#pesce on planet earth

[dailyfuckyoustaff]

i go to bed now goondight

[fluentmoviequoter]

As One

Venom!Jason Todd (tiny hint of x reader at the very end, past the double break)

Inspired by this incredible, amazing, breathtaking Jason as Venom art by @ciricearts!!

Summary: Jason receives more than life in the Lazarus Pit, and when he returns to Gotham and meets Venom, they must learn to fight as one.

Warnings: angst, brief suicide ideation/threat, minimal spoilers for Under the Rood Hood and Venom, fluff, banter, translations in double parentheses

Word Count: 3.6k+ words

Masterlist | DC/Jason Todd Masterlist | Request Info

It’s quiet, but not silent. Dark, but not black. Something like floating, but there’s a weight settling deep inside.

Jason’s eyes snap open, burning against the phosphorous-green liquid surrounding him. His lungs burn as his hands break the surface. Gasping as he rises, Jason has only one thing on his mind: revenge. His mind races, his head spinning with thoughts of what was, what will be, and untraceable ideas that are in no way his. With the weight in his chest, a storm has settled in his mind, a fierce tempest that throws the new world off its axis as Jason thinks of Gotham.

Twenty-Four Hours Earlier

Jason closes his eyes as the bomb ticks down. High above the warehouse, a shooting star draws the attention of children. As the alien disguised as a star crash lands, it braces itself against the fiery descent in what is left of its ship. Earth is a target, but as the heat and the wind race by, Venom is unconvinced that this is the perfect planet for his people to inhabit. It’s loud and hot, and so far, the view isn’t even all that nice. It’s a snowy night, so the world is white, and war echoes through the night. A lone explosion makes Venom shriek, but when he finally lands on a mountain, a pool of liquid reminiscent of his home beckons him closer.

Present

Jason refuses to look down as he dresses. He stole clothes from a drying line, but the scars on his skin are hideous, jagged lines that will take him back to the warehouse with the Joker if his gaze lingers too long. While he prepares to find his way across continents to locate Batman and the Joker, Jason doesn’t even try to control his thoughts. The pit that brought him back to life has caused his thoughts to be disjointed, bringing memories to the forefront when he least expects it. There’s something wrong, a presence in Jason’s mind that he knows isn’t his, even after the unexpected changes brought on by his resurrection.

“Ho bisogno di un trasporto per la Francia,” Jason tells a fisherman on the coast of Italy. ((I need transport to France.))

“Solo pesce. Non sei un pesce,” the old man replies. ((Only fish. You’re not a fish.))

Jason understands the man, but Bruce’s foreign languages will only get him so far. Without thinking, he adds, “Forse sono un pesce. O forse sono un mostro.” ((Maybe I’m a fish. Or maybe I’m a monster.))

Jason blinks, and suddenly, he’s on the fishing boat in the Tyrrhenian Sea. He doesn’t remember boarding or convincing the fisherman to agree to give him passage. When he looks over his shoulder and sees the man shrink away from him, Jason knows that the pit changed more than his height and the beating of his heart. There’s a war inside him, and Jason has no idea he is losing.

“Portatelo in America,” the fisherman tells another man at the docks in Spain. “Sii veloce, stai attento.” ((Bring him to America... Be quick, be careful.))

The Spanish man shrugs, unable to understand the warning.

“Tráelo a Estados Unidos. Sea rápido, tenga cuidado,” Jason translates. “Deberías escuchar.” ((You should listen.))

“¿De dónde eres, hijo?” the Spanish sailor inquires. ((Where are you from, son?))

“Soy de Gotham,” Jason responds. “¿Puedes ayudarme e llegar allí o debería hacerte llegar?” ((I’m from Gotham… Are you going to help me get there or should I make you?))

“Yo te ayudaré. Pero mantén al demonio adentro.” ((I’ll help. But keep the demon inside.))

Jason boards the ship to return to America, unaware that his funeral is over, the dirt still settling over his coffin. As he keeps his eyes on the horizon, Jason flexes his hands beneath his stolen gloves and wonders if it’s possible to keep the demon inside or if he’s let it stay too long. Maybe the pit finally broke its cage, he thinks.

Earth isn’t quite as hideous as Venom expected. The ocean sparkles beneath the sun as he travels around the globe. Humans are exactly as he had been taught, and Venom observes them, waiting for the right time to begin the takeover. It starts with a single body, and he is sure he’s found the perfect one.

So many languages, Venom grumbles to himself. He knows them, and understands them, but looks forward to a future where there is only one type of communication on this planet.

“New customer?” Jason asks, stepping out of the shadows and into the dark Gotham night.

“Who are you s’posed to be?” the drug dealer replies. “Don’t tell me you’re another cosplay freak!”

“Sixteen,” Jason says, his voice muffled by the tin helmet he created for himself.

“What?”

“Sixteen years old. That’s how old the boy you just sold to is. If there’s one thing I can’t tolerate, it’s selling to children.”

“Oh, so you’re some kinda Robin Hood?”

“Not exactly.” Jason pulls a blade from his left hip, twisting it as he raises it so it glints in the moonlight. “You work for Sionis?”

“Yeah! That means I’m protected!” the man yells, stepping back.

“You don’t look very safe to me. You’re just one of eight.”

“You’re crazy, man.”

Jason smiles beneath the red helmet. As he lunges forward, he feels something shift inside him but ignores it as crimson blood spills beneath his blade. One down.

Leaving Black Mask’s hideout, Jason presses his hand to his shoulder. One of Mask’s goons got in a lucky hit; pure chance allowed him to pull the trigger at the precise moment the barrel lined up with Jason’s side. When Jason pulls his hand away, his glove is spotless.

“I shouldn’t have walked away from that,” Jason admits under his breath.

He’s ignored it since he fought his way out of the pit. The signs have chased him through hemispheres, but it took until tonight to understand that something is wrong. No, Jason realizes, there is someone in his mind.

As Robin, Bruce taught Jason that there were metahumans, homo sapiens with unnatural powers, and some of them could get into his mind if he gave them a chance. Now, it seems that one of these powered creatures is invading Jason’s life and, for some reason, protecting him.

Jason pulls his pistol from his side, presses it beneath his chin, and removes the safety.

“Last chance,” he murmurs.

His finger slides onto the trigger, and then the gun clatters to the ground as Jason is enveloped in an inky black substance.

“Stupidity,” its voice growls.

Jason can see, but his movements are limited. In the reflection of a window in the alley, he sees the creature looking back at him.

“You’d travel 4,400 miles to kill that clown only to finish what he started?!”

“Who are you?” Jason asks carefully.

The alien melts away and disappears into Jason’s skin without an answer. Jason looks around, trying to understand what, who, and where it is.

“You’re inside me,” he realizes aloud.

“Not much company in here,” the voice says in his mind. “Your plan for vengeance is pointless.”

Jason retrieves his gun from the pavement and repeats, “Who are you?”

“Who are you?” the voice echoes before silencing.

“Great,” Jason grumbles. “Unless you’ve got anything useful, stay in there.”

“It won’t work,” the alien in Jason’s mind argues.

Jason adjusts his grip on the gargoyle and tries to ignore it.

“You need help,” he adds. “Storm in too early and he’ll kill you… again.”

“Didn’t I tell you to stay quiet?” Jason snaps.

“You can’t get rid of me. And you can’t get rid of him like this, either.”

“You’ll understand if I don’t trust you.”

Several moments pass in silence until the alien says, “Venom.”

“Won’t work.”

“I am Venom.”

Jason’s brows pinch, and then he murmurs, “Jason.”

“I know.”

After a long sigh, Jason asks, “What do you suggest I do? To kill the Joker?”

“Stop being stupid.”

“Forget I asked.”

“He has more at his disposal.”

“So, what? I need a utility belt?”

“Let me do it.”

Jason launches off the roof, noting that Venom falls silent as he freefalls through the Gotham sky.

Only after Jason uses a grappling hook to land on solid ground in an alley does Venom's head appear before him. Jason jerks backward, then pulls his weapon and shoots Venom until his magazine is empty. Venom draws himself together, living tendrils reshaping into his previous form.

“You can’t kill me, Jason,” Venom growls. “Not without killing yourself, and I need you.”

“You need me?” Jason repeats incredulously. “No, there is no we here, alien.”

“Oh, don’t hurt my feelings,” Venom deadpans. “I only need your body. Give me one more excuse and I’ll send your mind back to that glow-stick pool you crawled out of.”

“If you don’t need me, why did you save me that night with the dealers?”

Venom disappears, returning to Jason’s mind. As he takes over Jason’s thoughts one by one, he begins to plan how he’ll use a capable body like his to aid his leaders’ invasion plan. Jason, however, feels his mind clearing with each moment Venom is gone. Each thought that Venom takes over weakens the storm in Jason’s mind.

“What did you do?” Jason asks.

“It’s the beginning,” Venom replies cryptically.

Jason remembers the silence Venom fell into during the fall and smiles before he shoots his grappling hook straight up, weightless as he soars above Gotham with a clear head and the first step of a plan to not only kill the Joker but show Bruce why he should have done it before.

“Bruce,” Dick calls. “You have to take a break. Yes, we know that Red Hood is causing issues, and there’s a giant black alien terrorizing people. What do you expect to do about it?”

“Find them both,” Bruce answers without looking up. “Stop them both.”

“That was the stupidest-“

“Stop,” Venom interrupts. “I saved a life, you didn’t kill anyone, we’re good.”

“We’re good? You did it in front of Nightwing! Dick will tell Bruce and Batman will hunt us down before the plan is in place.”

“Todd,” Venom begins, “that’s not my problem.”

“It will be when he finds a way to debilitate you and your little plan to take over the world goes up in flames!”

Venom’s head moves back nearly imperceptibly, but Jason moves forward to continue, “Yeah, you’re in my head, too, so I know your plan. It’s not my priority right now but know that all of your weaknesses are clear. So, if you don’t help me, Batman will stop you.”

“And if I do help?”

“We both survive to fight another day.”

“One condition.”

“I’m not feeding you another drug dealer.”

“Buzzkill,” Venom growls. He encompasses Jason’s body and folds a nearby dumpster before agreeing, “Fine, yeah. But I want to go to the new bakery.”

“Deal,” Jason replies. “Now go away.”

Jason travels through the shadows of Gotham to get to his hideout. He isn’t followed - he makes sure of it - and as Jason strips out of his leather jacket and carefully crafted helmet, he looks into a mirror for the first time since his death.

Jason inhales as he raises his eyes to trace the map of scars, the autopsy marks he was sure would have survived his dip in the Lazarus Pit, and the childhood shadows of scraped knees and skinned elbows. Yet, his skin is smooth and blemish-free when his eyes meet his reflection. It’s all wrong, Jason thinks. There isn’t a single mark, not from his childhood, time as Robin, death, resurrection, or the endless battle he’s fought since returning.

