new level in "The Road to El Dorado." To help achieve that symbiosis, traditional and computer animators worked side-by-side, rather than being split into separate departments, which, as Don Paul says, "generates mutual respect and an energy that brings everyone’s best work forward."

In the past, background paintings would be completed before being scanned into the computer. For "The Road to El Dorado," some traditional artists used state-of-the-art 2-D digital painting software for a process digital supervisor Dan Philips called "tradigital." He explains, "They took preliminary rough base paintings, scanned them in and did the rest of the painting digitally. This allowed them not only to make revisions faster, but they could also take different pieces of the background and reassemble them for an entirely new background."

Using the exposure tool, developed by DreamWorks and Silicon Graphics Inc. and first utilized on "The Prince of Egypt," the layout department, led by Lorenzo E. Martinez and Damon O’Beirne, was able to achieve 3-D camera moves on 3-D sets that were combined with 2-D paintings.

There was also a leap forward in 3-D animation crowd scenes in "The Road to El Dorado." Paul explains, "Normally, your main and middle-ground characters are traditionally animated, and only the background characters are computer generated. In this film, we have brought CG characters center stage, which is something I’m really proud of. We were very meticulous in modeling them so they would appear identical to the traditionally animated characters, and not look like they exist in different formats. The facial expressions and the performances of the CG characters are so much better than was done in the past. These are all stepping stones to bringing 3-D character animation to the forefront."

Another tool that was employed for the film was Elastic Reality® Warp (ER® Warp), which has been used primarily in live action for morphing sequences. In animation, it permits the artists to warp images to give the illusion of subtle movement without re-animating frame by frame. There are myriad examples of ER® Warp throughout "The Road to El Dorado": leaves bounce as Miguel hacks his way through the jungle; the sail of Cortes’ ship bends in the wind; Tulio’s back flinches as a leech is pulled from it; and many more.

In the animated world, water is one element that has consistently posed challenges because, by its very nature, water involves a tremendous amount of movement at different speeds and in different directions simultaneously. One of the most daunting sequences in "The Road to El Dorado" involved Tulio, Miguel and Altivo going overboard into the ocean directly in the path of Cortes’ galleon. By applying gradient light and shadow to 2-D water, sequence lead Jeff Howard was able to create depth and scale in the ocean as it swelled and ebbed.

Big bodies of water, however, are not necessarily the most difficult to animate. In fact, the tiniest splashes have often been the most testing. For this film, Doug Ikeler, the sequence lead in a scene called Crashing the Gate, developed a new system called Spryticle, which enabled him to obtain the most detailed splashes of water possible.

The Spryticle process begins with a 3-D particle system, which is like little dots in virtual space. Spryticle then turns each dot into a 2-D card, called a sprite, on which are images, in this case a series of hand-drawn splashes. Using the computer, the animator can apply forces such as gravity or wind to move them around.

"The beauty of Spryticle is that it gives us a way of multiplying hand-drawn animation a thousand-fold," Ikeler asserts. "Even though the computer is replicating them, each one is still hand-drawn animation with its own unique attributes."

FINDING EL DORADO

For the filmmakers, the journey to El Dorado began with two research trips to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The trips were led by the film’s historical advisor Dr. John Pohl, an archaeologist with the Fowler Museum of Cultural History at UCLA, and a recognized authority on American Indian civilizations. With a joint doctorate in archaeology and film production, Dr. Pohl was eminently qualified to guide the filmmakers in their quest to be faithful to the Indian civilizations of what is today Mexico and Central America—the most prevalent of which were the Mayans.

Radford recalls, "Going to the Yucatan was extremely significant to the foundation of the story and the script. It was very informative to soak up the culture, to see how those civilizations existed and experience what it was like to physically be in those places. From an art direction standpoint, the colors in the foliage and even the animals are almost magical. It was a challenge to get it all on the screen because there’s so much beauty in even the smallest details. It was important to us to be faithful to all the research that was done, and I think it’s paid off."

Christian Schellewald, the film’s production designer, remembers, "Standing on top of a pyramid in the middle of a rainforest, you see this eternal jungle, this enormous green ocean. It was breathtaking. That’s something you can’t see in pictures, and can’t understand unless you’ve seen it for yourself. That’s why we went."

"A great deal of research went into this film, but we had to keep in mind that it’s set in a mythological place. A lot of the design was inspired by the Mayan civilization and other cultures, but it’s not meant to be an exact reflection of any one culture," Paul comments.

"This is a fantasy," producer Brooke Breton agrees. "We applied what we learned of the civilization and the surroundings and took it to a surreal realm, weaving in the fantasy elements to achieve a look that is really original."

The design of the film did not only apply to the backdrop. Schellewald and art directors Raymond Zibach, Paul Lasaine and Wendell Luebbe subtly utilized color to gauge the emotional life of the main characters. Red and black were used to accentuate danger and fear, as in the jaguar sequence when Tulio and Miguel are running for their lives from Tzekel-Kan’s incarnation of evil. Lighter, brighter colors were incorporated for happier sequences. The challenge came in blending conflicting emotional cues for the two main characters, especially during scenes when they had very different moods.

To accentuate the brilliant colors of El Dorado, the design team established a striking contrast between it and Spain. In Spain, the colors are much more muted, with almost no foliage to shade buildings that are sun-bleached and rough-hewn. Arriving in El Dorado, the palette explodes with vivid colors and bold graphic shapes.

Bergeron expounds, "We wanted Spain to be almost monochromatic. Then, as Tulio and Miguel find their way through the jungle, we integrated more color as the characters discover a new world. Finally, when they come to El Dorado, we see every color of the rainbow."

Katzenberg concludes, "One of the most important things for me in making an animated movie is to take the audience someplace they’ve never been before. The inspiration for this story is a magnificent culture of which only the tip of the iceberg still exists. It’s a world that once was…but maybe if we could find that waterfall and make our way through it, we’d find that El Dorado is still there and waiting for us."

#the road to el dorado #dreamworks #animation production #trivia #animation

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all-brown-everything · 6 years ago

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My favourite Indian films of 2018

Sorry for the wait this year. 2018 in the movies mirrored my own life a lot; the films on the list are films to love, make you feel something human, and they force you to take their characters and hold them close to your chest as if they were your own. While the most interesting mainstream movies from South Asia over previous years on this blog have excelled when they chose to experiment with the language of cinema itself, the 10 I’ve written about here have, similar to great literature, embraced pain, longing, love and everything else that comes with being alive.

10. Theevandi

I’ve seen this film being described as an “anti-smoking movie.” I couldn’t disagree more. It’s a story about the nature of habit (rather than the disease of ‘addiction’), of locating the source of your personality, your soul, and trying to change it against the will of nature. During my time in India this year, nothing brought more joy than an ice burst and cutting tea at the side of the road, perching on the side of the pavement and watching life carry on around you. And while this is a film with a main character who wants to quit smoking, it isn’t about cancer. It isn’t about that horrible sooty smell at the end of your fingers, or yellowing teeth or a decreased sperm count. It’s about how something as innocuous as a tube of rolled up tobacco hanging out of your mouth can act as a fragile crutch for the entire weight of the world.

9. Laila Majnu

Like many of my favourites this year (and every year), this re-telling of one of South Asia’s most important romances wants to know what love is. Here, we see love not as a generous, giving emotion, but as pure greed. With one of Bollywood’s most gorgeous soundtracks, that bleeds furiously out of every frame, and a constant sparkling gleam of glamour over these gorgeous young actors and the Kashmiri hills they prance around in, I enjoyed this enough just based on the commercial tropes it toys with for fun. But its real beauty lies in its brave and painful final declaration; that the most divine love may connect you to God and remove your soul from your body, but it will destroy you and your connections to the Earth, as the cruelest form of asceticism.

8. Cake

I’m including a Pakistani movie (again) because our film industries were birthed under one national identity, and I don’t see the studios of Karachi as any more culturally distant from Mumbai’s Film City than Kodambakkam. Moving to Cake, this stunning portrait of a dysfunctional family surprised me against all my instincts that it was a Western-facing production clearly aimed at piercing its way into festivals and a patronising ‘World Cinema’ bracket. It is in fact, a study of shifting societal politics in an increasingly extreme and polarised World, of figuring out where your values stand in the midst of religion, feudalism and globalisation, and accepting that when these heavy, abstract concepts weigh down on your shoulders, it is the human beings around you who will feel the strain first.

7. Golak, Bugni, Bank Te Batua

I really love Punjabi cinema. Seeing it come into its own and reclaim its cultural narratives and aesthetics from bastardizing Bollywood (where now even a film set in rural Gujarat will feature a Punjabi language song) has brought a lot of joy. Now here comes a happy little film not set on preaching the glory of Sikkhi or telling an epic tale of brave warriors or earnest farmers, but on bringing us into the lives of a middle class Hindu Punjabi family in a small mohalla of a tier 2 city. And these aren’t the Hindu “Punjabis” of a Bollywood movie set in Chandni Chowk, who might throw in a “tussi” or “tuadi” here and there at the most. These are real people with a real culture, as intertwined with Punjab and their Sikh neighbours as they are separate. The film doesn’t patronise them by drawing humour from their novel identity; the situational character-based slapstick and witty back-and-forth theatrical dialogues exist in a warm parallel with the “World” of the movie. And then the lives of these people change in one instant as demonetisation hits, and we are hilariously reminded that whether you’re Hindu or Sikh, Northern or Southern, you are (unfortunately) still in India.

6. C/o Kancharapalem

I won't say this film stood out as a "Telugu movie", as such slight, subtle films are an anomaly no matter what language they're made in or how brash those other films produced in the same mother tongue may be. These small and quiet tales, with their shy characters who live at the fringes of society, whether that mean they are Muslim prostitutes or simple middle class teachers carving out a living in a small village, are special because they manage to transmit such humanity without stirring from the dark alleyways or shaded courtyards where they take place. Not every film needs to stand tall like an intimdsting Tolstoy tome; some can be as unassuming as an RK Narayan novella and still make us feel like they're an epic.

5. Pyaar Prema Kaadhal

Let's be honest. Casting two leads from a reality show, putting heart shaped balloons in your posters and deciding on the title "Love, Love, Love" pretty much screams "trash" doesn't it? But here was a humbling reminder that Indian popular culture can surprise you in the most pleasant of ways. These two good-looking young wannabe-stars and their social media followings represent so much about the "new India", a steadfastly singular culture (or cultures) whizzing through the fiery hoops of globalisation at breakneck speed, coming to terms with a mixed up value system, raging sexual frustration and an ever widening class gap, all of which have left a generation feeling more connected yet more alienated than ever before. This is 'Pyaar, Prema, Kaadhal', a flawed and horny love story, sweating with tension and all the repulsive angst of human emotion, yet with the glamorous musical heart of Indian cinema still beating loudly underneath.