“You’re welcome,” Venom says from inside Jason.

“Why?” Jason whispers.

“I could have killed you,” Venom states. “But we achieved symbiosis, and you need my help more than I need yours.”

“I don’t-“

“It’s easier this way. The scarred boy didn’t come back, you did, Hood.”

Jason turns away from the mirror to pull a shirt over his head. “We finish this, and then I’m going to kill you, parasite. These people may not like me, but this is still my home.”

“Parasite!?” Venom screeches.

“I’ve got a meeting with Batman, you stay quiet,” Jason says as he exits the warehouse.

“You haven’t lost your touch, Bruce,” Jason calls as he dodges a punch.

Bruce’s surprise gives Jason the perfect opening. He spins on his left foot, planting his right foot against Bruce’s chest and sending him backward.

Standing over Batman with his gun aimed at Bruce’s throat, Jason says, “We need to talk about the Joker.”

“He’s the least of our concerns, Jason,” Dick says, tapping his escrima sticks. “But we do need to talk.”

“Thanks, J’onn,” Bruce mutters before ending the intergalactic call on the batcomputer.

“Well?” Dick inquires.

“The alien parasites on Mars are killing their hosts,” Bruce explains, turning toward Jason.

“Are they… are they the same species as the thing in Gotham?”

Jason ignores Venom’s complaints at being called a thing as he remembers what Venom said about being able to kill him.

“Killing their hosts?” Jason repeats. Venom doesn’t make any argument against this, and Jason clenches his fists at his side.

“We need to find the one in Gotham,” Bruce says. “Get some answers.”

“Can you help, Jay?” Dick asks.

“Later,” Jason mumbles. “I have something to do first.”

Bruce nods, and Jason stalks out of the Batcave.

“That went well,” Venom says as they exit Wayne Manor. “He told you he can’t kill Joker and yet you stayed. Brave-“

“Are you killing me?” Jason demands. “No more jokes, no sarcastic little comment, tell me now, are you killing me?”

“I was,” Venom admits, extending from Jason’s shoulder. “I reversed the damage.”

“Why?! Why would you start something, then save my life just to kill me later?”

“You are the only human I’ve ever matched with.”

“That’s sweet,” Jason snaps. “But get out of my way. Go back to whatever corner of my mind you’ve stolen.”

“You can still trust me, Jason. This doesn’t change anything.”

“Hood!” Nightwing warns as Killer Croc turns toward Jason.

“What, Croc, did they miss feeding time again?” Jason taunts.

Killer Croc roars, then swipes his arm toward Jason, his claws catching on Jason’s leather jacket. As Jason moves back, Killer Croc swings his arm again, pinning Jason to the brick wall.

“Venom,” Jason says through gritted teeth, failing to push Croc away from him. “Now might be a good time to prove I can still trust you.”

“Oh, me?” Venom asks in Jason’s mind. “You want my help?”

“Venom!”

“But what if I kill you by saving you from those bullets?”

Killer Croc shifts his weight, and Jason’s ribs creak under the increased pressure. He asks Venom once more for help, and just before his vision blackens around the edges, Venom’s powerful tendrils extend from Jason’s torso and push the creature’s scaly arms backward.

“Thanks,” Jason pants, catching himself as he falls to the sidewalk. “Argue with me again and I’ll put a bullet in you.”

“I’ve seen your aim, I’m not concerned,” Venom bites back before turning his attention to the Arkham patients roaming the streets.

“Pull back,” Bruce demands through the communications system.

“We’ve got them,” Jason argues.

“Pull back!”

“But, B,” Dick tries.

“The aliens are moving toward Earth!” Bruce yells. “J’onn just sent out a red alert.”

“We can’t do both,” Venom reminds Jason.

Jason hesitates, then says, “Yes, we can. You like Earth, admit it. And you don’t want to be alone now that you’ve achieved symbiosis. If we work together, we can do both. But if you go back to your kind and take my planet… I will kill you even if it kills me too, V.”

Venom’s inky substance snakes around Jason’s arm, covers half his face like a mask, and obscures the bat on his chest.

“We’d have to fight as one,” Venom points out.

Jason and Venom disappear as one into the shadows before Bruce realizes he’s moved.

The door to Roman Sionis’s office breaks in half, sending splinters flying as the Black Mask rises from his chair.

“What are you supposed to be?” Roman asks, eyeing the black tendrils around Red Hood’s already imposing frame.

“I’m Red Hood,” Jason replies as Venom growls, “We are Venom.”

Their voices overlap, so Roman hears, “We ‘m Venom Hood.”

“Well, Venom Hood,” Roman begins, moving backward from his desk.

That makes no sense, Jason thinks.

Shut up, Venom demands, you died.

Jason prepares to retort, but Roman lifts an automatic rifle that causes Jason to delay the argument as he rolls out of Black Mask’s line of sight.

“I have to save the world-“ Jason says, nodding to himself as he corrects, “we have to save the world, so I’m going to have to keep this short. You’ll miss Gotham where you’re going.”

Venom pulls the trigger, and though Jason knows he’s trying to keep him from getting more blood on his hands, the world's fate hangs in the balance, and there is no time for either of them to make penance for the sins.

“Where are we going?” Jason asks as he enters the Batcave. He’s changed from his uniform, wearing a red hoodie instead of the armor he’s grown comfortable in. It makes me claustrophobic, Venom had argued.

“The watchtower,” Bruce answers. “Boom tubing now.”

“Where’d you go?” Dick asks.

“To see a friend.”

“Batman,” Superman greets as they enter the watchtower. He glances at Jason and asks, “Who is that?”

Jason waves, his red mask concealing the bottom half of his face. “Red Hood, Venom Hood, I’ve got a lot of names.”

“He’s with us,” Nightwing assures the Justice League.

“About that,” Jason interjects. “These… aliens, parasites, whatever you want to call them. They’re trying to take over the planet-“

“We know that,” Martian Manhunter interrupts.

“One of them is not,” Jason continues.

“How do you know?” Wonder Woman inquires.

“Perimeter breach,” the automated ship alerts.

“Nobody shoot me,” Jason demands. He tilts his head, then says, “The red ones are stronger, they’re leaders, if we get them down first, the rest… we can handle the rest then.”

“How did you become an expert on them faster than Bruce?” Dick whispers.

“Remember my worth in twenty minutes.”

The alien ship ports on the side of the watchtower, and within minutes, the aliens are moving throughout the ship without pattern or reason.

“Fire and noise,” Venom tells Jason. “Keep it away from me, but it weakens them.”

“Are you stronger?” Jason asks internally.

“Stronger than some,” Venom replies. “Why?”

“Come out.”

“No.”

“V… we need you.”

Venom sighs, then says, “I don’t like red.”

“Deal with it.”

Venom does just that, ripping the red sweatshirt in half as he encompasses Jason. Several members of the Justice League turn toward Venom, so he quickly pulls back. Venom separates fluidly, exposing half of Jason’s face and most of his torso. Jason feels Venom moving across his biceps and chest, and Venom moves his fingers by controlling Jason’s joints. Venom fits against Jason like a second skin, like a suit, highlighting his muscles and causing Jason to look more like the monster people have come to expect.

“He’s with me!” Jason yells, stepping toward Superman. “I told you one of them was on your side. It’s him. Focus on the fight!”

Another group of aliens seeps through the air vent, and the horrified leaguers work to save the planet with an enemy at their sides.

Jason stretches his neck to the side as Venom recedes into his back. The superheroes before him suddenly have excuses to disappear, leaving the watchtower as quickly as they can, while Bruce and Dick watch Jason as if he’ll explode.

“I should have known,” Bruce murmurs as he removes his cowl.

“Can I meet him?” Dick asks. “What’s his name?”

He’s too happy, Venom complains. And you promised a trip to the bakery!

“Later,” Jason tells Dick. “And his name is Venom,” he adds over his shoulder as he walks toward a boom tube platform.

Venom’s head bounces against Jason’s shoulder as they walk down the dark alley behind the coffee shop. Slurping as he drinks the blended coffee in Jason’s hand, Venom smiles.

“You should go see her,” he says after licking powdered sugar from his lips. “The girl you think about, who you should have kissed before Bosnia, but you chickened out.”

Jason hums and twirls the cup in his hand but hesitates to drink after his body companion. “I think my chances are gone… with any woman, thanks to you,” he responds.

“I could get into her mind and let you know for sure,” Venom offers.

“That won’t be necessary, thanks.”

Venom pulls Jason to a sudden stop, spreads over Jason’s arm, and pulls him onto a fire escape to reach the roof. He inhales deeply, then looks up and down the nearby roads.

“It’s Gotham, not all of earth smells like this,” Jason mumbles.

“No,” Venom replies. “There is another of my kind.”

“Great.”

Venom watches in silence, allowing Jason to text his brother and offer some explanations.

Jason.

“Venom,” Jason replies aloud as he sends another message.

Venom snaps Jason’s head up, and they both watch, mesmerized by how your hair falls back into place as the blood-red amorphous protoplasm melts into your skin. When you look up after landing on the roof, as directed by your symbiote, you smile at Jason Todd.

We’re in trouble.

Jason nods, and Venom insists, No, actual trouble.

Ex of yours? Jason wonders.

I wish. She kicked my-

[andreisvechnikov]

“Jalen Chatfield appears set to return”

“Brady Skjei and Brett Pesce have been reunited”

“Svechnikov - Aho - Teravainen”

Peace and Love on planet Earth!!!! thank you Jesus!!!!

[librarycard]

im so high this pasta is so amazing just by radiohead Pesce and love on planet earth

[fuckable-old-man-battle]

why make stan and xigbar fight when they could fuck each other. pesce and love on planet earth

WAR AND CHAOS ON THE PLANET EARTH

[daimonclub]

Citazioni e pensieri sul lago

Grotte di Catullo Sirmione Lago di Garda Citazioni e pensieri sul lago, aforismi, idee, riflessioni, frasi poetiche sul lago e i laghi, ambienti di vacanza e di relax che creano degli scenari splendidi. Un lago è il tratto più bello ed espressivo del paesaggio. È l'occhio della terra, a guardare nel quale l'osservatore misura la profondità della propria natura. Henry David Thoreau Guardavo il lago, le montagne, il sole e mi risuonava in mente la sua voce, triste presagio di una felicità ogni volta massacrata dalla realtà e quasi risvegliandomi dalla momentanea trance esclamai duramente - Puttana merda - Al diavolo questo aforisma! Carl William Brown Lancillotto del Lago, il più grande di tutti i cavalieri, la cui bravura era superata solo dalla sua nobiltà d'animo. Howard Pyle Quel ramo del lago di Como, che volge a mezzogiorno, tra due catene non interrotte di monti, tutte a seni e a golfi, a seconda dello sporgere e del rientrare di quelli, vien, quasi a un tratto, a ristringersi, e a prender corso e figura di fiume, tra un promontorio a destra, e un’ampia costiera dall’altra parte; e il ponte, che ivi congiunge le due rive, par che renda ancor più sensibile all’occhio questa trasformazione, e segni il punto in cui il lago cessa, e l’Adda rincomincia, per ripigliar poi nome di lago dove le rive, allontanandosi di nuovo, lascian l’acqua distendersi e rallentarsi in nuovi golfi e in nuovi seni. Alessandro Manzoni Quanto vorrei avere i miei amici accanto per godere insieme del panorama che mi si presenta dinanzi! Avrei potuto essere fin da questa sera a Verona ma mi si prometteva allo sguardo un’opera ammirevole della natura: il meraviglioso lago di Garda. Goethe

Lago di Como O Benaco, che gonfi le tue onde e fremi come il mare. Virgilio È il luogo più voluttuoso che io abbia mai visto al mondo. La natura incanta con mille seduzioni sconosciute e ci si sente in uno stato di rara sensualità e raffinatezza. Gustave Flaubert Ricordi sfumati di giornate estive passate al lago con gli amici, e immagini ancora più radicate nella memoria di quando andavo a pescare, accompagnato da mia mamma. Per me questo non è un sollievo, ma pura sofferenza. Carl William Brown Ogni tanto, nelle giornate di vento, scendeva fino al lago e passava ore e guardarlo, giacché, disegnato sull'acqua, gli pareva di vedere l’inspiegabile spettacolo, lieve, che era stata la sua vita. Alessandro Baricco Le frontiere sono i limiti della resistenza. Il lago chiede alle sponde di contenerlo. Georges Braque Finché gli uomini crederanno nell’infinito, alcuni laghi saranno creduti senza fondo. Henry David Thoreau Water is the soul of the Earth. L’acqua è l’anima della Terra. Wystan Hugh Auden If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. Se c’è qualcosa di magico su questo pianeta, si trova nell’acqua. Loren Eiseley

Faro di Desenzano del Garda Spesso la sorpresa viene suscitata nell'anima perché questa non riesce a conciliare ciò che vede con ciò che ha visto. In Italia c’è un grande lago, che viene chiamato Lago Maggiore: è un piccolo mare, le cui rive sono interamente selvagge. In mezzo al lago, a quindici miglia dalla riva, ci sono due isole di un quarto di lega di circonferenza, dette “Borromee”, che sono, a mio parere, il luogo più incantevole del mondo. L’anima è sorpresa da questo contrasto romanzesco, rievocando con diletto i prodigi dei romanzi, nei quali dopo aver superato rocce e paesi aridi, ci si ritrova in luoghi fatati. Charles-Louis de Montesquieu Il segreto della felicità è possedere una decappottabile e un lago. Charlie Brown Abbiamo bisogno di amare. Anche se questo potrebbe condurci laddove i laghi raccolgono fiumi di pianto. Paulo Coelho Non un pesce può saltare, non un insetto può cadere, sul lago, senza che il fatto non venga così riferito da cerchi e increspamenti, con linee aggraziate, quasi fossero il costante zampillare della sua fonte, il dolce pulsare della sua vita, il sollevarsi del suo petto. I brividi di gioia e i brividi di dolore si assomigliano. Henry David Thoreau Le acque tranquille di un lago riflettono le bellezze che lo circondano; quando la mente è serena, la bellezza dell'io si riflette in essa. Belur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar Il lago e le montagne sono diventate il mio paesaggio, il mio mondo reale. Georges Simenon Su un lago, i fenomeni dell'anno avvengono nell'arco di una giornata, seppure su scala ridotta. In genere, alla mattina, l'acqua bassa si riscalda più rapidamente dell'acqua profonda (anche se non è mai molto calda), e però si raffredda anche più rapidamente, dalla sera alla mattina dopo. Il giorno pare proprio un riassunto dell'anno. La notte è l'inverno, la mattina e la sera sono la primavera e l'autunno, e il mezzogiorno è l'estate. Henry David Thoreau L’estate risplende, il sole riscalda, le mucche depongono torte sui prati… L’estate risplende, il sole riscalda. Si fa finalmente il bagno nel lago. Astrid Lindgren Il lago di Garda non saprei assimigliare ad altro che ad un alto mare chiuso e serrato tra altissimi monti, che stendendosi verso Peschiera, trovate le vie aperte, manda fuori un profondo e largo fiume detto Mincio, che è quello che fa il lago intorno la città di Mantova. Andrea Minucci Fa' che il tuo cuore sia come un lago. Con una superficie calma e silenziosa e una profondità colma di gentilezza. Lao Tzu

Maderno Lago di garda Il lago, rispetto al mare, trascorsi gli anni dell'adolescenza, mi ha sempre dato l'impressione di essere un posto per vecchi, dove trascorrere magari una convalescenza o preparasi per l'ultimo viaggio verso il cimitero. Carl William Brown Sirmione, perla delle penisole e delle isole, di tutte quante, sulla distesa di un lago trasparente o del mare senza confini, offre il Nettuno delle acque dolci e delle salate, con quale piacere, con quale gioia torno a rivederti; a stento mi persuado d’avere lasciato la Tinia e le contrade di Bitinia, e di poterti guardare in tutta pace. Ma c’è cosa più felice dell’essersi liberato dagli affanni, quando la mente depone il fardello e stanchi di un viaggio in straniere regioni siamo tornati al nostro focolare e ci stendiamo nel letto desiderato? Questa, in cambio di tante fatiche, è l’unica soddisfazione. Salve, amabile Sirmione, festeggia il padrone, e voi, onde del lago di Lidia, festeggiatelo: voglio da voi uno scroscio di risate, di tutte le risate che avete. Catullo I laghi sono le pozzanghere rimaste dopo il diluvio. Ramón Gómez de la Serna I laghi sono un compromesso tra il fiume e il mare: e io non amo i compromessi. Benito Mussolini Quant'è pacifico il fenomeno del lago! Henry David Thoreau Chiudiamo gli occhi per vedere nuotare in un lago infinite promesse Ci rinveniamo a marcare la terra con questo corpo che ora troppo ci pesa. Giuseppe Ungaretti Dentro di me è un lago, solitario, che basta a sé stesso; ma il mio torrente d'amore lo trascina giù in basso con sé? verso il mare! Friedrich Nietzsche La quiete misteriosa, ambigua, affascinante, dei laghi. Di certe persone taciturne. Di alcuni animali silenziosi. Delle piante. Francesco Burdin Il lago era immerso nel silenzio, come se avesse inghiottito tutti i rumori. La superficie sembrava uno specchio, s’increspava a ogni soffio di vento. Si sentiva soltanto, ora alto, ora basso, il canto degli uccelli. Banana Yoshimoto Le case al lago costano sempre di più, anche perché lì l'ambiente è di certo migliore che non lo schifoso e inquinato caos delle città o il misero paesaggio delle periferie. Carl William Brown

Varenna Lago di Como Vacanze sul lago. Un po' prima che il commendatore lanci la lenza, il cameriere serve l'aperitivo ai pesci. Marcello Marchesi Ora che sono diventato vecchio mi sono reso conto di avere soltanto due certezze. La prima è che i giorni che iniziano con una remata sul lago sono decisamente migliori degli altri. La seconda è che il carattere di un uomo è il suo destino. William Hundert (Kevin Kline) Il mio fantasma riposa, non senza qualche inquietudine, nelle profondità del lago. Scivolato un tempo verso gli ignoti fondali, per dimenticare le memorie delle angoscie passate. Carl William Brown Suso in Italia bella giace un laco, a piè de l’Alpe che serra Lamagna sovra Tiralli, c’ha nome Benaco. Dante Alighieri Forse è così lo spaesamento guardare il lago dalla cima dei monti guardare tutta quell'acqua che sembra ferma in un giorno di pioggia, forte, che nasconde il cielo. Franco Bonvini La mattina, dopo avere zappato o forse dopo avere letto o scritto, di solito mi bagnavo nuovamente nel lago, nuotando attraverso una delle sue insenature, tanto per tenermi in esercizio, e così mi lavavo via la polvere del lavoro o facevo scomparire l'ultima ruga che lo studio mi aveva lasciato, e per il pomeriggio ero completamente libero. Henry David Thoreau Sul lago le vele facevano un bianco e compatto poema / ma pari più non gli era il mio respiro / e non era più un lago ma un attonito / specchio di me una lacuna del cuore. Vittorio Sereni Il matrimonio spesso può essere un lago tempestoso, ma il celibato è quasi sempre uno stagno fangoso. Thomas Love Peacock Che un Dio ci sia, quando si guarda il cielo del lago di Como, è evidente. Robin Williams I saggi, dopo che hanno ascoltato le leggi, diventano sereni, come un profondo, liscio e calmo lago. Buddha Ombre voi dalla luna intrecciate, rompenti in sospiri nel vuoto cristallo del lago montano. Georg Trakl Molte gocce fanno un secchio, molte secchi fanno uno stagno, molti stagni fanno un lago, e molti laghi fanno un oceano. Percy Ross

Salò Lago di Garda Lancillotto del lago, il prode cavaliere senza macchia, il cui cuore batteva con ardente amore e incrollabile fedeltà per la sua dama. Alfred Tennyson Nulla di tanto bello, puro e insieme tanto ampio, come un lago, forse, giace sulla terra. Acqua-firmamento. Non gli occorrono siepi di sorta. Le nazioni vanno e vengono senza insozzarlo. È uno specchio che nessuna pietra può rompere, il cui mercurio mai si consuma, la cui doratura è sempre riparata dalla natura; nessuna tempesta, nessuna polvere può oscurarne la superficie sempre nuova, uno specchio nel quale ogni impurità che si presenti affonda, spazzata e spolverata dalla nebbiosa spazzola del cielo. Henry David Thoreau Lago di miseria e di lurido fango è il mondo. Il lago è una massa d'acqua che ristagna. non defluisce. Le acque corrotte del mondo sono superbia, lussuria, bramosia di denaro, e mai defluiscono, anzi di giorno in giorno s'accresce il loro livello. Antonio di Padova Le acque tranquille di un lago riflettono le bellezze che lo circondano; quando la mente è serena, la bellezza dell’io si riflette in essa. Bsk Iyengar Piccolo lago in mezzo ai monti - il giorno le calde mucche bevono ai tuoi orli; a notte specchi le stelle - mi sento oggi in un brivido la tua chiarezza. Umberto Saba Quando scriverete la storia di due amanti felici, collocateli sulle rive del Lago di Como. Non conosco contrada più manifestamente benedetta dal cielo; non ne ho mai visto un’altra dove gli incanti di una vita d’amore sembrerebbero più naturali ed iniziatela con queste parole: “Sulle rive del lago di Como". Franz Liszt Avevano scelto il lago di Garda per passare una vecchiaia serena, poi la morte del loro unico figlio, in un incidente proprio vicino al cimitero di Desenzano, aveva trasformato questo desiderio di tranquilla agiatezza vacanziera in un perenne, tragico e angoscioso incubo lacustre. Carl William Brown Se per caso si ha un cuore sensibile, bisogna vendersi anche la camicia pur di vedere i dintorni del Lago Maggiore. Stendhal Se tutti i monti fossero libri, tutti i laghi inchiostro e tutti gli alberi penne, questo non basterebbe ancora per descrivere tutto il dolore del mondo. Jacob Böhome Sul turismo, i laghi e le vacanze, potete anche leggere: Un estate al lago Aforismi e citazioni sul mare Pensieri e riflessioni sulle vacanze Aforismi e citazioni sulle vacanze Citazioni e battute divertenti sulle vacanze Aforismi sul viaggio Riflessioni sul viaggio Italia in breve (E-book) Job tourism in Lombardy Turismo e viaggi Turismo enogastronomico Luoghi più belli del mondo The Lake District Aforismi per argomento Aforismi per autore Pensieri e riflessioni Saggi e aforismi Read the full article