4. Manmarziyaan

There was as much to love about 'Manmarziyaan' as there was to hate. The age-old filmi love triangle rears its head again, only this time with characters who are more manipulative and frustrating than any you've seen in a "mainstream" movie before. But while the film never forces you to judge (at times leaving you confused about whether you're actually supposed to like any of these people) it demands that you engage. It's encouraged some of the finest writing on cinema I've seen in recent years, and such an unashamedly "Bollywood" film inspiring this thrilling thought and analysis from our finest critics (whether their judgement is kind or not) warrants its inclusion on this list alone. Then there's the way its incredible soundtrack weaves in and out of scenes like the characters own breaths, the way life changing moments are obscured from the script by deafening silences and acutely observed minutiae, and of course THAT lead performance. I'm not sure if I "liked" it or not, but I sure as hell can't wait to watch it again.

3. Pari

The better the film, the harder it is to write about. 'Pari' is rich with metaphor. While being a ghost story (and a damn good one) merely on the surface, it has plenty to say about the way our society treats women, poses the question of if we can truly be born evil, and even critiques our savage treatment of "the other" in a global society where more of us are on the run than settled in our homes. But I think its biggest strength is that while it challenges you to reach into the very centre of your being and take a look at yourself and the World around you, its craft and screenwriting is so good that not at any moment does it give you a second to realise that's what you're doing.

2. Rangasthalam

'Rangasthalam' is so great. Like really really great. Once an innocuous muscle man, Ram Charan has channelled his inner Dhanush and located his physicality, writhing and slanging his way into the mind and body of the quintessential South Indian rural hero, hoisting his lungi and flicking his beedi into one of the most visceral and truly cinematic masala movies in living memory. The thumping pace and kinetic choreography (both of the rousing song sequences and the busy, lived-in frames of the rest of the movie) evoke a dusty, violent world with the same panache of Ameer in 'Paruthiveeran' or Sasikumar in 'Subramaniyapuram', while the moustache twirling dialogues and meticulous emotional beats offer as much pure fun as a "Dabangg" or a "Khakee" or any classic Hindi masala movie. I've read pieces linking the cinema of 'Rangasthalam' to film noir traditions, but to me it simply proved that the masala genre still has as much excitement to offer as any other.

1. Mukkabaaz

I'll remember 2018 as the year that Anurag Kashyap, previously India's frontrunner in the realm of "interesting" (but more often headscatching) cinema, stopped thinking with his very big brain and instead used his even bigger heart. His most straightforward film is undoubtedly his best, Hollywood-esque in its writing but firmly Indian in its sentiment. The scale is small - empty boxing arenas, bleak winding village paths and a cast plucked from the TV screen - but its emotions are pure opera. This is a timeless film, and though it laughs at the ridiculousness of modern India, poking a nasty smug finger at caste oppression, petty politics and the bureaucratic nightmare of simply trying to stay alive, it defies analysis. Much like the song at the centre of the story, the violently stunning 'Paintra', it only asks that you feel. And what more could we want from cinema?

I've had so much fun at the movies this year. From dancing to Dilbar in the cheap seats of G7 in Bandra to reciting Dhanush's Maari 2 dialogues at the bus stop outside Ilford Cineworld, Indian movies have continued to punctuate my life and bring me more joy than they have any right to. I can't wait to do this all again this year. What were the films that stirred you over the last 12 months? Let me know. Xx

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wardencommanderrodimiss · 6 years ago

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Witches of LA, Chapter 2: I hope you like exposition and pro wrestling jokes because that’s all we’ve got here

[Seelie of Kurain Chapter Masterlist] [ao3]

[Witches Chapter Masterlist] [ao3]

“And where exactly did you say we’re going?”

“It’s called Nine-Tails Vale! Jinxie – you remember her from New Years? – works there and invited us up for a yokai festival today!”

“A yokai ff – is it too late to get off the train and go home?”

Nine-Tails Vale sits in the hills at the base of the mountains of Kurain, far enough away that there’s a chance that they can have as normal a day as anyone at a yokai festival could, but close enough that the hills around the valley still might be faery mounds. Like most days at the WAA, anything goes, and Apollo has to live with it. And maybe he’ll die with it one of these days, sooner rather than later.

Trucy keeps trying again to explain to Apollo the storyline of the local wrestling scene, which she and Jinxie are avid fans of, on their walk over from the train station.

“It’s like a soap opera combined with a fantasy story, but also with grown men hitting each other with chairs,” she says, which is definitely a pitch that would appeal to certain people who aren’t Apollo. “They’ve got their thing that’s kinda like Court, or if there were two Courts who hated each other, and they battle it out in the ring like Daddy says some of the fae do within our legal system. Because the wrestlers are all masked and they’re the proxies for these powerful spirits who possess them whenever they’re wearing the mask. Like selkie skins but if the seal was separate and you were being controlled by it.”

“Uh huh,” Apollo says, surveying the main lane they’ve come up along. The dirt path, lined with a few scattered cobblestones, is overladen with little wheeled carts and pop-up stands selling little charms and trinkets and decorated with leering faces of yokai. Overwhelmed and shoved aside by the merchandise are older buildings bearing signs with both English and Japanese writing and weathered stone statues that have little offerings and candles scattered about their bases. “I wouldn’t feel like being possessed by a seal is very useful. What am I going to do, flop around a lot?”

“There’s always slapping,” Trucy says. “But I’m saying it’s like that. You put on the skin and you turn into it, wear the mask and bam.”

“Uh huh.”

“So when the wrestlers lose, they can have their masks stripped off, which is the ultimate disgrace because they lose both their power and the world and their enemies know their face and name and can claim them.” Trucy stops and leans over a table of paper tags marked all with a paw print and otherwise with a variety of characters and symbols. “And anyway it never got real big until the Amazing Nine-Tails – he’s one of the wrestlers obviously – started being active outside of the ring. And that’s a real no-go to use your powers like that, but he started getting attention, and the Vale started getting attention, and then this yokai craze kinda started up and now there’s lots of tourists from way out of the area watching the matches and visiting!”

“They’d have to be from way out of town,” Apollo says, “because there’s no one I know from the LA area who would hear about a town in the mountains full of monsters and say ‘yeah, I’m going to spend money to go spend time there’.”

“Yet here we are,” Trucy says. She reaches into her purse and pulls out a bracelet of wooden beads. “Oh, here.” She grabs his arm and slips it onto his wrist next to his bracelet, then shaking her own wrist to draw his attention to a matching one she wears. “I forgot to give you this sooner; it’s rowan wood, which is—”

“An anti-fae charm like iron,” Apollo finishes.

Trucy nods. “Yep! And anti-yokai, it overlaps. Anyway, Daddy says it’s very important to not get rowan mixed up with hawthorn wood, which the fae like. He says that’s a very dangerous mistake to make.”

(“Are you speaking from experience?” Apollo asked, and Phoenix cracked a broken smile and told him that’s all he has to speak from.)

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Apollo says.

“I know you’ve got your ring, but it can’t hurt us to be extra cautious out here today.” Trucy pats the necklace she is wearing; a small horseshoe-shaped charm that must be made of iron dangles from it. Horseshoes are a lucky thing, or thought to be, Apollo knows. Clay has one he keeps with him. “I think that’s why Daddy wanted you to come with me. I think he’s worried I would get into trouble alone, since Jinxie’s working and I won’t be with her all day.”

“I thought he sent me with you because he hates me,” Apollo says. Trucy smacks him on the arm.

Uphill to the alderman’s manor, the dirt roads merge with a well-kept cobblestone path to lead them into a beautiful garden, full of paper lanterns and long banquet tables. Trucy sticks her nose into a bush of beautiful golden flowers and is still admiring them when Jinxie, wearing an apron over her dress and carrying a round serving tray, finds them and slaps a warding charm – one of the thin formal slips that Apollo saw for sale down in the yokai extravaganza, like she wears on her own forehead, not a sticky note – on his forehead. Even after she remembers that she’s met him before, they have to make their way through another circular argument about whether or not Apollo is a fae demon. Trucy has apparently given up on convincing Jinxie of the truth, because she says, “He’s a demon but a good one!”

Does he look extra monstrous today, for some reason? Is his hair spikier, his voice louder? What has he done to deserve this?

Jinxie works as a maid at the manor, though she doesn’t live in the Vale but instead in the neighboring Tenma Town, and with her job she can’t spend all afternoon with them. She imparts on them some local lore from the village about the powerful and terrible yokai, Tenma Taro – is it coincidence or significant that its name bears such similarity to Tenma Town? Like Kurain and Khura’in, what does that mean? – imprisoned in the mountain that the manor is built against. Today’s festival, she explains, is a much more robust version, bolstered by tourist dollars, of a ceremony they hold every year, ritually releasing a shade of Tenma Taro and then banishing it.

Though instead of the Nine-Tailed Fox, the village’s guardian yokai – is that an oxymoron? Apollo once would have thought so, but he works in an office that has a guardian ghost fae – doing the banishing, the wrestler the Amazing Nine-Tails, will be.

Which reminds Apollo of Trucy’s one-sided conversation on the way over, and he interrupts Jinxie and Trucy starting to gush over some recent matches to ask, “So all of this you’re talking about, the wrestlers, uh, kind of channeling yokai spirits – that’s all just in the fiction of wrestling not really being real, right?” They both glare at him. “They aren’t actually using magic and summoning demons, right?”

“Apollo,” Trucy scolds, her hands curled into fists on her hips. “You can’t break kayfabe! You should know that!”

He wishes he had the strength to believe that it isn’t real, and that no one could be so stupid to be fucking around that deep into fae magic for the sake of televised entertainment, but he’s also here at a goddamn yokai festival on one of his days off and that’s pretty stupid too.

“I should get back to work,” Jinxie says. “I’ll see you later – ah!”