[conkacola]

Humanity has finally found a way to communicate with crabs, we realize they're smarter than us. Now that they know we know, what are they going to do?

don't eat crab anymore pesce and love on planet earth

[gon-48]

ILL26/21 Are enough fish left in the ocean? Sustainable fishing means leaving enough fish in the ocean, respecting habitats and ensuring people who depend on fishing can maintain theri livelihoods. /Sono rimasti abbastanza pesci nell'oceano? Pesca sostenibile sognifoca lasciare abbastanza pesce nell'oceano, rispettare gli habitat e garantire che le persone che dipendono dalla pesca possano mantenere i propri mezzi di sussistenza. (presso Planet Earth) https://www.instagram.com/p/CQzCTA2B_jh/?utm_medium=tumblr

[globalhappenings]

The earth is dying: what an astronaut saw from space that changed his life forever

The earth is dying: what an astronaut saw from space that changed his life forever

French astronaut Thomas Pescet has been on missions to the International Space Station twice. He admits that even from space you can see how humanity is destroying its own home. Mankind is destroying its own planet / Photo: Pixabay, REUTERS, Collage: Today Pesce returned to Earth in early November, spending about 200 days in orbit. All this time he photographed the beautiful views of our native…

[goodbearblind]

Non uccidete il mare, la libellula, il vento. Non soffocate il lamento (il canto!) del lamantino. Il galagone, il pino: anche di questo è fatto l’uomo. E chi per profitto vile fulmina un pesce, un fiume, non fatelo cavaliere del lavoro. L’amore finisce dove finisce l’erba e l’acqua muore. Dove sparendo la foresta e l’aria verde, chi resta sospira nel sempre più vasto paese guasto. Come potrebbe tornare a essere bella, scomparso l’uomo, la terra. (Giorgio Caproni) . -LIBERACTION- (presso Planet Earth)

[sayitaliano]

Astrologia Vocabs

l’astrologia - astrology l’oroscopo - horoscope l’ascendente - ascendant, rising le comete - comets, guiding stars le costellazioni - constellation i segni fissi - fixed signs i segni cardinali - cardinal signs i segni mobili - movable signs le case - houses gli aspetti - aspects i nodi lunari - lunar nodes la compatibilità, l’affinità (f.) - compatibility la sinastria - synastry gli elementi - elements i segni di fuoco - fire signs i segni di terra - earth signs i segni di aria - air signs i segni di acqua - water signs il segno opposto - opposite sign la carta natale - birth chart i pianeti - Planets il Sole - Sun la Luna - Moon Marte - Mars Venere - Venus Mercurio - Mercury Giove - Jupiter Saturno - Saturn Urano - Uranus Nettuno - Neptune Plutone - Pluto i segni zodiacali - signs of the zodiac lo zodiaco - zodiac l’ariete - aries il toro - taurus i gemelli - gemini il cancro - cancer il leone - leo la vergine - virgo la bilancia - libra lo scorpione - scorpio il sagittario - sagittarius il capricorno - capricorn l’acquario - aquarius i pesci - pisces

i simboli - symbols l’ariete - the ram il toro - the bull i gemelli - the twins il granchio - the crab il leone - the lion la vergine - the virgin le bilance - the scales lo scorpione - the scorpion l’arciere - the archer la capra - the goat il portatore di acqua - the water bearer il pesce - fish lo zodiaco cinese - Chinese Zodiac l’astrologia cinese - Chinese Astrology i dodici rami terrestri - 12 Earthly Branches yin e yang - yin - yang gli animali - animals i cinque elementi naturali - five natural elements il Metallo, l’Oro - Metal il Legno - Wood il Fuoco - Fire la Terra - Earth l’Acqua - Water il Topo - Rat il Bufalo - Ox la Tigre - Tiger il Coniglio - Rabbit il Drago - Dragon il Serpente - Snake il Cavallo - Horse la Capra - Goat la Scimmia - Monkey il Gallo - Rooster il Cane - Dog il Maiale - Pig

[shirlleycoyle]

The First Black Hole Ever Seen by Humans is Glittering in Space

In April 2019, scientists unveiled an astonishing portrait that used the dimensions of our entire planet as a massive telescope to peer deep into space. The subject was M87*—the first black hole ever to be directly imaged—which occupies the center of a galaxy located 55 million light years away.

The surreal picture, taken by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), was a major scientific breakthrough that attracted enthusiastic public interest. Now, scientists have demonstrated that this black hole wobbles in space and glitters in brightness over time. These dynamics could lead to new insights about this particular black hole, as well as the evolution of massive cosmic structures in general.

To show how M87* changes over time, an international team led by Maciek Wielgus, a Black Hole Initiative postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, reconstructed the behavior of the black hole using observations from radio telescopes between 2009 and 2017, according to a study published on Wednesday in The Astrophysical Journal.

“We want to understand the fundamental physics in the extreme conditions in the vicinity of a black hole and learn about how the black hole interacts with the matter in its environment,” Wielgus said in an email. “Studying the dynamics of the crescent-like appearance of a black hole is a way to probe this fascinating environment.”

With an estimated mass equal to about 6.5 billion Suns, M87* is a hulking giant that sits at the core of the supergiant galaxy Messier 87, where it feeds on stars, gas, or any other matter that gets too close to it.

The shadowy center of the EHT image reveals the border of the black hole, known as the event horizon, beyond which no light or matter can return. The bright orange structure is the illuminated disk of super-heated material that is falling into the black hole, in a process known as accretion. This ring appears to be brighter on the bottom because the material happens to be rotating toward the direction of Earth, which gives it a radiance boost due to the Doppler effect.

The famous black hole photo was composed from a few nights of observations in 2017, when the EHT had come to encompass eight telescopes around the globe. Wielgus and his team confirmed that there are hints of the object’s basic structures in earlier EHT observations from 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2013. Though this older data is not detailed enough to generate images, the team was able to create geometric models and make simulated visuals of the black hole during those years.

These earlier datasets had been initially overlooked, because the EHT team was so focused on the high-quality measurements that led to the 2019 image of M87*. When Wielgus and his colleagues became aware of them, they realized they could retrofit the older datasets with the complex details of the final image in order to create a rough visual history of the black hole.

“It was a bit of a surprise to see how much of an actual model-constraining power is there in the old data sets, when we analyze them with the recently developed powerful statistical tools,” said Wielgus. “So this work evolved from a simple consistency check into a project investigating how much exactly can these old data, analyzed together, tell us about the M87* and its variability.”

Chart showing the simulations of the black hole, compared to the development of EHT, over time. Image: M. Wielgus, D. Pesce & the EHT Collaboration

The resulting timelapse demonstrates that the position and brightness of the object is influenced by the extreme turbulence of the accretion disk, caused by tidal forces near the event horizon.

The wobbling, glittering dance of the black hole over time is mind-bending to watch, but it’s also a useful window into the hidden dynamics of these cosmic behemoths. The region near an event horizon is one of the strangest zones in the universe, and an ideal testbed for fundamental physics, such as Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

“The vicinity of a black hole is an extreme environment where magnetic fields, hydrodynamics, relativity and particle physics all come together into a tangled, complicated physical system,” said Wielgus. “The involved energies are huge, the gas swirls with velocities approaching the speed of light and heats up to billions of degrees. So it's really a fascinating laboratory, one we could never recreate here on Earth, for understanding fundamental physics.”

To that point, Wielgus and his colleagues found that the variations in the timelapse “are in broad agreement with predictions” from general relativity, according to the study. Future observations could shed more light on these fundamental questions about our universe, not to mention that they will give us an excuse to stare at the terrifying, beautiful, and otherworldly evolution of black holes.

“One big question is what is the spin of the M87*, how fast is it rotating, and what is the effect of this rotation on its environment, on the amount of matter and energy swallowed by the black hole, and ejected from the system or radiated away,” Wielgus said. “There is so much we don't understand yet!”

The First Black Hole Ever Seen by Humans is Glittering in Space syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[charliejrogers]

Best of 2017

Below is my list of the 40 best movies of 2017. Why 40? Because that’s all the movies I saw. In full disclosure, I have a life and must attend school so I didn’t get to see every notable release this year, so if you’re wondering why Thor: Ragnorok, Coco, Mother!, Jumanji, Justice League, I Tonya, Disaster Arist, or Blade Runner aren’t on the list… it’s because I didn’t get to see them. And also in full disclosure, I did get to watch the first half of Battle of the Sexes but fell asleep for the second half. That fact is not indicative of that film’s quality - I was just really tired when I saw it - but it didn’t feel right rating a movie I’d only seen the first half of. So without further ado, here’s my list.

0.5/4.0 Stars

40 The Little Hours

1.5/4.0 Stars

39 Guardians of the Galaxy 2

2.0/4.0 Stars

38 Beauty & the Beast

37 Okja

2.5/4.0 Stars

36 The Trip to Spain

35 A Ghost Story

34 Kong: Skull Island

33 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

32 Dunkirk

31 Logan Lucky

30 American Made

29 Lost City of Z

28 Phantom Thread

3.0/4.0 Stars

27 It

26 Lady Macbeth

25 Ingrid Goes West

24 Call Me By Your Name

23 Spider-Man: Homecoming

22 Detroit

21 Brad’s Status

20 Logan

19 Wind River

18 War for the Planet of the Apes

3.5/4.0 Stars

17 Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

16 The Meyerowitz Stories: New and Selected

15 Get Out

14 The Post

13 Wonder Woman

12 The Lego Batman Movie

11 Darkest Hour

10 The Beguiled

9 Mudbound

8 Shape of Water

4.0/4.0 Stars

7 Sanctuary

6 The Big Sick

5 The Florida Project

4 Baby Driver

3 Columbus

2 Good Time

1 Lady Bird

Do you disagree with the list? Well check out below to see my thoughts on each of the films.

40 The Little Hours

This movie is wholly terrible. It’s jokes include extended sequences of rape, sexual manipulation, and cruel beatings. Please don’t let the truly all-star cast fool you, this movie sucks.

Movies that had probably had some great scenes but were overall not satisfying: (1.5-2 stars)

39 Guardians of the Galaxy 2

The sophomore slump hit Star Lord & co. hard. Compared to the grand set pieces of the first film, the isolated focus on Quill and his father really hindered the fun, action-packed hi-jinks fans expected from the first film. The soundtrack almost single handedly prevented this from being an outright terrible movie.

38 Beauty & the Beast

It will be interesting in the long run to compare the quality of these live-action remakes to the animated originals. Jungle Book was great, but it helped that it’s source material was a superficial 60s musical with lots of room for expansion. Beauty & the Beast was heralded as a masterpiece back in 1991, even being nominated for an Oscar for best picture. Not best animated picture. BEST PICTURE. The Emma Watson version? Not so much. It’s boring.

37 Okja

Snowpiercer is an awesome movie. It’s perfectly paced world building combined beautifully with its creative action sequences (creative both in terms of plotting and in filming). The second English-language film from director Bong Joon-Ho? Nowhere as good. Maybe I’m too jaded… but I didn’t feel any real connection to the titular Beast (the hippo/cow named Okja) or the dangers it faced. And Tilda Swinton (who was fantastic in Snowpiercer) is too abrasive and, frankly, too odd to be taken seriously as a person. And that’s to say nothing of Jake Gyllenhal’s lunatic of a character. Skip it.

Just shy of being good, but are Solid movies.(2.5 stars)

36 The Trip to Spain

It’s kind of hard to fault Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon in any meaningful way, since anyone who has seen the first two movies in this trilogy knows exactly what to expect (and really, who but anyone who has seen the first two movies would see this?). They know to expect impressions of famous British actors by two very talented impression artists. They know to expect two actors playing irritatingly arrogant caricatures of themselves. And they know to expect a movie devoid of plot, purpose, and interesting dialogue. That said, you come for the impressions, and Coogan and Brydon will always deliver on those (Mick Jagger and David Bowie being my two favorite additions to the duo’s repertoire.) just don’t expect much else.

35 A Ghost Story

This whole movie seemed to walk the line between a solid indie movie and a parody of a self-important movie. The central gimmick of the film involves Casey Affleck spending the vast majority of the film under a white sheet following his character’s death as the character’s ghost continues to pine after a love lost. When the film focuses on the futility of grief (particular in scenes where Rooney Mara is involved), it is moving. When it tries to make larger philosophical statements about what it means to inhabit land, it gets silly.

34 Kong: Skull Island

I watched this movie hoping to see some cool action sequences of King Kong and dinosaurs. It delivered, though no dinosaurs, but “Skeleton Walkers”. Cool Vietnam War-era atmosphere. The Samuel L. Jackson character is so angry towards Kong as to defy logical sense and the plot is threadbare, but John C. Reilly does wonders when he enters the film midway for comic relief.

33 Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

I wanted to like this movie more. I tried to like it more. It has so much going for it: A pair of knock out performances by Frances McDormand and Woody Harrelson, often fascinating and engaging dialogues and monologues a la the Coen Brothers, and an intriguing premise in a mother trying to discover her daughter’s murderer. It falls apart for me because many of the supporting characters are more caricature than people, especially the insufferable bigoted police officer played by Sam Rockwell. The film is far more interested in developing the character of this unwatchable man than in ever dealing with the McDormand character’s grief, and Harrelson exits the film far too early. There are individual scenes that shine, but the sum of the film’s parts falls flat.

32 Dunkirk

I like Christopher Nolan. I really do. That said, I haven’t liked anything that he’s done since 2010. Dark Knight Rises was bloated, and Interstellar somehow doubled down on the bloat. Dunkirk, while beautifully shot and containing some truly gripping looks at the brutality of war, just never clicked with me. I particularly found the film’s tripartite structure, jumping between three stories whose chronological length differed significantly, more distracting than revelatory.

31 Logan Lucky

Appropriately nicknamed “Seven Eleven,” Steven Soderberg’s first heist movie since the Ocean’s trilogy adapts the standard caper film tropes to a down-to-Earth, working-class West Virginia setting. It’s unclear throughout if Soderberg is mocking his blue collar characters’ way of life or celebrating it, and the humor, particularly in scenes between Channing Tatum and Adam Driver, never quite clicks. But Logan Lucky probably includes the most intelligent, clever, and fun-to-watch heist in any movie. Period. If only the movie were even half as smart and entertaining as the heist it is about.

30 American Made

Doug Liman, The Director of American Made, so badly and clearly wants people to confuse this film with something from the Scorsese catalog. But this is a poor man’s Wolf of Wall Street or Goodfellas. It tries to glorify and legitimize the life of a criminal, and it hits all the highlights. It’s loosely (very loosely) based on real life smuggler Barry Seal. There’s clever heists and crimes. Shady dealings. A big budget plane crash into a suburban neighborhood. And all of it is shot and directed with a fun, vivacious energy. The problem is that this film fails to hit the hard emotional punches. There’s no equivalent to Joe Pesce “getting made” or even a real sense of come-uppance that eventually hit Jordan Belford. There’s a montage in this movie of Tom Cruise scared to start his car due to fear it’s been rigged to explode. What could have been a tone-altering sequence for the film that would bestow a great deal of gravitas, is used for laughs. And that’s about all you need to know about this movie. It’s entertaining and probably worth watching, and Tom Cruise is as cocky as ever in the lead role, but there’s nothing under the surface.

29 Lost City of Z

The is the most action-less adventure story ever told. The life of British explorer Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) and his explorations through the South American Amazon plays out at about the speed of a turtle. I’m not gonna say I was ever bored, because I wasn’t, but I was kind of waiting the whole movie for something exciting to happen and it never does. The film makes being captured by natives look as routine as a DMV visit. The movie is divided into a few key locations. There’s Britain where Fawcett spends so little of his life and where his wife (Sienna Miller as a progressive woman railing against the monotony of housewifery) and children lives. There’s The Amazon, and there’s briefly France for Fawcett’s stint as an officer in WWI. As you’ll be unsurprised if you’ve glanced at my review of Wonder Woman below, that the WWI section was my favorite. Perhaps it’s my fault for expecting something more out action of this film, but I think it even fails on the grounds of what it tries to be: a character study. Fawcett’s character is so thinly drawn and his motivations so weak, that when his son (Tom Holland) calls him out on it it’s a breath of fresh air - but then his son and wife later validates his motivations and the movie makes him out to be an unqualified hero - a champion of viewing Natives as more than savages. Fawcett did incredible things in his life, sure, but I don’t think he’s any hero. I don’t know - the movie could have been better.

28 Phantom Thread

The first half of this movie I consider excitingly British-boring, like an episode of Downton Abbey or The Crown. High class British people of the past dealing with first world problems, if well acted, well costumed, and well written, will always be entertaining to me no matter if what’s at stake is who will marry whom or, in this case, whether a dress will be ready on time. But the first half of the movie particularly shines because Daniel Day-Lewis plays the stereotypical controlling genius who society forgives because he’s so brilliant to the T. He’s insufferable, petty, emotionally stunted, and a joy to watch. And the whole first half of the film builds to a moment where Lewis’ girlfriend, a meek waitress played by Vicky Krieps, calls him out on all his bullshit. In the midst of the #MeToo era, her speech railing against his dominating, controlling behavior feels entirely appropriate. And as an audience member you expect the movie to go in a certain direction in the second half… and it doesn’t. At the risk of spoilers I won’t say more, but your response to film’s plot in its second act will be the deciding factor about whether or not you enjoy this film. For me, I did not, which is a shame because I liked the first half so much.

Good, not great movies:(3 stars)

27 It

I have never seen the original It movie or read the book, but based on the infamous boat scene that circulated virally on YouTube and the premise of a killer ghost clown… I wasn’t too pumped to see It. I happily had my expectations reversed. It is perhaps unfair to say the movie borrows from Stranger Things since that show definitely borrows heavily from Stephen King, but it’s hard to deny the similarities between the two 1980s set stories of kids against a cosmic beast. It featured incredible performances from its teenaged cast, with Jaeden Lieberher truly shining as the lead, but overall the movie felt overly long and oddly enough lacking the tension required of a remarkable thriller. Plus, I had far too many questions leaving the theater about the nature of Pennywise and so on for it to qualify as having a completely coherent plot. But as far as coming of age movies disguised as horror movies go, when It focused on the kids and less on Pennywise it was entirely engrossing.

26 Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth was a fascinating little film out of the UK about the extents (often violent) one woman would go to achieve freedom in an incredibly oppressive patriarchy. At just 22 Florence Pugh turns in a masterful performance of a woman wracked with guilt but full of pride in her freedom. She’s at once both sympathetic and monstrous, and watching her go from one to the other is worthy of the film’s Shakespearean title. Only complaint was that the movie, despite being only 90 minutes still felt it dragged a little in places.

25 Ingrid Goes West

What an interesting movie. Aubrey Plaza still seems to be playing the same Aubrey Plaza character she’s played in literally everything she’s been in, but this time it’s different. Rather than accepting Plaza’s character’s usual eccentric behavior as just par for the course, in Ingrid Goes West, these same behaviors are frightening. Obsessive, sociopathic, paranoid. That is the character Aubrey Plaza plays as her Ingrid travels Westward with the inheritance from her mother’s demise to emulate and become Taylor Sloane - a wonderfully basic Elizabeth Olson - someone she found on Instagram - avocado toast and all. As a movie that tries to make a statement about the ill-effects of social media on society, the movie falls flat. But viewed in the line of movies like Taxi Driver, Nightcrawler, etc. that is, movies that present the inner workings of sociopaths, Ingrid Goes West is an admirable demonstration of what Travis Bickle would look like in 2017. Also, poor O’Shea Jackson Jr. All his character wanted was to talk about Batman - and instead Ingrid ruins his life. Sad!

24 Call Me By Your Name

I’ve struggled to rate this movie fairly. One the one hand, I found it kind of boring. I found what the characters and movie deemed a meaningful relationship between Elio and Oliver to be based on little more than the fact that both were open to male on male sex. Their dialogue was supposed to come off as playfully hostile and full of sexual tension, but i just saw Oliver, played by Hammer, playing hard to get a little too well. Maybe I just wasn’t picking up the signs, but to my eyes it never seemed like Oliver ever liked Elio. On the other hand, it was a beautifully shot movie, included a scene about IndoEuropean etymology, and another about Greek bronze sculpture. Plus, Michael Stuhlbarg’s heartbreaking speech towards the end (you know which one) almost single handedly prevents this from being rated lower on this list. Thus, I left the movie thinking a lot, which is always a sign that the movie had done something right. Particularly it raised questions about and shed light on the nature, often awkward, of coming out. And for that, I recognize the movie’s importance and beauty. But that doesn’t mean it was my favorite movie to watch this year.