Making its way through the garden, causing people to spring out of its path, is a tall bird-creature, with gray feathers and three yellow eyes and sharp talons on its hands and feet, which with their yellow skin resemble the legs of some kind of raptor. It resembles the yokai on the scroll Jinxie showed them, the Tenma Taro, but it’s just – someone in a costume? Right? A costume for a festival, and not actually—

It rounds on Jinxie with a hiss. “Better watch out, little girl, or I’ll sssnatch you away!” She raises her platter up over her face and cowers back into one of the banquet tables. Apollo thinks that it probably is just someone in a costume, now that he’s seen it speak; its beak doesn’t move and its tongue lolls forth even in the middle of its speech. It’s too static, or is that wishful thinking?

But no one else is looking at the monster and how it’s cornered Jinxie, no one moving to help her – and Apollo realizes he is moving forward, not sure what he could do if it’s a yokai and knowing he shouldn’t do anything if it’s a performer (like how he and Clay got banned from a local haunted house when they were 13 because Clay reflexively punched one of the actors in the sternum), but still unable to stand by.

“Hey! Don’t stare like that!” someone nearby warns, at a volume that tries to be a whisper but doesn’t really succeed. They must be talking to Apollo and Trucy, because no one else, not even Jinxie, is staring. “If Tenma Taro locks eyes with you, he’ll steal your soul!”

Apollo turns his eyes to the ground instantly, reflexively, because that’s the one thing he knows not to take chances on even though, as he thinks about it, he’s more sure that this monster is a costume and even if it weren’t, he doesn’t think there’s anything powerful enough to just simply take a soul so easily. And if there were, they wouldn’t just casually set it loose. (He hopes.)

“Look!” Trucy whispers, nudging him and pointing toward the manor, where a small figure stands on the roof dark against the blue spring sky. Whatever – whoever – it is leaps down to the lower roof, disappearing from sight, but only a few seconds later springs again, with a long leap far too long to be human. (He thinks first of Lamiroir’s disappearing act and wonders what the trick behind this is.) The man who lands in the midst of them, between Tenma Taro and Jinxie, wears a wrestler’s belt and a golden fox-head mask, with a collar of the same color fur that turns into a cape of many long foxes’ tails. If he was going to guess, Apollo would say that there are nine.

Clearly the Amazing Nine-Tails, and with some silted words about vanquishing evil, he chases Tenma Taro back toward the manor. And Apollo might now be really convinced of the scriptedness of it – and admittedly relieved by that – but the crowds are cheering and Jinxie no longer looks like she’s about to faint from fright. With her platter still clutched across her chest like a shield, she waves goodbye and returns to work, and Trucy drags Apollo off to explore the town.

Trucy wants to buy everything. Apollo should have expected that – the amount of Gavineers merchandise that she acquired in the two weeks between their meeting Klavier and the concert was astonishing – and to that end he should have expected that she would run out of money and turn to him. She at least considers herself an organized businesswoman, enough to write up the invoice of what she owes him, and he strikes from it the paper warding charms they buy. He isn’t sure yet if he believes in them, but he’d probably be getting a few for his and Clay’s apartment anyway, and Trucy is talking about how it would be nice to have some kind of protective charm to give to Vera that wouldn’t hurt her like iron, and getting something for their friends seems a worthwhile investment. Trucy’s attempt to wheedle a few dollars out of him for another plush Nine-Tailed Fox keychain is not.

It’s warmer now than it was last April, enough that Apollo tentatively hopes that the fae are done throwing their winter tantrums. If Trucy had to drag him anywhere – and she would consider that a necessity – it’s a good day for it, pleasant to spend time out under the sun and the clear sky. He’s not even convinced that the town is as cursed as he first assumed.

Naturally, that’s where it always goes wrong, letting his guard down, no longer anticipating that the worst is going to claw its way up out of the dirt.

He and Trucy circle back to the manor as a crowd is starting to gather at the front doors; at the center of it, once they manage to push through the people, Trucy helping clear a path by sending Mr Hat off to the side to draw people’s eyes and attention the way a will o’ the wisp does, is Jinxie, simultaneously wild-eyed and looking close to passing out. She stretches out one visibly-trembling hand and grabs Trucy by the wrist, her other arm still hugging the platter close to her chest. It must be iron, it must. “Alderman Kyubi is dead!” she cries. “T-ten – Tenma Taro murdered the alderman!”

She sways on her feet and Trucy takes her by the elbow and helps lower her to sit on the ground, and Apollo does what is starting to become a habit in these sort of situations – which are becoming habitual in themselves – and rushes in, pocketing a charm that Jinxie throws at him as he goes.

The scene is a small room Jinxie called the Fox Chamber, up the entry stairs and down the hall to the right, and there, one thing is certain: the alderman is dead.

A classic locked room murder mystery: two men, one dead, the other unconscious, no one else seen when Jinxie discovered the crime. The killer? Obvious, seemingly: the unfortunate unconscious man, whose murder plan clearly ran into a hitch when it came time to get away, and for motive who happens to be the mayor of the neighboring town currently disputing over municipal issues with the dead alderman.

Except the mayor is Jinxie’s father, and if he goes to jail she has no other family, and she’s adamant that Tenma Taro did the killing, and the last locked-room murder case that Apollo defended ended up not being one at all. So, classic setup, maybe, never the obvious solution, and Apollo’s record of stumbling into complex cases while he’s trying to do something law-unrelated with Trucy continues. Is it her? Is it him? Is it them both, together? He can only write so much off as coincidence.

And he wishes he could write off Jinxie’s ramblings as those of a superstitious girl scared witless by the feathers and bloody footprints at the crime scene, and maybe once he could have, maybe this time last year, but he’s seen too much since then. If a monster, a yokai – are they connected to the fae? They must be. Isn’t everything? – murdered the alderman, then the question becomes: how does he prove it? How does he convince the judge and prosecution of it?

He should start with asking Mayor Tenma what happened, first.

Trucy tells him that the mayor can seem scary, but he’s nice, really, promise not to run away, Polly. His nerves would be frayed enough without it, but her warning snaps several more of the barely-connected threads, and like a self-fulfilling prophecy, he’s jumpy and nearly flees the room, sheet of glass between them or no. Mayor Tenma is very good at setting some very bad impressions, loudly, with great force, giving Apollo’s heart time enough to stop several times before the mayor corrects the misconception. It’s a very anxiety-inducing interview, and the facts he gleans from it are worse: Mayor Tenma’s fingerprints were on the murder weapon, and he, asleep from being drugged, remembers nothing, including who was it that hit him on the head. Apollo can’t see the wound or a bandage; the mayor’s entire scalp is covered in Jinxie’s warding charms, as though to make a full hat. Does he believe, or is he humoring his daughter? Apollo doesn’t ask.

He has barely left the building when he receives a phone call from the last person he expects. “Mr Wright? What’s going on?”

“Trucy tells me you’ve found yourself a case over in Nine-Tails Vale.” No preamble, no small talk: Phoenix, friendly as ever.

“Uh, yeah. Why?”

“Are you still at the Vale right now?”

“No, I was just talking to the client at the detention center. Why?”

Phoenix sighs heavily. “Because I’m at the airport, picking up the new addition to the Agency – Athena Cykes, Trucy’s mentioned her to you before? And I mentioned your case, and that was it, no stopping her, Athena ditched me with her luggage and took the rental car and is heading out to help you right now.”

“She – you what? She what?” Apollo won’t say that he doesn’t feel some small sense of satisfaction at Phoenix having to suffer someone else flaking on him, but what an impression to make on your new boss.

(Almost as good as punching him in the face.)

“So I need a favor, basically: can you go back to Nine-Tails Vale and intercept her?”

“I—” Once again, the way this day is going takes a sharp turn off the road. “Yeah, I can. But I’ve never met her – what’s she look like?”

“Yellow,” Phoenix says.

“What?”

“She’s got long red hair, and the way you’re red, she’s yellow. Hard to miss with how much energy she’s got.” The description is somehow both vague and incredibly specific – he can’t exactly picture Miss Cykes in his head, but he knows he won’t mistake anyone else for her when he finds her.

“Okay. I can do that. I have to go back anyway to check out the crime scene.” Did he say that Athena had a rental car? He can only dream of how convenient that will be once he gets to her.

“Cool, thanks. Good luck with the case – and with the Vale.”

So much for putting himself at ease convincing himself that it was just a man in a costume, and that there’s some sort of easy explanation for the feathers. (Or not an easy explanation, because saying that Tenma Taro passed through is very easy, but a mundane one.) “What does that mean? Mr Wright?” He doesn’t answer right away, giving Apollo’s stomach enough time to flip over itself and then squish his heart up into his throat. “The stuff Trucy was saying about wrestling, with the yokai and the masks and uh, channeling them? Or whatever it is – that’s not – that’s just the story on the show, right? That’s not…?”

“Not actually real? For most of them, it’s not, no; no magic in the mask but television magic and a tall tale to keep the audience.”

“But – most of them. You said for most of them? So for some of them it is real?”

“Yeah.”

Apollo wants to sink down to the sidewalk and cry. Or scream. Definitely scream, right here next to a police building where they can arrest him for disturbing the peace very easily.

“I can say with certainty that if any spirits involved were actually powerful and smart enough to be malicious, they wouldn’t be stooping to playing a part in half-scripted on-camera fights between half-naked men. Maybe it’ll be a nuisance to your case, at worst, but no threat to anyone’s lives or souls.”

Apollo wishes he could believe that wholeheartedly, and that he could say for sure that Phoenix’s definition of nuisance is something close to his own. “If you don’t get the Not Guilty tomorrow, when you head back up to investigate again, I’ll let you borrow the magatama,” Phoenix adds. “Just so you can really keep an eye on everything, if it’s needed.”

He thinks there will be a second day – that if Apollo doesn’t win in one, then he will have kept his head above water well enough to drag it out. He doesn’t expect Apollo to lose in a day. He thinks Apollo could win in a day.

“Thanks, Mr Wright.”

“No problem. Now you’ve gotta find Athena, and I’ve gotta figure out how to lug her suitcase home.”

Athena, Athena – what else has Trucy told him about her? She was studying in Europe – did she grow up there, too? Does she know what Los Angeles is like? Will she think him superstitious or ridiculous for everything he knows to be real? Does she know what she is walking into in Nine-Tails Vale? Did Phoenix warn her?

Apollo starts walking quicker than before. Of course Phoenix wouldn’t warn her – but hell, to be charitable to Phoenix (for once), he might not have had time to say anything to her before she took off.