23 Spider-Man: Homecoming

Now for something completely different. Spider-Man: Homecoming is the definition of a mindless, fun summer blockbuster. Tom Holland shines it what is essentially a high-school action movie. It had cool action sequences (Washington Monument) and laughs (thanks Martin Starr - perhaps the best person to to cast as a nerdy high school teacher - , the school’s PA announcements, and the film’s new Spider-Man sidekick… some kid named Ned). Plus the movie’s villainous twist was legitimately a surprise in the best way. That said, Michael Keaton’s Vulture had some questionably plausible motives, with the theme of forgetting about the working class feeling a bit cliche in this film. It’s a real issue, but the movie didn’t really treat it like one. Still, I can’t wait for Spider-Man: Prom as Marvel’s first take at a high school movie was a success, even if it did little to reinvent the wheel.

22 Detroit

Detroit is a movie that tests your endurance and tolerance for brutality. Based on the historical Algiers Motel incident during the contentious race riots in 1967 Detroit, the movie is less about the incident as it is director Katherine Bigelow’s recreation of the event itself. This movie is like if you pieced together all of the scenes from a recreation typically found in a true crime documentary, and then left out the documentary narrative piece. As a result, the movie has little nuance (besides a beautiful opening animating sequence detailing the Great Migration.) Instead viewers are “treated” to two hours of raw violence. It’s not entertaining, and it’s hardly art, but it is engrossing. It stretches the imagination that some people could be so cruel and that more could be so permissive of such cruelty seen here, but at the end of the day 3 black teens ended up dead and nine others beaten… so I can grant Katherine Bigelow some leeway in how the lead racist cop in her film is portrayed as being the devil incarnate. It’s a powerful movie - just not one you’ll want to watch again.

21 Brad’s Status

If your biggest fear is that you’ll never satisfy your life’s largest ambitions… Brad’s Status is the movie for you. Ben Stiller as Brad is a guy who by all measures has a fine life - a loving wife, comfortable job, and a smart kid… any complaint he has is, by definition, a first world problem… but when he sees his old college buddies go on to become uber-successful… well, anyone is bound to get jealous. The movie is a great look at the emptiness so many feel with the direction of their lives, and Ben Stiller as Brad is perfectly cast as an understandable neurotic. While the movie does a great job of setting up Brad’s dilemma over his lack of status, it perhaps “solves” the issue a little lazily. It turns out his “successful” friends? They’re all jerks, crooks, or unhappy… so again we learn that money corrupts… an answer which doesn’t entirely satisfy the audience… or Brad.

20 Logan

If Deadpool showed how an R-rated superhero could look if you think R-rated = potty-mouth… Logan decided to show us what R-rated means in terms of violence. The opening scene where our “hero” eviscerates some gangsters by the side of a desert road is phenomenally beautiful. And the movie remains as bleak throughout - as well as, perhaps surprisingly, very thoughtful. Every scene with Patrick Stewart was beautiful. Beautiful because of his performance, but also because of how smartly written and well-paced his character’s story unfolded. What do you do when a man who could bring the world to its knees with his mind… gets Alzheimer’s? That Stewart was not even in the discussion for an Oscar baffles me. I legitimately lose interest in the film the moment Stewart stops playing as big a role about ¾ of the way through. It’s still a good movie after that point, but the story of mutant kids revolting against their slave drivers holds less power and realism than the story of a powerful man coming to grips with his dementia.

19 Wind River

Hell or High Water was, for me, the surprise hit of 2016, and when I found out that writer Taylor Sheridan was both writing and directing this film I saw it as soon as I could. While the movie may drag in a few spots here and there, it’s a pretty powerful movie about grief. It shares many story beats with Three Billboards but frankly I think this film does a much, much better job of staying focused on what’s most important. No, not the moral awakening of some insufferably racist cop, but the injustice of a girl’s life being ripped away from her family. And, more importantly, the impact that has upon an already depressed community. I don’t know how many movies there are that highlight the ironic contemporary struggle of Native Americans to get by in what should be their own land, but i don’t think there are many others. And for that fact alone Wind River deserves to be seen. While I’ve thus far talked like this movies a masterpiece it’s not. It drags a bit, Jeremy Renner’s character is both a little boring and a little too unbelievably good at his job, and Elizabeth Olsen’s character is a little bit too unbelievably inept at hers. But Sheridan crafts scripts whose violence is so genuinely shocking (no doubt in one place due to a perfectly placed flashback towards the end of the film) that you actually drop your jaw. You’ve seen thousands of people get shot in movies, but never quite like here.

18 War for the Planet of the Apes

Of all the major blockbuster franchises to be churned out these days, few have had the boldness to be both entertaining and artful. The first 15 minutes of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes should be taught at all film schools as the prime example of world building without needing a single spoken word of dialogue. I think overall I liked the new War for the Planet of the Apes a little less than its predecessor, but still more than the reboot’s first entry, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. For starters, this is a long movie and it didn’t need to be so long. That said, it has some of the best symbolism and beautifully structured motifs of any major blockbuster out there. Caesar is at times a Christ figure, a new Moses, and a slave in revolt, and the movie does a fantastic job of never letting these themes lay on too thick. And for a movie about apes, most of the sympathy undoubtedly comes from Andy Serkis. He deserves some sort of award for his work as Caesar… his facial ticks say a million things and more. Combined with the cinematography of the icy blue winter fortress, it’s a beauty to behold. Had the movie been a little tighter, it could have been that much better, but as is there’s still much to enjoy.

Great, fucking movies:(3.5 stars)

17 Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

By far the most divisive film of 2017, The Last Jedi was… a fine film. Like for every illogical plot point, for every cringeworthily forced joke, for every time that Mark Hamil didn’t know how to act, for every unnecessary venture onto the casino Planet, for every time Leia was a force zombie… I still walked away from the movie feeling satisfied. The action was good and The plot included legitimate surprises. Rian Jonson is many things, but a poor plotter is not one of them. Plus I was just so attracted to the film’s overwhelming feeling of abject failure. Blockbusters are supposed to lift us up and give us hope… but this movie presented an interesting antithesis to all that, even more so than its spiritual predecessor Empire Strikes Back. This movie will and has already been picked apart to death… but I think if someone walked into this movie knowing little about the Jedi, the Force, or who shot first, they would find an entertaining blockbuster and that’s what I saw. Perhaps not the best Star Wars movie… but a fine film.

16 The Meyerowitz Stories: New and Selected

Adam Sandler can act? Who knew! I did! I’ve seen Click! Anyways, this was a very good movie all around. There are top notch performances from all of its leads, with a special shout out to the quiet Elizabeth Marvel and the terrifyingly unemotional Hoffman. The films plot focused on three adults’ differing relationships with their father (Dustin Hoffman) an overbearing father and aging sculptor who failed to achieve any success. The script is superb and beautifully crafted. The whole movie can be summed up in three scenes, with each scene showing a different of the three children running. In one, Sandler is running to catch up to his Dad, representing how his character always felt like he had to prove himself to his father. In another Stiller is running in front of his father, just as his character has tried to escape the overbearing smothering pressure of his father. And thirdly Marvel’s character runs from danger but her father plays no role - she unlike her brothers has managed to shed the shadow of her father. The movie has some missteps in failed jokes (Sandler’s daughter’s movies?) and is a little long which keep it from being an instant classic, but it’s very well done.

15 Get Out

The best horror movie In a decade isn’t much of a horror movie. There are few jump scares and there’s hardly a real enough sense of danger to raise the audience’s blood pressure. But as a drama that intends to say a thing or two about America’s racial issues, this is a damn good movie. The script is extremely well-crafted and the story’s mysteries unfold in such an organic way. You’ll have thought you have it all figured out at least 3 times before the truth is revealed, and the “truth” actually makes sense and appears unforced unlike the twists in many movies of this type. There’s an alternate ending to this film you can find online where Director Peele could have pushed this movie to make a stronger statement about race… I wish he had. He used a half-measure when he should have used a full measure. The movie as a whole can be a little slow at times… but the ending action sequence and the film’s tone and message throughout more than make up for it.

14 The Post

The best newspaper movies are those that are procedural. Films like Spotlight or All the President’s Men made you feel like you were part of the investigation, highlighting the excitement and importance of mundane tasks like combing through directories of priests or tracking down witnesses that ultimately lead to giant breakthroughs. The Post has none of this. The Pentagon Papers literally fall into the lap of the Washington Post and Nixon’s paranoia ensures that The Post will be the only paper with the opportunity to publish. So it’s not a newspaper movie in that it’s not about investigative journalism so much as about the people who run the newspapers and their commitment to the first amendment. As a result, it’s preachy and a little too on the nose for those of us bombarded daily with claims of fake news. That said, it’s still Spielberg so it’s incredibly well-crafted and entertaining and Meryl Streep is fantastic in drawing out the complexity of Kay Graham. And who doesn’t love seeing Bob Odenkirk and David Cross side by side?

13 Wonder Woman

The undersaturation of the movie market with movies about World War I is a shame. Compare it with World War II which has a minimum of 4 movies a year… always. But where WWII is so often portrayed as the heroic triumph of good over evil or dives into the heinousness of the Holocaust, rarely does it get the chance to just pause and question the brutality of war itself. World War I doesn’t have that problem. There was no Hitler, no Nazis, no Holocaust. Just rulers and treaties that led to the senseless loss of life. And it’s this that movies like Joyeux Noel, War Horse, and now Wonder Woman have captured beautifully. Yes, Wonder Woman is a movie about immortal beings and super heroes with lassos of truth… but at its root it’s about the disgusting fact that humans inflict mass pain on each other based on the lightest of pretenses. The movie has a villain… but humanity is the real evil. The plot was smartly put together, the scenery and costumes nail the period, and the budding romance between Chris Pine and Gal Gadot is a treat to watch. But it’s film’s depiction of the senselessness of war (embodied in Wonder Woman’s shell-shocked Scottish companion.) that really sold me. This movie was far more moving than it deserved to be for a silly super hero movie, but it deserves its praise.