If, against his own nature and his lived experience, he tries to be optimistic, he hopes for three things. First, that everyone involved in the murder his plainly human and that no monster committed murder. (That seems the most likely: would a monster know to plant the mayor’s fingerprints?) Second, that Athena has enough sense to be cautious about whatever village folklore they’re stumbling into instead of immediately dismissing it. And third, if he’s really dreaming, that Klavier will be the prosecutor on this case, easily able to identify who is and isn’t human and probably willing to share it.

But Apollo knows that’s all a little much to hope.

#roddy fanfics #fic: the witches of los angeles #next chapter: MY DAUGHTER APPEARS AND THROWS AN ENTIRE DUDE BECAUSE SHE'S SWOLE #and we also meet -- oh FUCK we meet fulbright oh FUCK #i'm not sure if we'll meet simon in 3 or 4 tho. depends on how quick i can gloss the investigation portion

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weekendwarriorblog · 6 years ago

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WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND 8/10/18 – The Meg, Slender Man, BlacKkKlansman, Dog Days

If you didn’t read last week’s column about August at the box office, then go ahead and do so now, but this week, we have a similar slate of potential hits and bombs that will mainly rely on whether people want to go to movie theaters to get away from the oppressive heat wave, or instead, go to the beach. Of course, if it rains this weekend, it will definitely help the movies.

THE MEG (Warner Bros.)

First up, is the first shark movie we’ve had in theaters in quite some time, and a PG-13 one to boot. The Meg, based on Steve Alten’s book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror about a prehistoric shark that rears its ugly head in the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately for this shark, it’s going to have to go up against Jason Statham in his first prominent role since appearing in last year’sFate of the Furious, and before he and Dwayne Johnson get their own Hobbs & Shaw spin-off next year.

The Meg is directed by Jon Turtletaub, best known for the National Treasuremovies, but he went on to direct The Sorcerer’s Apprentice for Disney (which didn’t do nearly as well) and directed CBS Films’ Last Vegas, which was a decent breakout comedy among older audiences. Maybe Turtletaub wouldn’t seem like the most likely suspect to direct a giant shark movie, but hey, more power to him.

The movie also stars Rainn Wilson (who I didn’t even recognize in the trailer), New Zealand’s Cliff Curtis (from Fear the Walking Dead) and Chinese superstar Bingbing Li, and by superstar, I mean that she seems to be put into every movie from Transformers: Age of Extinction to Resident Evil: Retribution in order to get Chinese audiences to see her movies. She’s not to be confused with Tian Jing who Legendary who puts in all of THEIR movies (three, so far) in order to help get Chinese audiences. I shouldn’t be cynical (especially with Crazy Rich Asians coming out next week), but at least it also stars Winston Chao, who starred in Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet, as well as starring the ever-present Orange is the New Black star Ruby Rose, who has appeared in four sequels in the last two years and has just been cast as Batwoman in a new CW television series.

I’m not sure if the actors on this matter much outside Statham, because shark enthusiasts even rushed out to see a Mandy Moore movie when 47 Meters Down opened last summer to $11.2 million in just 2,207 theaters, even though that wasn’t really a shark movie. When you talk about shark movies, you have to go back to the grand-daddy of them all, Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, which was the talk of the summer of 1975, becoming one of the first bonafide summer blockbuster, grossing $260 million, which is a LOT by ‘70s standards. Warner’s last attempt at a shark movie was 1999’s Deep Blue Sea, directed by Renny Harlin and starring Samuel L. Jackson and L.L. Cool J. That shark movie opened with $19.1 million and grossed $73.6 million but became a cult classic in the bargain. Surely, the interest in sharks and shark movies has only been exacerbated by Animal Planet’s annual Shark Week, which is mentioned in one of the trailer’s jokes, not to mention the super-bad Sharknado movies.

As the studio’s second to last movie of the summer, Warner Bros. has been giving this movie a huge marketing push, both on television and in theaters, where it was almost impossible to miss the trailer in front of other summer blockbusters, and the studio is putting it into close to 4,000 theaters (including IMAX), a number usually reserved for higher-profile blockbusters.

Reviews will probably be rather mixed, because The Meg is the type of summer popcorn movie that rarely is admired by the snobbier film critics, but it also seems fairly review-proof, because it seems like one of those fun popcorn movies we expect in the summer, which should allow it to do decently opening weekend, in the $20 to 25 million range opening weekend and maybe $65 million or slightly more with the summer winding down. Maybe it won’t be seen as big a bomb as Statham’s FF co-star Dwayne Johnson’s Skyscraper earlier this summer, but with a budget over $150 million, this one better hope that Chinese audiences like shark movies as much as Americans, because it’s not making that back domestically.

Mini-Review: What can be said about this giant, prehistoric shark movie other than if you’ve already watched the trailer a bunch of times, you’ll already know whether you’re in or out? After watching Jason Statham’s Jonas Taylor losing a couple of his friends in a submarine rescue mission gone pear-shaped, we cut forward five years to China where… wait, isn’t this the beginning of Skyscraper? It won’t take long to realize that The Meg is cut from the same cloth as the recent popcorn movie starring Statham’s Fast and Furious buddy, although in this case, Statham is constantly being overshadowed (quite literally) by the giant CG shark of the title.

It takes a little time to get there as we first have to visit the high-tech deepsea exploratory vessel in the Pacific Ocean, and we meet the team, as they’re about to make a dive into an area below the icy bottom of the Marianas Trench. The mission is going as planned until a large creature hits the deep-sea vessel leaving three members of the team trapped at the bottom of the ocean. Sure enough, they have to call upon Jonas Taylor, who happens to be the ex-husband of the lead scientist, sowe spend another 45 minutes on this rescue mission before we discover (big surprise) that the Megalodon they discovered has gotten out from under the icy depths where it was trapped. From there, we follow the course of events as the team try to put a stop to the Megalodon, and that’s all you really need to know.

The problem is that there are so many characters in the movie, each fighting for their little bit of screen-time against Statham. The writing is so driven by corny and obvious clichés, it’s almost painfully obvious the role each of these characters will play, including Page Kennedy’s funny black guy but especially Rainn Wilson’s corrupt billionaire who is going to make all the wrong calls for the sake of making money. Ruby Rose’s character gets very little to do as so much focus is put on Bingbing Lee’s character and her family. The thing is that you never feel much for either the characters that live or the ones that die, and an 8-year-old girl steals many scenes from the rest of the cast, including Statham.

By the time we get to the Megalodon arriving in the crowded Chinese bay – a scene right out of the original Jaws– we’ve pretty much given up on trying to take any of it seriously, even if most of the cast continues to utter every line in utter po-faced earnest. Otherwise, the movie tries way too hard to throw in funny moments, but rarely really delivers much in that sense, so you watch things unfold as might be expected.

In other words, The Meg is the corniest of popcorn movies that’s mostly ridiculous and predicable. Just don’t go in expecting Jaws, but maybe something closer to Jaws 2.

Rating: 6.5/10

SLENDER MAN (Screen Gems)

The movie offering the most direct competition for The Meg is this horror film that’s been moved around the schedule so much one wonders if this could possibly have the same quality as some of Screen Gems’ previous releases like 2016’s Don’t Breathe from Fede Alvarez. That one opened even later in August 2016 with an impressive $26.4 million opening on its way to $89.2 million (based on a $10 million budget), helping to solidify Alvarez as a master of horror after his Evil Dead remake a few years earlier.

Directed by Sylvain White (The Losers, Stomp the Yard), you may know Slender Man as the viral internet sensation and urban myth that ended up with one girl almost being murdered by a couple of her classmates “because Slender Man told them to do it.” There’s a lot more to this meme, which is mostly known by younger people who use the internet, but this is a fairly typical movie about teens being haunted by something menacing. (If you want to learn know more about the near-murder, check out the HBO doc Beware the Slenderman.)s

Screen Gems was originally going to release this later in August, but they took a big chance by switching it with the Sundance sensation Searching (one of my faves from the festival) to give this a bigger push earlier in the month. Unfortunately, it’s also going up against a much stronger (or equally strong) draw for young people in The Meg, so genre fans will certainly be torn with this one drawing the teen girls and that one getting older males.

This stars Joey King, who also appeared in last year’s high concept horror flick Wish Upon, which opened with just $5.5 million and grossed $14.3 million, one of the last ditch efforts by Broad Green to have a hit.

In any other weekend, this would probably be good for a $20 million opening, but opening in just 2,000 theaters with less of a push and no big name stars to sell it (sorry, Joey!), this one will be lucky to make $15 million this weekend and might end up somewhere below that. This will definitely be more of a one-weekend wonder than some of the summer’s other films so expect large drops in the coming weeks.

Mini-Review: If ever there was a movie that would make you miss Wes Craven, this attempt at furthering an urban legend might be it, as you wonder what he might have done with the premise of a boogeyman that has kids performing rituals to find out if he’s real or not.

In this case, it’s four high school friends who hear of boys trying to call forth the Slender Man, so they follow suit, knowing of his infamy for kidnapping kids and/or killing them and/or driving them crazy. Sure enough, the next day, one of them disappears, so they have to figure out a way to get her back.

Obviously, Slender Man uses a similar model as Ouija or the awful Truth or Dare from earlier in the year where a bunch of dumb teenagers decide to do the one thing they’re not supposed to do, killing them off one by one. The only thing that makes Slender Man even slightly novel is that the character has already become a viral meme on the internet from teens who have created artwork and fake videos of the character (many of which are used for the movie).

The movie is almost as predictable as The Meg in that it’s fairly obvious where things are going at least until the end, and at least none of the young female actors get annoying, as often can be the case. There are also not many grown-up actors to muck up the story that’s clearly geared towards teen girls, but the lack of real tension or scares does hurt the movie overall.

To Sylvain White’s credit, this isn’t a horrible movie, a lot of that to do with the film’s strong genre visuals and an ambient score that keeps one on edge, and the actual Slender Man, while not particularly scary, also isn’t as bad as some of the twisted CG creatures from other horror films.

I guess the best that can be said about Slender Man is that it could have been a lot, lot worse.

Rating: 6/10

BLACKKKLANSMAN (Focus Features)

Spike Lee is back with another racially-charged and potentially controversial political film, but also his first real-life story in ten years since Miracle at St. Anna but also his best reviewed theatrically-released narrative film in 20 years. (How’s THAT for a variance factor?) Based on the true story of Ron Stallworth, a black Colorado Springs policeman who managed to infiltrated the KKK in order to stop their radical plans.

BlacKkKlansman premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May to rave reviews (and a prestigious award being mentioned in the ads) and the raves have continued with more recent reviews that are still at 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, and this is a rare case where reviews will matter and make a difference at getting people into theaters.

This is the highest profile role for Denzel Washington’s son John David Washington, who also appeared in the Sundance film Monsters and Men and in RZA’s Love Beats Rhymes last year, but the biggest name is likely to be Adam Driver, best known as Kylo Ren from the recent Star Wars movies. It also stars Laura Harrier from last year’s Spider-Man: Homecoming and Topher Grace in the unenviable role of KKK grandmaster David Duke.

Lee’s last few movies haven’t done great with his controversial Old Boy remake starring Samuel L. Jackson making even less than his independently-produced musical Chi-Raq, both making less than $3 million domestically. What makes this somewhat different is that white critics are getting behind it as much as black critics, which should bring in a nice mix of the arthouse crowd and the African Americans who have been waiting for Spike Lee to return to the greatness of earlier films Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever.

BlacKkKlansman seems likely to be the breakout movie of the weekend, although opening in just 1,630 theaters might limit its potential opening to closer to $7 or 8 million rather than giving the two movies above a run for the Top 3. Even so, expect word-of-mouth to continue to drive this to a domestic gross of somewhere in the high-$20 mil, low-$30 mil range, which would make it Spike Lee’s biggest hit since Inside Manwith Denzel Washington.

Mini-Review: Spike Lee has finally found a vehicle that plays up to his strengths, while also returning him to the realm of both Malcolm X and earlier films like Do the Right Thing. It’s a film that allows him to explore race relations in this country through the eyes of the real-life Ron Stallworth, the first black cop in the suburban Colorado Springs who decides to go undercover infiltrating the local KKK branch in the early ‘70s.

Ron Stallworth’s story is a solid one, and it’s told in a way that for the most part is lighter than one might expect, because it is hard to believe what Stall worth gets away with. More than anything, BlacKkKlansman is just a great vehicle for the younger John David Washington, who delivers a similarly-rounded performance as Lakeith Stanfield does in the recent Sorry to Bother You, and Adam Driver is great as always as his white partner who does the dirty work

One of the nicer surprises is Laura Spurrier as a local college activist who Ron befriends but has to keep out of the loop about him being an undercover cop. (Cops are very much the enemy to her and her African-American college friends.)

The KKK members are deliberately played so over-the-top as the villains of the piece to make sure there’s no grey area about that matter, but Topher Grace does a decent job playing the unenviable role of David Duke.

By the last act, the movie starts feeling like it’s going on for too long with the last act dragged out by cutting between the KKK watching Birth of a Nationand the great Harry Belafonte giving an impassioned speech about the treatment of blacks in the past. It’s a really shocking and effective juxtaposition that works but also takes away from the movie’s previous tone up until that point.

As effective as this scene might be, it’s also unnecessary as we already understand the seriousness of what Stallworth has achieved, and the extended epilogue showing footage from the Charlottesville protest last year hammers things home in a way that just seems like Spike Lee being Spike Lee. We get it, Spike. There are still race problems in this country. That said, BlacKkKlansman is Spike Lee’s best film in a very long time, one that should continue the narrative that began with producer Jordan Peele’s film Get Out last year, even if it does so in not nearly as clever a way.

Rating: 7.5/10

DOG DAYS (LD Entertainment)

The odd dog out this weekend is this independent family film being distributed by LD Entertainment, Mickey Liddell’s production company that has turned into a full-blown film studio and distributor in recent years, though it hasn’t exactly made many waves in that realm. Its last theatrical release was April’s The Miracle Season with Helen Hunt, which only grossed $10.2 million domestic after an opening below $4 million, but maybe that’s good for a low-budget inspirational sports drama. LD has produced other movies that have fared better when released by other studios like Bleecker Street (Megan Leavey), Roadside Attractions (Forever My Girl) and others.

This anthology film about people’s relationship with their dogs is hoping to bring in families with younger kids that like dogs but also women, and a definite plus is that it’s directed by Ken Marino, former member of The State and David Wain collaborator whose last movie How to be a Latin Lover, a Pantelion release starring Eugenio Derbez, grossed $32.7 million last year. The ensemble cast includes Nina Dobrev and Vanessa Hudgens, who have built a fanbase from their television roles on The Vampire Diaries and High School Musical respectively, as well as Finn Wolfhard from Stranger Things. They’re joined by Eva Longoria, Rob Corddry and Thomas Lennon, which is a decent cast but not one that offers much of a draw over the cute dogs.

Last year’s Megan Leavey might be the best comparison for Dog Days, as that also involved a dog (and no, I’m not talking about Kate Mara…rimshot) and that opened with around $3.8 million in just under 2000 theaters.

I wasn’t invited to see an advanced screening of this before writing this column, so I’ll just have to assume that reviews will be pretty good – NOPE!-- though it’s hard to think there’s much awareness for this movie. (In fact, I didn’t even realize the movie opened on Wednesday since that seemed like a last-minute decision. Expect an opening in the $4 to 5 million range at best, which should be enough to break into the bottom of the top 10, but it could end up being shut out and forgotten with stronger family releases already in theaters including last week’s Christopher Robin.

This week’s top 10 should look something like this…

1. The Meg (Warner Bros.) - $22.5 million N/A 2. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Paramount) - $20 million -43% 3. Christopher Robin (Disney) - $15.5 million -38% 4. Slender Man (Screen Gems) - $13.5 million N/A 5. BlacKkKlansman (Focus Features) - $10 million N/A 6. The Spy Who Dumped Me (Lionsgate) - $6.3 million -48% 7. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (Sony Pictures Animation) - $5.6 million -30% 8. Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again (Universal) - $5 million -45% 9. Dog Days (LD Entertainment) - $4.8 million N/A 10. The Equalizer 2 (Sony) - $4.5 million -48%

LIMITED RELEASES

This weekend has a ridiculous amount of specialty releases, but the summer of high-profile Sundance premieres continues with the New York release of Josephine Decker’s amazing indie film Madeline’s Madeline (Oscilloscope), introducing break-out star Helena Howard as the title character, who got the leading role in a theater piece being staged by a director (Molly Parker) who seems to want to revolve the piece around Madeline’s life including her dysfunctional relationship with her mother (Miranda July). This is a fascinating film that definitely veers into the art film world of July’s own films like You and Me and Everyone We Know, but it has a quirky charm that keeps you invested throughout.

Opening in select theaters after a month-long run on DirecTV is Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s A Prayer Before Dawn (A24) starring Peaky Blinders’ Joe Cole as an American kickboxer who ends up in a Thai prison after being busted for drugs. Once there, he needs to take on the savage environment while dealing with his own drug addiction, eventually getting back into kickboxing as a way to clean himself up and change his situation. I ended up enjoying this movie more than I thought I would

Another Sundance premiere that got a lot of buzz was Skate Kitchen (Magnolia), the new film from The Wolfpack director Crystal Moselle, this one a narrative film featuring the young women of Skate Kitchen, a Lower East Side skater crew who are joined by Camille (Rachelle Vinberg), a girl from Long Island whose mother (Elizabeth Rodriguez) doesn’t approve of her pastime. Also starring Jaden Smith, Moselle’s film is an interesting mix of established actors and non-actors, although I wasn’t really into the seemingly non-scripted format, very similar to another Sundance movie coming out next week. I guess I wish there was more of a narrative rather than the young women talking about personal issues, but maybe that’s just me. It opens at the IFC Center in New York Friday (with Moselle and the Skate Kitchen in person) then expands to other cities next week.

Fresh off its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival’s Midnight section is RKSS’s Summer of 84 (Gunpowder and Sky) involving a group of 15-year-olds who think that a police officer in their neighborhood might actually be a serial killer, so they start their own investigation.

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Fresh from its debut at the New York Asian Film Festival and the Phillippines is Erik Matti’s BuyBust (Well GO USA), a police thriller starring Anne Curtis as anti-narcotics special operative Nina Manigan, who is trying to take down the drug cartels of Manila, while also facing dirty cops and bloodthirsty citizens. It opens in select cities this weekend.

Well GO is also opening Huang Bo’s Chinese dramedy The Island about a meteorite bound for earth that doesn’t have much effect on the life of Ma Jin (played by Huang himself) who daydreams of winning the lottery and having a romance with his colleague Shanshan (Qi Shu), but when the event happens, he ends up shipwrecked on an island with some of the coworkers and the winning lottery ticket.

(Continuing where I left off….)

Mia Rose Frampton stars in Jack C. Newell’s teen drama Hope Springs Eternal (Samuel Goldwyn) as Hope, a girl dying of cancer whose condition has increased her popularity, but when she discovers she’s cured, how will all her new friends react? I haven’t seen the movie, but boy, am I able to relate to this as a cancer survivor myself. This will be on VOD and in select theaters.

Gravitas Ventures offers two new genre films this weekend, the apocalyptic thriller What Still Remains (with Strike the Sun Entertainment) from first-time director Josh Mendoza, which will hit VOD on August 14, and Along Came the Devil (Gravitas Ventures), a supernatural thriller directed by Jason DeVan (Mindless) and starring Jessica Barth from Happy Death Day and more. The latter about a teen girl who tries to contact the spirit world will be available On Demand at the same time as its theatrical release.

You can check out the trailers for each below:

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Also opening at the IFC Center is Elizabeth Harvest (IFC Films), the new film from Sebastian Gutierez (aka Carla Gugino’s partner), this one starring Australian supermodel Abbey Lee as the title character who arrives at the estate of her scientist husband Henry (Ciaran Hinds), but is treated poorly by the staff (Gugino and Matthew Beard) and told that’s she’s forbidden from a locked room, which of course, she investigates as soon as Henry goes away.

I haven’t seen it, but I imagine the best thing going for Nick Fituri Scown’s directorial debut Pretty Bad Actress (MVD Entertainment Group) is that it stars the comedic great Jillian Bell (22 Jump Street, Rough Night), but it’s loosely based on the story of Theresa Saldana who was almost killed by a stalker but who starred in the TV-movie about her own ordeal. This one stars Heather McComb as former child star Gloria Green who has a similar experience. It will open at L.A.’s Arena Cinemalounge and be on Digital Friday.

From Bollywood comes Vishwaroop 2(Reliance Entertainment), directed and starring Kamal Haasan, and also out in New York at the Village East is the Icelandic film The Swan (Synergetic) from Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir, which will open in L.A. at the Laemmle Royal on August 17. The latter is a drama based on Guðbergur Bergsson’s coming-of-age novel about a 9-year-old girl who goes to visit her relatives in the country where she befriends a farmhand.