12 The Lego Batman Movie

Perhaps this of all the choices on this list will be the one to not age well… but when I saw this movie I was thoroughly pleased. Not only was it an entertaining and funny beyond a “kid’s” film, it was a parodic love letter to the Caped Crusader. I did not see 2017’s Justice League… but I can safely say this is the best Batman movie since 2008’s Dark Knight. The whole plot of this Lego movie is in fact a direct play on a line of dialogue from The Dark Knight. There the Joker tells Batman, “You complete me,” a line which in its context embodies a central theme throughout Batman lore: does Batman exist because Gotham is full of criminals, or is Gotham full of criminals because Batman attracts them. Here though, the line is taken at face value in its pseudo-romantic sense - Joker pledges his “love” for Batman and here he gets denied. And the world hath seen no wrath as a Joker scorned. It’s a funny set-up that leads to a fun who’s-who of villains from across the Batverse and beyond. The film is anchored in the now-classic Lego movie sense of humor. Special props to Will Arnett’s arrogant, self-centered turn as the lead and to Michael Cera’s bubblingly boyish Dick Grayson/Robin. The two have a perfect comedic give and take. It’s as if the whole movie is a side project of Arrested Development with a young George Michael Bluth playing along with the delusional fantasies of his Uncle GOB. Tobias would of course be Mr. Freeze - he already blued himself.

11 Darkest Hour

Who was Winston Churchill? I’m still not quite sure. The movie presented him as a drunk, surely, but also scared, crude, abrasive, confused, a little Alzheimer’s-y at times… but the least I can say is that he deserved my respect by the end of the film and that’s what the movie wanted from me. Gary Oldman is amazing in this movie and other people could speak more eloquently about his performance. But he’s not alone and Ben Mendehlsson as King George and Stephen Dillane as the preposterously prissy Lord Halifax deserve special praise. Lily James as Churchill’s secretary does not though… her role was kinda pointless… But what really caught my eye about this movie is it’s beautiful cinematography. The movie plays with light and dark so well - fitting for its title. Plus the movie tells the story of the Dunkirk travesty from such an interesting perspective. The knowledge of Hitler’s ultimate intentions today make it difficult to swallow arguments of the past that peace might have been possible, but the film does a great job of establishing tension in a conflict where everyone in the audience knows the resolution. There are times when you wonder along with Churchill whether peace might be worth pursuing. However, if you, like me, enjoy getting your history from film, You’ll likely be saddened as i was to learn that the scene where Churchill goes into the Tube and talks to the common folk for inspiration was all made up for the movie… still, the scene’s pretty magical to watch. So everyone plays their roles to the T and the pictures are pretty. If that’s not enough for you, just watch this as an antidote to watching the lifeless Dunkirk. Ugh. Fuck Dunkirk.

10 The Beguiled

This is an extremely moody, brooding film that sticks with much you longer than you’d think. It’s really a short, little movie at only 94 minutes long, but director Sophia Coppola packs that time full of lust-filled intrigue and tension. If you ever wonders what happens when a house full of sexually repressed women in the 1860s encounters a wounded soldier who’s happy to “please”… the answer is not a lot of good. This is not a porno. If anything this movie takes a male fantasy and turns it into a nightmare. Elle Fanning, Kirsten Dunst, and Nicole Kidman play a fearfully tempting trio, each approaching the mysterious figure of Colin Farrell with their own motivations. Elle as a young woman exploring her sexuality, Kirsten as a woman sheltered for too long and yearns for the companionship, while Kidman as the older woman wants to feel love again… yet Colin cannot have all three and tries anyways… and the result is chilling and creepy reminder that you don’t mess with the heart of a woman. It’s Like Gone Girl in this sense, but better because this movie’s actually rewatchable and the perspective is entirely female-centric.

9 Mudbound

Somewhere online this movie is described as “literary in the best sense” and that’s about all you need to know about this movie. It’s a sprawling character-based epic that charts the lives of two families, one white, one black, whose lives continue to intersect while living in the 1940s rural South. Like much of the 19th c. and early 20th c. American literature, the big takeaway is that life in the country is miserable and prone to stagnation (a little stuck in the mud if you will). And Carey Mulligan’s role as a sophisticated woman forced into the staid life on the farm is practically a carbon copy of the main character in Willa Cather’s “Wagner Matinee” - and that’s a good thing. Mary J. Blige looks really cool with her sunglasses but also does a great job acting as the loving matriarch of her family - in fact the whole cast is pretty incredible. However the heart of the film is the friendship that forms between the veterans returning from WWII- one from each family. Garrett Hedlund and Jason Mitchell carry well the invisible wounds of war and the movie does a great job of highlighting the great injustice and indifference our society all too often places upon the plight of veterans - especially those who are also racial minorities. It’s a movie both reflective of its period’s morals, and a reminder of how close in time we are to some of our nation’s worst racially-based hate crimes.

8 Shape of Water

Love comes in all shapes and sizes - a theme Hollywood has pushed on us for decades. But here the trite fairy tale truism is made fresh… precisely because director Guillermo del Toro does not hide the fact that his Shape of Water - though a movie for adults with rather graphic violence and sex - is a fairy tale. Its love is both unbelievable and beautiful. The film tries to say something about the civil rights movement and oppression in its portrayal of the stigmatized relationship between woman and fish monster… but I personally found those parallels a bit wonky. The film works best as a simple story devoid of overt politics. Few scenes this year are as heartwarming as two rain droplets dancing on the side of a bus window as it races through the night or a dance scene between a fish monster and a woman filmed in the black and white style of the grand musicals of Old Hollywood. The movie includes a heist (the best!), Communist intrigue, comedy, and an amazing villain in Michael Shannon. That guy’s face is made to be evil. Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Jenkins round out a superbly talented cast and the movie is a joy to watch. It was clear this was a work of love for delToro and though it’s not my favorite movie this year it deserves all the praise it gets. It’s a technical and moving marvel

Fantastic films (4 stars)

7 Sanctuary

Of all the movies on this list, I’m gonna bet this is the one you’ve never heard of. I’d never heard of it either. It was an accidental find hidden deep in the Hulu catalog which only attracted my roommate’s and my attentions because it was recently voted the best film in Ireland for 2017 according to some Irish critic’s circle. It was never even released in America. I like Irish film, and I loved this movie. It’s an ambitious project - at least by modern standards. A movie about people with intellectual disabilities, whose cast is mostly filled with people with intellectual disabilities, including like 4 people with Downs Syndrome. It’s part comedy, part rom-com, part romantic-drama, and throughout a tragedy. The movie struggles to find a fine line between viewing it’s largely adult cast of people with intellectual disabilities as people who need to be watched after and people who deserve independence and freedom. And that is not a fault of the movie… in real life finding that balance is hard. The movie has you laughing one moment, crying the other, but at all times forcing this viewer at least to challenge his perceptions of those with intellectual disabilities. It’s a powerful movie, an entertaining one, and one which I think all should see.

6 The Big Sick

Yes, this movie may have committed the worst of comedy movie sins - putting the best joke (the one about 9/11) in the trailer - but that doesn’t stop The Big Sick and it’s plot from surprising. I won’t spoil the plot because it’s best experienced first hand - but one thing I wish I knew going in is that this is fairly closely based on Kumail Nanjiani’s real life, who wrote the film with his wife Emily V. Gordon. I say this because when I first saw this my complaint was that the plot seemed too unbelievable and were this a purely fictional tale I’d be right - but truth is stranger than fiction. The movie has many thematic parallels with the second episode of Aziz Ansari’s Master of None in that the film presents the real pressures faced by children of immigrants to balance wanting to live a “normal” American life without seeming ungrateful or unappreciative of your parents’ culture and the sacrifices they have made to give their kids a better life. Kumail’s mother may be the “villain” from a plotting perspective, but the film is more nuanced than to portray her as heartless. In fact, the incredible love of a parent for their child is palpable throughout, and Ray Romano and Holly Hunter do wonders portraying a couple who though strained will unite to do anything for their daughter. Like life, the characters are realistic, the conflicts have no easy resolution, and it’s equal parts comical and emotional.

5 The Florida Project

Probably one of the best compliments I can bestow upon any piece of art is, “It reminds me of The Wire.” Yes, I am one of those people… deal with it. But what that to me means, is that this particular work of art manages to present an important social problem in a way that has no clear heroes or villains. Rather, it presents real, flawed humans dealing with a terribly shitty social construct. Here, the social construct is poverty - severe, depressing poverty. What are you supposed to do if you have no money, no home, no hopes for the future? You scam, you prostitute, you lie, you do anything to get by. But the characters in the Florida Project aren’t Robin Hoods or Aladdins - lovable thieves. No, they are often ugly people. This is a movie largely about “white trash” America - or rather people we cast aside without a second thought as white trash. However, what makes this movie so brilliant is that it grounds its message in the perspective of a child. Brooklyn Prince is damn near perfect in her role as the six year-old Moonee, the daughter of the aforementioned lying, scamming, destitute woman. By framing the move from Moonee’s view, director Sean Baker allows the movie to be at one moment light-hearted and the next moment heartbreaking. Like The Wire this movie deserves to be taught in any sociology class alongside any textbook. It’s an insightful look at the way the other half lives that’s full of empathetic humanity without providing its characters forgiveness carte blanche. And as entertainment it’s riveting.

4 Baby Driver

I am confident that this movie will not be as good on a second pass, as it’s more of a roller coaster adrenaline rush than artful film, and once you know all the twists and turns the fun will surely be lessened. But that doesn’t stop the first ride through the life of a bank-robbing getaway driver with a heart from being a hell of a good time. Like Patrick Stewart’s snub for Logan, I am legitimately surprised that there was never ANY talk of best director in the cards for Edgar Wright - though it’s probably a little more accurate to call him a choreographer than director as Baby Driver is, for all intents and purposes, an extended music video. Like Wright’s previous work in the Cornetto trilogy, the soundtrack is an eclectic mix of deep tracks from the mainly 60s/70s, but here the music does more than provide a backdrop to the action; it reflects and informs the action. Car chases are coordinated so that the best parts match musical crescendos. Take for example the foot chase towards to the end of the film set perfectly to Hocus Pocus’s “Focus.” The song alternates between a rocking guitar riff and a yodeling breakdown, and Wright appropriately sets the Chase parts to the guitar part and parts where Baby has to hide to the yodel. But calling it a music video perhaps robs the movie of the fact that it created an interesting cast of characters. Yes, it stars Kevin Spacey… but he’s creepy in this movie so at least art reflects life. But more of interest are Jamie Foxx and Jon Hamm as two of Baby’s slightly unhinged compatriots in bank robbing. Ansel Elgort in the title role carries enough charm and heart to capture audiences, and Lily James as the Southern beauty with the heart of gold is just grungy enough to be the perfect match for Baby’s criminal nature. Few movies have ever been this fun to watch with incredibly coordinated car chases, and the plot carries enough twists and turns to keep audiences on their toes.