Let’s get to some repertory programming in NYC, which is specifically for those who live in New York… or don’t mind travelling.

We’ll start off with the Metrograph who are presenting the first North American retrospective for Anime filmmaker Makoto Shinkai, whose film Your Name. was a blockbuster hit in Japan and breakout hit over here – it even made my Top 3 last year, so I know I’ll try to catch some of his other films. The Metrograph also offers a Rialto Pictures’ restoration of former army cameraman Pierre Schoendoerffer’s 1965 war film The 317thPlatoon, starring Jacques Perrin and others, the story of the occupying French army caught in the difficult politics of the Indochina War. The IFC Center will debut a new 25thanniversary restoration of Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence, starring Daniel Day Lewis, while the Quadpresents a 40thAnniversary restoration of Diane Kurys’ French coming-of-age film Peppermint Soda.

Lastly, Netflix presents the original comedy film The Package about a group of teens who need to put a friend back together after an unfortunate spring break accident… you can probably guess from the title or the image on the Netflix site what body part the friend loses.

#Movies Reviews TheMeg SlenderMan Blackkklansman DogDays BoxOffice TheWeekendWarrior WhatToWatchThisWeekend

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 22 Review: Here’s Negan

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This The Walking Dead review contains spoilers.

The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 22

Jeffrey Dean Morgan, for the most part, has been used poorly during his time on The Walking Dead. The actor has done his best with the material he’s been given, but for entirely too long Negan was a caricature of a person, a goofy swaggering cartoon trying to sound tough but forced to dumb down his language to avoid offending network sensibilities. It was silly, and while Negan might have been a fan-favorite villain, he didn’t exactly translate well to television in spite of my affection for both the character and the actor. He’s been fine, but he’s capable of so much more than he’s had the chance to show as one of the lead characters on the most popular show on cable television.

Now that is no longer the case. With “Here’s Negan,” Jeffrey Dean Morgan was given a major opportunity to show off his acting chops, and he absolutely shines. Morgan is so good here that he might have been able to change a lot of minds about a character that was a self-parody for most of his camera time.

A few weaker entries aside, The Walking Dead season 10 has been one of the strongest the show has ever had, and to say that about a show that has lost pretty much every major cast member and replaced the supporting cast a few pieces at a time is remarkable. It’s a testament to Angela Kang’s skill as a producer and showrunner that a show that kicked off and outlasted a zombie craze has recaptured this much of its glory this late in its run, without Rick, Michonne, or Carl. Even these bonus episodes have been mostly successful, with the less interesting ones still serving as interesting enough character pieces to fill in gaps or give hints at what might be happening in season 11.

No character has needed that revitalizing attention more than Negan. Hints of his origin dropped throughout the series in comments and asides. His wife died of cancer. His bat is named after his her. He used to be a gym teacher. Separately, they provide pieces enough to inform opinions about the character, but when all those details get weaved into his intense back-story, it goes from just character details to creating a fully-fledged human. Emerging out of caricature, stripping back the details to get to the heart of the whys behind his biker jacket, his slicked-back hair, his talkative swagger, his destructive rages, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Hilarie Burton-Morgan take David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick’s incredible script and breathe life and honesty into a heart-wrenchingly sad tale.

Twelve years previously, Negan (Morgan) finds himself on a life-or-death mission. Waylaid by bikers, Negan has to get away from them and get the vital chemotherapy drugs Lucille (Hilarie Burton-Morgan) needs to continue fighting off her cancer. He’s been gone too long, scavenging for food, seeking out the traveling medical team that he heard about—a team that might not even exist—after one last good night together with his wife distracts him for long enough that the drugs warm up in the ice-filled freezer and lose their effectiveness. He’s desperate; she’s survived well into the apocalypse and he knows how to give her the infusions and tend to her through her nausea and pain, he just needs the drugs and now that he’s gotten them, he can’t let a bunch of bikers stand in his way, even if that means betraying good people to bad guys just to save his own skin.

The Walking Dead Season 10 “Here’s Negan” Finale Gives the Villain a Chance to Save Lucille

By John Saavedra

Was The Walking Dead Planning to Go Past the Comic Stories?

By Joseph Baxter

The episode moves easily back and forth through time, with little touches of Negan-esque humor; the chyron denoting Negan finding the doctor as ‘two or three days ago’ is a nice touch. Twelve years earlier, two or three days earlier than that, six weeks back from that, and finally seven months back from that, the episode moves easily and logically through scenes as Negan tells his story to the doctors, to the bikers, to himself, and to us. The relationship between Negan and Lucille plays out between them.

Negan, no job or prospects to speak of, having an affair with his wife’s best friend when he’s not buying $600 jackets and playing video games all day. Negan, reading a book to his wife while she receives her chemo infusion. Negan, trying to rob an armed caravan with an unloaded gun, only to get a kiss from Lucille (the bat) for his troubles. Negan, tied to a chair, begging for the chance to save his wife’s life. Negan, in tears, promising Lucille that he’ll never give up while she tries her best to tell him that he’s done enough, that he’s become the person she always knew he could be, even when he wasn’t, sharing a dried-out joint and a meal of dog food. Negan, rushing home to find out that he’s too late.

Anchored by a brief framing device where Negan leaves Alexandria to avoid Maggie’s wrath, then returns to Alexandria in spite of Maggie’s wrath, “Here’s Negan” is a beautifully touching, beautifully tragic story that is familiar to anyone who has ever watched helplessly while a loved one died before your eyes. Negan won’t quit, because Negan can’t quit. Any little hope, no matter how small, is enough to keep fighting, to dig heels in and try even when there’s no reason to keep trying any more. Even when the person who is dying is giving you permission to move on with your life without them.

The episode is basically a two-hander with Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Hilarie Burton-Morgan playing off each other, and the sequences that the two share carry a palpable weight and chemistry to them. When Negan has tears in his eyes because of the pain he put Lucille through, it feels real because we’ve seen her crawl into his arms and give him a hug and tell him it’s okay to let her go. Both performers play off each other beautifully, and it’s pretty clear that the emotional connection shared by their real-life relationship and their shared bond over health difficulties bleeds over into the fictional words of Johnson-McGoldrick without distracting from them or overwhelming them.

Laura Belsey does a good job of keeping things restrained as appropriate for the characters, and the few Negan-ish touches (the way he grins at the bat for example, the first time he puts on the leather jacket, when he’s standing over a biker he’s tied to a chair) are very deftly handled. It’s the early stages of Negan finding that character he’d become later, and there’s still a human Negan in there somewhere grieving for his lost wife and blaming her death on the people in front of him. The death of Lucille at her own hands, taking the choice of out Negan’s, fits with that character. She’s forgiven him, and she won’t let him kill himself trying to stave off the inevitable.

Negan’s use of the fireplace in his chill-out cabin as a way to say his goodbye to his other Lucille is fitting, a good way of physically showing the psychological action of Negan coming to terms with the character he was and the person he really is. Maybe the people of Alexandria will still see him as Negan the bat-wielding Savior who put them through hell; Maggie certainly does. There’s nothing Negan can do to change that, just like there was nothing he could to do keep Lucille alive through both cancer treatment and a zombie apocalypse. He tried his best, on both counts, and while he might not win the fight, he made a promise to keep fighting.

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You don’t keep fighting by hiding from people who don’t like you. You can’t redeem a character by hiding him in the background. Negan will face his demons head on, and while he might lose, he’ll go down swinging.

The post The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 22 Review: Here’s Negan appeared first on Den of Geek.

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multsicorn · 7 years ago

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i just really love this play alot ;) okay

Working on the theory that I Deserve To Have Fun (said theory has not been validated and is not ready for prime time discussion), I started watching the bootleg file I have of the OBC of Hamilton this afternoon. (I downloaded it way back when I was in Hamilton fandom, before I went to go to see the play, and held off on watching it until I'd seen the play for Real, and then didn't particularly feel like it afterwards).

Some thoughts & observations:

[these got long and rambling. lots of lams-shippiness and multi-shippiness, and gen stuff too]

* This play is really fuckin great. Like, I've loved fandoms based around deeply mediocre and/or inconsistent canons, (looking at you, Check Please for the first, Glee for the second), and sure the hype around Ham was too big for anything to bear, but… yeah, I just really LOVE this canon, whatever its flaws, with so much heart, on so many levels.

* The staging!!! I think means a lot here specificially cause I've heard all these songs dozens of times, mostly well over a year ago now, but - once in a while recently again, but in any case, I've done all my analysis picking over the songs, and they're inside me to a large extent. Whereas much of the staging I only saw once, live.

* (And I had a close-up seat, then, which I paid lots of money for and felt Worth It, but I was so focused on the actors' faces, and so didn't read as much of the overall blocking as maybe I could have).

… anyway ….

"Alexander Hamilton"

* Alex taking off his white coat and putting on the brown coat Eliza gives him feels to me, this time, like he's leaving the world of the dead and coming to life. Standing out from the crowd - of course - from the ensemble that's all wearing all-white - so he's Setting Out, etc., but also - they're back in all-white at the end, like ghosts. So. A sort of leaving the world outside time.

(Speaking of Eliza, there, I still always love the Eliza-Angelica-Laurens sequence in which they give Alex the coat, the book, and the bag. MY SHIPSSS. Such parallel!)

(And the bit where Washington's the one who's telling Alex he has to make something of himself! - I know I thought about and maybe posted about these things back when the Grammy performance happened, but, Anyway.)

ALSO, also, 'you could never learn to take your time' being sung over Alex walking at a deliberately restrained pace to match the choreography on the bridge at the back of the stage so he comes down the stairs on the other side at the right time, is… funny. Ha. But the line's still true! - And I just love how much the ensembles' dancing itself works as scenery.

"Aaron Burr, Sir"

* Alex is SO FUCKING EAGER it's RIDICULOUS he's like a PUPPY all like I CAN FRIEND!?!?

Burr may try to pretend he's not having it but he IS a BIT or he wouldn't invite Alex to have a drink etc. and… I love.

And then, every single time I hear the little line not-actually-exchange:

Burr: Fools who run their mouths off wind up dead

Laurens, in his first line in real time: What time is it? (Showtime!)

Burr: Like I said…

I say, RUDE.

Although honestly - Burr is totally into Alex's ridiculous eagerness, like I said, he's coming closer, he admits something personal, he invites Alex out for a drink, it's not as obvious as Alex (cause he's just not) - and it's pretty RUDE ;), too of the revolutionary trio, from Burr's POV, to by their loudness and brashness and total lack of caution get in the middle of what was just shaping up to be possibly a Great Friendship. So he can be forgiven for Harbinger of Dooming ;).

“My Shot” & "The Story of Tonight”

* As in most of Alex's interactions with the Gay Trio (Quartet!), I keep switching back and forth between LAMS IS REALLLL (it was, historically) (I wouldn't see it, though, I think, if I didn't know), and just ALEX IS A BI HUMAN DISASTER CUDDLING UP TO EVERY FRIEND HE MAKES. Like, there's considerably More random arm-and-shoulder touching between Laurens and Alex than everyone else? "You and I, do or die," (I do die!), and then they split up to each touch another dude, and in a slightly later verse Laurens is back again… oh, no, that 'back again' is "raise a glass to the four of us," BOTH TIMES, cause it has to be, ha. You can say 'to the two of us,' Laurens, it's okay! … But, like, otoh, "hard rock like Lancelot, I think your pants look hot, Laurens I like you a lot," is totally Alex flirting with these three dudes he just met all in the space of three lines. It's great is what I'm saying. Also Alex could use a positive setting towards people that's not 'will you be my friend and also get in my pants.'

The narrative of the song here, with the rest of the Revolutionary Quartet listening to Alex sceptically for his first few verses till they're impressed - I love the way that Laurens is his first and loudest and most consistent cheerleader ("shout it to the rooftops!"), hey, listen to this guy speak, the way that Alex LOOKS LIKE he's on a soapbox when he literally is, how that evokes the physicality of speaking to the crowd, and how his mind shoots three steps ahead of the present, and, yeah, okay, I just love the Alex/Laurens dynamic most of all, (cause I'm biased ;)), the way that Lauren's idealistic speaking ('raise a glass to freedom,' and, um, what was the start of his verse in My Shot? whatever it was) makes Alex ~Look at him, and the way he's kinda just looking at Alex all the time. Walking off arm-in-arm is SO they are together, okay.

(…. there are ten thousand more things in these songs, of course, but this is a post about My FEELINGS.)

“The Schuyler Sisters”

* The sibling back-and-forth dynamic here is just so freaking delightful to watch, it's so complicated, I can FEEL it. Like, it feels like my sister and me (despite me only having the one)… Eliza going back and forth between Peggy and Angelica, how she's not just the middle sister in age, but she's trying to get Peggy to go along with Angelica's scheme, asking questions of and playing backup to Angelica, just - and the whole "mind at work" thing is perfect and Meaningful too, of course. But what's harder to talk about here is the sibling dynamics, leading and restraining and following and conciliating, and it's displayed so well in the blocking and acting - and also, I can see how this Eliza falls for and enchants Alex.

Angelica has center stage for most of it, but I love the way Eliza takes center stage for a little bit - and when she does it's not about "work" anymore, but about HOW LUCKY WE ARE TO BE ALIVE RIGHT NOW, which feels kinda painfully and naively optimistic nowadays but… I do believe it's still true, in exactly the same way that I always did, in the same way that line works in the play, recurring even in the worst times. We're lucky to be alive at any time - there's still so much good in the world, people to love, and work to do. ("Joy is deliberate.") And Eliza's pulling focus for a sec to be HEY GUYS ISN"T THIS SO MUCH FUN, before ceding it (joyfully, too, imo!) to Angelica's Things To Do!

Also the particular choreography of the way they three of them spin almost-in-place but trading places? I can't even figure out what it is, but I'm obsessed with it permanently.

“Farmer Refuted"

* The way that Laurens, Mulligan, and Lafayette all cheer Alex on, and maybe try to restrain him a little, but mostly just cheer him on, is both super fun to watch, and even more fun if you have shipping goggles, so it turns into LOOK HOW GREAT OUR BOYFRIEND IS. Fun! I'm just saying. Come for the story about ambition, stay for the compersion.

Also I would like to note with appreciation Laurens' arm around Aaron Burr at the start of this song, as well as his approach to Burr at the start of "My Shot" - like, dude, he totally had a thing for Burr before he met Alex, but Burr was Not Having it, too hotheaded! Idk it just amuses me that's all.

And notice how Alex waits to jump in till he has his reply READY~, he's mile-a-minute, yes, but he takes the time he needs to PREPARE for that.

“You’ll Be Back”

* J. Groff is the one original cast member I didn't see, when I went to see the play live, and he is Really Delightful here. Great play of the madness, the pouting, the playfulness that's actually danger, etc. Only thing is that I always feel like those "da da da da" choruses sound like they ought to have a classic chorus line kick! But you couldn't do that with a single person, it would just look ridiculous, and the single-ness vs. ensemble-ness of King George works so well for thematic reasons… but is it still ridiculous to say they have a chorus line kick SOUND in my head? Because they do.

“Right Hand Man”

* I just love so much how they create an action scene in a song!!! You might think it wouldn't work, but it DOES, all you need is a few lines describing the back-and-forth progress of a battle. Just enough.

Why does Washington send Burr away? You really can't tell! And I think that works, that ambiguity, no one knows - Burr certainly doesn't know, so that feeling of unfairness festers. But sometimes you're just not what someone wants, and I think history backs that up too…

That whole little sequence of "how come no one can get you on their staff" (it's one of those lines where the double entendre does really good work, cause WHAT IF he was saying that, right), from Hamilton asking "have I done something wrong, Sir," to making that Decision, with the chorus rising shouting in the background, "I am not throwing away my shot," but would taking the pen be taking the shot or throwing it away - it's the most fraught thing in the musical so far! And that's a huge part of why I love this musical SO DAMN MUCH, in addition to the way it creates its own vernacular, the complex personal relationships, etc., is how the story of ambition and Doing The Work, is put above everything else. A promotion with ambiguous risks and rewards Is the most fraught thing in life… the hardest decision to make… I love. And how Alex wants to fight, and also he's wary of being under command in this particular way, but the moment, the very moment he takes the pen he's charging ahead nonstop again. "Write to Congress, tell 'em we need supplies," of course all the work he does here is over-simplified, it'd have to be to fit in any way, but… getting support out of Congress was actually one of the more challenging aspects of the war, and something Alex worked on a lot!

Also I love the random shoulder-clasp between Alex and Laurens right before Washington announces Alex as his right-hand man, precisely because it's so seemingly purposeless, like… it's a congrats, man? Sure. But also we just have to touch each other at least once a song, it's like, required. Thank <3.

And overall this whole number, Washington's entrance, etc., and… really just the whole play! Yeah it's genuinely Quality, it's layered, you can talk about technical or literary aspects, but watching for the first time in A While and just being carried along by the spectacle as much as the story? It's so Drama, so Extra, it's great.

... and this is only the first third or so of the first act, ha. To be continued in another post. Perhaps.

#hamilton stuff #a: my meta

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jillmckenzie1 · 5 years ago

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Shifting The Lens

There are two incontrovertible facts: the first is that Louisa May Alcott was a fascinating human being. Her parents were Transcendentalists. She took lessons from Henry David Thoreau. She wrote a play for the Boston Theater and subsequently burned it due to infighting between her actors. Alcott briefly served as a nurse during the Civil War, survived typhoid fever, was a feminist, and was active in the abolitionist movement. To put it plainly, she was a baller.

Oh, also? She wrote Little Women.

That brings us to the second incontrovertible fact, which is that up until very recently, I was almost totally ignorant about Little Women. Sure, I’d heard of it, and I was vaguely aware that the narrative concerned the exploits of the celebrated March sisters. I knew the 1868 novel was wildly popular. I knew that scads of adaptations had taken place over the years.* I didn’t know why.

Was my ignorance and apathy due to a kind of subconscious sexism? Yeah, I think so. The majority of films these days continue to have the point of view of a straight white dude, and that P.O.V. is viewed as “normal.” To make things more complicated, America continues to be a deeply racist and misogynistic country.** I’m a product of that, and I think the best way to move beyond that is through empathy. To up your empathy game, try immersing yourself into the point of view of someone unlike yourself. Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women allowed me to do just that through filmmaking that’s smart, funny, and up to the moment.

Our introduction to the March family begins in 1868. Jo (Saoirse Ronan) works as a teacher in New York City, and she’s hustling to make it as a writer. A meeting with editor Mr. Dashwood (Tracy Letts) proves fruitful and after some ruthless cuts to her story, Jo finds herself a published author. Making things more complicated is her flirtatious jousting with the young Professor Bhaer (Louis Garrel). It might lead to something more, but Jo receives word that her younger sister Beth (Eliza Scanlen) has become seriously ill. She’s compelled to return home to Massachusetts.

In the meantime, Jo’s sister Amy (Florence Pugh) is semi-enjoying herself in Paris. The upside for her is that she’s yearned to be an artist, and the exceptionally deep pockets of her Aunt March (Meryl Streep) allow her to get the very best schooling. The downside is that Aunt March is what you might call a traditionalist, and she delights in constantly reminding Amy that the young woman will soon need to give up her artistic pursuits and find a husband, preferably a rich one.

Additional complications ensue when Amy runs into Laurie (Timothée Chalamet). He’s a childhood friend of the March sisters, and while he delighted in all of their company, he still carries a torch for Jo. While all that is going on, we also check in with Amy’s sister Meg (Emma Watson). Meg has married John (James Norton), a man of innate decency yet modest means. They have two young children and love each other, but love can’t pay the bills.

The first thing to bear in mind is that this iteration of Louisa May Alcott’s story hopscotches between a span of seven years and begins the story with the early adulthood of the March sisters. I know, it would have come as a bit of a shock to her. It’s fine because a) I think she would have appreciated the elegance of Gerwig’s restructuring and b) she’s not around to complain. The narrative ping-pongs back and forth, creating a cinematic experience that merges Little Women with Pulp Fiction.

To do that, Gerwig needed to know Alcott’s novel inside and out. She does, and she puts that extensive knowledge to use with dazzling creativity. The non-linear structure of her screenplay allows her to examine moments in the two timelines. We see how happenings and decisions in the lives of the March sisters reverberate through time, and the past and the present inform the characters and their choices. It’s fitting that Louisa May Alcott used moments from her own life to bring her novel to life. Gerwig takes a cue from the author and draws parallels between Alcott and the March family. Her screenplay is the perfect example of a writer making an adaptation that feels simultaneously respectful of the source material without being beholden to it.

Gerwig’s skillfully-made film bursts with life and energy. The mistake many period pieces make is that they hyper-focus on the details of the past, trapping the characters in amber. Little Women nimbly sidesteps that flaw, and characters living in the nineteenth century feel just as contemporary and relatable as the present day. The film is warm-hearted, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching this family blow into rooms with gale-force power, bicker, then ultimately support each other.

The cast of Little Women is literally insane. Every scene features actors of formidable talent and intelligence working together harmoniously. Looking for sisterly rivalry and reconciliation between Saoirse Ronan’s hardheaded Jo and Florence Pugh’s forceful Amy?*** How about the reveal that Laura Dern’s preternaturally sweet matriarch Marmee nurses deep oceans of anger, or the struggle of downward mobility with Emma Watson’s clotheshorse Meg? Across the board, the performances are uniformly excellent.

Is this version of Little Women absolutely necessary? It is. It’s an incontrovertible fact that every completed film is a small mountain climbed. To have a film like this that works on every single level, that celebrates the innate decency of people, and all during a time of seething hostility and polarization? It’s nothing short of miraculous.

*There have been eight film adaptations, nine television adaptations, an opera and a musical. For a novel written 152 years ago, that number of adaptations isn’t bad.

**”No duh,” I hear millions of you saying. I had my mind blown listening to philosopher Kate Manne on a podcast. Check out her book Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny.

***Florence Pugh apparently began filming this after her role in the psychologically horrifying Midsommar. I would imagine the experience was therapeutic.

from Blog https://ondenver.com/shifting-the-lens/

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river-wild2 · 8 years ago

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Movement Training Program

This is my Movement training program that I have been updating each week through word document on a table. - Movement Training Program WEEK 1 As it’s been my first week on experimenting with different types of movement methodologies at home, I decided to start off with simple movement and not to complex: I first stretched, from the bottom up, ankles, carves, thighs, I do this rotation near the ribs, then stretch to the left then right, rotate the shoulders, for me my neck and shoulder area is very tense and I get a lot of headaches which I think has something to do with the tightness around that area so I really focussed on stretching out the neck and releasing tension and also with the shoulder rolls, I start off gently, as I don’t want to pull anything as the neck is very delicate. Now that I warmed up my muscle’s I always think it’s good to sweat a little, I use to exercise every day, but since this course has started I have put on so much weight as there is hardly time for hard core workout’s so this MTP I think is a really good idea as it’s part of the criteria you make time in your day. So I start off with 15 star jumps, as i haven’t exercised in a while I can already feel that I’m short of breath. The reason I think it’s relevant to do cardio work is of course it’s about keeping fit as a person but as an actor stamina is vital, performing on stage is exhausting as it is, you never know what you may have to do in a scene on stage which might require strong stamina, you don’t want to be half way through a speech and be out of breath. I then move on to do a 20 second plank which I know doesn’t sound long but I knew I would struggle with the plank, the plank exercise is quite essential as actors because it’s all about strengthening the core which all actors need when performing on stage, but I noticed every time I do the plank I hold my breath which I know is wrong, you must always breath, so I done the plank again for 15 seconds and tried to breathe through it which I found really difficult! Lastly I then 30 donkey kicks on each leg. The reason why I chose to do a leg focussed exercise is because I think having strong sturdy legs as a performer is key, most injuries in performers, are ankles, carves and around the leg area and as a performer it’s our legs that give us our presence on stage and as we know as a performer we could be asked to do anything on stage so I think it’s so important to strengthen and build muscle in the leg area. To finish off I rest in child’s pose and regulate back to my natural breathing. I proceeded on with these exercises from Monday to Saturday. I noticed throughout this week I had this reoccurring pattern that throughout my exercise I would hold my breath but halfway through I would realise I was doing it, so for the other half of the exercise breathing was my main focus. As my body hadn’t worked like this in a long time each day my muscles would ache so I’d take a hot/warm bath to relax my muscles and it really helped. WEEK 2 This week I thought I would experiment more with movement/exercise through dance, especially now our dance/movement classes with Ellen are becoming more intense but I really enjoy this type of exercise because I found even though it’s fun and I’m enjoying myself I noticed I always sweat the most during this type of exercise so I decided this week at home to put on some music and do a movement exercise type of dance for 20 minutes. I would first warm up exactly how I did last week, stretch all the muscles, then I would go into the box step dance we learnt from Caroline in physical theatre which not only helps with breaking out a sweat but also improves your coordination, when Caroline first taught me this step I was all over the place now I can do it without thinking, I gradually speed it up. Next I went on to Ellen’s quick ‘step swirl step’ movement which I really enjoy doing, this movement can be done to any song, I then gradually picked up the pace, which by this point I was out of breath but I remembered to breathe throughout the movement. Lastly I’d put on an RnB song or a song I could really move my hips to and free styled to the music, for me this is where I felt i really put the work in and I sweated the most. Throughout the week I noticed my body started to tolerate the movement’s for longer. I think my weakness throughout this week was finding the motivation to get up and actually start and I know two sessions the one of the Wednesday and Friday I cut short and I didn’t put the amount of energy that needed I think it’s because I was quite tired from college and it’s been getting hot my motivation was weak. WEEK 3 PILATES As we are developing in our Pilates class at college I decided to try Pilates at home for this week as part of my Movement training program. I’ve really grown to enjoy Pilates and I think is very different to the other movement exercises but also it’s not what I initially expected. Pilates is much more calming and relaxed then I thought, which isn’t a bad thing for me it’s better than my expectation of Pilates. All the Pilates movement’s I experimented with this week was all from Jess’s Pilates lesson. I started off with laying on the floor with my hands on my pelvis while gently rocking it back and forth and as the same rhythm of the movement I would inhale and exhale so as my pelvis would move towards the ceiling I would inhale as it would move away I would exhale. I would then have my hands straight up in the air as I would exhale I would move it up above my head and as I did this I noticed I heard/felt little click in my shoulder which was really satisfying I then done the same thing but in sync with my leg, as you bring the leg and arm up together you can feel this gentle pulling in each side of your stomach. Lastly I went on to all fours and slightly took my left arm and right leg whilst balancing on the right arm and left leg then swapped around. first time doing this exercise I did it wrong in Jess’s class I was lifting up the same leg and arm which made it impossible to balance and I was confused as to why I couldn’t balance, which made me realise I need to work on my coordination. Pilates is not for everyone but I really I enjoy it, one of my biggest weaknesses is breathing through movement and Pilates really reminds me to breathe, it also gives me a relaxed calming sensation which I feel helps focusses my mind all whilst stretching your muscles and working on your coordination skills. WEEK 4 YOGA This week I decided to try out yoga at home, I’ve never been a hundred percent sure on how I feel about yoga, I’ve tried it a few times and each time I’ve felt different. As there is so many types of Yoga’s out there I think I know what ones I prefer which is depending on what you’re looking to get out of it. We had a Yoga teacher Iva come in and teach us this week, This yoga lesson I felt was more advanced then to what I have tried before, I am more familiar with the calming type of yoga, the gentle poses.(Hatha) Eva said she was teaching basic Yoga (Vinyasa) but for me we were constantly moving and holding poses that were quite challenging, I’m glad I had the opportunity to experience it but I think it reinforced my preferences of different types of Yoga, I don’t think I enjoyed it, especially downward dog, I hate that position, I find it hurts my wrists and I don’t find it relaxing at all, I couldn’t bring myself to fully commit and enjoy the experience. This week at home I decided to experiment with a more calming gentle yoga like Sivananda. This is more simple breathing and a focussing meditation yoga, I started off just calmly breathing then I would position myself in warrior pose and hold then switch directions and hold. I then would go into downward dog (hated it) but I pushed myself to attempt to hold it for a short time. Lastly I would breathe into child’s pose, this position is stretching your muscles while resting although spending too much time in this position can begin to hurt my knees. Each day I felt myself become more invested and committed into the yoga movement. I found that Yoga helps me more on the mental side more than the physical, I feel I enjoyed Pilates more and think I benefited from Pilates on the breathing and physical side, where as Yoga helped me focus and helped clear my mind. WEEK 5 Naffi’S Workout/warm up Part of our keep fit movement with Ellen is we each create our own work out and lead it before each class. This week we had Naffi’s workout and I really enjoyed it but also I think it was just the right amount of exercise. So I decided part of my movement training program for this week was going to be Naffi’s warm up. First off I started with my stretching that I do before anything, I then jogged around the room for 2minutes and I was already feeling out of breath, I then done her dance moves which is simple ‘step step side clap’ repeated that to the music, for me I love dancing within exercise as it breaks it up to trick your mind your having a break but your still active at the same time and of course it brings an element of fun into it. Next it squat time! Again this exercise works on strengthening your legs which is key for us performance, for me I like doing squats as it’s not so difficult to do but it still really works your muscles. Then we went into star jumps which is cardio making us sweat and working on our stamina at the same time. For me I did this each day for 15 minutes and the time would fly by and I noticed I really slept well this week from those workouts and felt really tired at night. WEEK 6 Alexander Technique The week before the show I decided I want to try out a few simple alexander techniques, I don’t know much about this movement technique but we had one or two lessons with Tim as an introduction to Alexander technique and I really enjoyed it. The steps to how I proceeded on with this technique during the week, I would first lay down on the ground with my knees up my arms relaxed down, palms facing upwards and a small cushion under my head to support the neck, make sure everything is relaxed and soft, I would then focus on my breathing, breathe right down into the diaphragm slowly in through the nose out through the mouth and just let any thoughts float away and I would rest there for a few minutes. I’d then sit on a chair and recognise how I would stand up and sit down onto and from the chair, I noticed the way I normally stand up it takes a lot of effort, I then watched a you tube video on Alexander technique on sitting and standing up from a chair, it’s about keeping the neck relaxed and keeping the head forward, letting your knees lead whilst keeping strong sturdy back, I practiced this a couple of times and noticed where I was going wrong id always crunch my head back while going to stand up, but actually it’s about keeping your chin down and I practiced sitting on a chair without slouching and standing up and sitting down from a chair, I really felt a difference in my back, there was an aching feeling for the first 2 to 3 day’s but then the ache started to wear off i felt I was aware when slipping back into my old habits and would try to correct them. For me I purposely left the Alexander technique movement to the week before the show more for the psychological side of things rather the physical, I think the week before the show is so important to have a clear focussed mind set and me Alexander technique is quite simple but really effective.

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