3 Columbus

This movie is one of those movies where I can’t really put into words why I liked it. The most obvious reason is the movie’s scenery. Set entirely in the small town of Columbus, IN, a real town renowned across the world for its collection of buildings made in the modernist style. The town is shot beautifully and even if the movie weren’t good otherwise, it’d be worth a glance for the pictures. However, the plot is good. It’s a two-for-one with two of my favorite themes. One plot deals with the coming of age of a teenaged girl who’s too smart to get stuck in a dead end town. The other deals with a son comings to terms with his troubled relationship with his father. As I said, the movie is slow and I won’t claim to fully believe that in real life a relationship would have formed between the two main characters - it’s a little forced. But the emotions of the movie are undeniably real and it never feels like melodrama. This is one of the few movies where upon watching I immediately wanted to watch it again.

2 Good Time

Unlike Columbus, I was happy when Good Time ended and did not want to watch it again. It’s not because it’s a bad movie - far from it. But it paints such an ugly, depressing, and frankly terrifyingly real view of humanity that you’re happy when it’s finally over. This is film at its most linear (aside from one notable flashback that ranks among the best flashbacks of all time) and that’s not a complaint. The film’s runs quickly from start to finish like a bullet. The story is one of survival, as Robert Pattinson’s Nicky tries to free his accomplice and brother from custody while avoiding the cops himself following a botched bank robbery. This is not a light hearted bank heist movie like the Oceans movies, Baby Driver, or the like. While Nicky’s attempts to evade detection are certainly clever, as the movie continues you find you aren’t rooting for the protagonist - I wasn’t at least. The movie plays with the idea that the cat & mouse trope so popular in literature is far from fun in real life. It’s a hell of an adrenaline rush, Robert Pattinson gives - i think - one of the best performances of the year, and the plot is damn near perfect - not a second is wasted.

1 Lady Bird

The amount a movie makes me cry sits in direct proportion to how much i enjoyed the film (Interstellar being the big exception). At the end of Lady Bird I was awash in tears. The movie depicts with such a razor-sharp accuracy just how hard being in a family can be. Just how contradictory it can be. How is it that you can hate what your mother does, says, and stands for, and still love her? How is it that you can be so relieved to send your daughter off to college and out of your hair but also cry the entire way home? The taut relationship between Lady Bird and her mother (played extraordinarily by Saorsie Ronan and Laurie Metcalf) is without a doubt the cornerstone upon which Greta Gerwig built her semi-autobiographical story. And in a world filled with nuanced stories of miscommunication between fathers and sons, it was so incredibly refreshing to see the mother-daughter relationship explored with the same respect. The key? Neither character is flawless. Yes Lady Bird is our protagonist, but she’s just a teen. The movie can not help but remind us that for all of her confidence and sophistication there’s just so much to this world she doesn’t understand. We see her engage in doomed sexual relationships, get into petty spats with her best friend, and generally just act immaturely. And her mother is no saint either. Yes, she undoubtedly makes great sacrifices for her daughter and her whole family. She is patient and loving with her husband who suffers from depression and struggles to find work. But she also has no interest in learning about her daughter - her thoughts, her feelings. She embodies the mantra “cruel to be kind” yet it’s sometimes hard to see when the kindness kicks in. The movie is honest, it’s funny, and at times heartbreaking. It’s the best movie I’ve seen since Boyhood in terms of showing what life in America is really like, and it’s a gem of a movie deserved to be seen by all.

[discoloimpenitente]

Quando l'ultimo albero sarà stato abbattuto, l'ultimo fiume avvelenato, l'ultimo pesce pescato, l'ultimo animale libero ucciso. Vi accorgerete... che non si può mangiare il denaro. (Orso in piedi. Sioux ) When the last tree has been felled, the last river poisoned, the last fish caught, the last free animal killed. You'll notice... that you can't eat money. (Bear standing. Sioux) #heartneedshelp #beforeistoolate (presso Planet Earth) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1OwvecAgQo/?igshid=117d17bzlnz1l

[industrialphotoblog-blog]

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A post shared by Serafino Panni (@leo.p.east)

L'Hermodice Carunculata detta anche vermocane, verme cane o verme di fuoco è un anellide dotato di setole urticanti che, se infastidito, si gonfiano e sono in grado di infliggere dolorose irritazioni. Si nutre principalmente di sostanze in decomposizione e pesci morti. Non è raro trovarlo mentre si nutre di un pesce morto, non è questo il caso ma lo trovo ugualmente un essere molto interessante e soprattutto colorato :) . . . . . . #video #videomaker #nature #natura #madrenatura #mare #sea #sealovers #explore #adventure #fun #passion #colors #orange #world #earth #fish #gopro #igers #igersitalia #followme #mediterraneo #grecia #animal #planet #warm #verme #savetheworld #animali #blu https://www.instagram.com/p/BnbjUvSgLh1/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=i6vke2zxtr2d

[caveartfair]

How Oscar Weekend Launched a Buying Spree for L.A.’s Art Collectors

Photo by Caleb George.

There’s usually a picture-perfect view of the Hollywood sign from the balcony of what was once Cary Grant’s Spanish Colonial Revival house in Los Feliz, the hilly neighborhood in Los Angeles by Griffith Park. But last Friday was one of the approximately three-dozen days a year when it rains in L.A., and the sign was obscured by rolling clouds, nothing visible beyond the hanging gardens that engulf the house.

“It’s actually great that it’s raining,” said Jeffrey Deitch, bounding down the stairs of the classic La La Land manse, which he purchased in 2010, passing Warhols and a Jordan Wolfson wall work and plenty of technicolor Gaetano Pesce sofas. “We’ve been desperate for it.”

Deitch has been spending more time in Los Angeles as he readies a new 15,000-square-foot gallery out here for its September opening—his grand return to the West Coast after leaving the directorship of L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in 2013—and this particular weekend was a critical one. The run-up to the Academy Awards ceremony sees Los Angeles at its most frenzied, but it’s also a key window for the city’s galleries to show off for the art-collecting entertainment big shots—and, increasingly, tech world titans—who fly into town for the festivities. And he’s not the only one placing a big bet on L.A. in early spring. Next year, Los Angeles will officially become a stop on the global art world circuit when Frieze opens a fair in Paramount Studios, which will run the week prior to the Oscars festivities, creating a two-week boondoggle for collectors to snap up canvases and hit all the movie parties.

Why hasn’t this happened before? Several international art fairs have, in fact, tried and failed to set up shop in Los Angeles. FIAC, the Paris fair which will have its 45th edition this October, was set to open an edition here in 2015, but it was first postponed, and then canceled. Paris Photo had an L.A. iteration from 2013 to 2015, but cancelled the fair after just three years because, as a representative for the parent company put it, “the level of sales during Paris Photo Los Angeles is not sufficient to support such a Fair and to offer our exhibitors the best conditions of return on their investment.”

But Deitch insists that this time is different.  

“I was there when Norman Braman was trying to bring Art Basel to Miami Beach, and that’s what this feels like,” Deitch said, walking past the stained glass windows that were built into the house.

“Everyone is going to come, it will be just a new spot on the schedule—Asian collectors, Latin American collectors,” Deitch said. “People want to be a part of the scene here—they can relax here.”

Los Angeles does share a number of elements that made Miami such an attractive city for a European-based art fair company to put down roots. There’s a ravenous and unabashedly rich base of collectors both young and old, clusters of white-hot galleries, big mansions with wallspace to be filled, and museums that constantly need to replenish their holdings with fresh material. There’s a rich institutional landscape full of deep-pocketed boards—the Hammer Museum recently announced that it has raised $50 million of a $180 million fundraising goal, LACMA inched closer to its long-awaited new building with a $150 million donation from David Geffen, and the Getty is still attracting new donors despite being the richest art institution on earth, with an endowment of nearby $7 billion. There are also newer private museums, such as the Broad (founded by Eli Broad, dubbed the “Lorenzo de’ Medici of Los Angeles” by The New Yorker) and the Marciano Art Foundation, and George Lucas is building his $1 billion museum in the city’s Exposition Park, set to open in 2021.

Frieze may have more of a fighting chance to succeed where others failed, thanks to a built-in entree into Tinseltown’s inner sanctum: mega-agent Ari Emanuel, whose company Endeavor—a talent and events business that reps Ben Affleck, Tina Fey, and others—purchased an initially undisclosed slice of Frieze in 2016; ArtReview later pegged the stake at 70 percent. Deitch himself is one degree away from Frieze—he is Emanuel’s informal advisor and often curates shows from work in Emanuel’s collections. For Emanuel’s famed pre-Oscars party on Saturday night, attended by the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Emma Stone, Deitch chose work by young artists of color to install at the bash, which was held at a Beverly Hills home that formerly belonged to Paul McCartney.

In the days leading up to the Oscars, the city’s rapidly intensifying art-social circuit was on full display, with a number of openings, dinner parties, and plenty of art being sold. The spree began as early as Wednesday, when Guess co-founders Maurice and Paul Marciano hosted a dinner for the opening of Olafur Eliasson’s Reality projector (2018) at the private museum they opened last year, located in a former Masonic Temple on the outskirts of Koreatown. That was a mere run-up for Thursday’s festivities, the opening of the annual Oscar week show at Gagosian’s Los Angeles outpost.

Installation view of Damien Hirst “The Veil Paintings” at Gagosian, Los Angeles. Photo by Emily Berl for Artsy.

This marathon of a night began at the Beverly Hills Hotel’s venerable watering hole, the Polo Lounge, and then onto the gallery, where hundreds of people saw Damien Hirst’s new exhibition, “The Veil Paintings.” It kicked off a week of art selling out at galleries—all 24 works in the show sold by dinner, for prices between $400,000 and $1.6 million, Gagosian confirmed. For the select few, there were cocktails on the gallery’s roof, which has a little garden displaying work by Sterling Ruby. There, the model Karlie Kloss talked to the artist Alex Israel, and Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel, the youngest billionaire on the planet, hovered nearby. He was described to me by one dealer as “the one all the dealers are after.” Even though he’s barely filled the walls of the $12 million Brentwood house he bought last year, he’s seen as part of the next generation of Los Angeles collectors.

The tech macher conga line snaked the night—when I was getting ready to fire up the Uber app and get a car home, I turned to see Travis Kalanick, the co-founder of Uber, sitting next to me at the bar at Mr. Chow during the dinner for Hirst. Sources said the artist left the dinner in his honor and didn’t make it to his own after party—but Amazon founder Jeff Bezos did, and on Tuesday, he was named the richest person on the planet, with a net worth of $112 billion, according to Forbes.

On Friday, I made my way to Deitch’s, with the steam billowing from above the heated pool. Hung by the front door was an invitation to the first show Deitch ever put together, which included work by Joseph Beuys. The artist received the card in the mail, signed it, and sent it back to Deitch—“My prized possession,” he said. In the dining room, there was a table designed for him by Urs Fischer, featuring Deitch posing for Robert Longo’s famed “Men in the Cities” series, where he photographed ’80s figures as if they were in a mid-dance state of ecstacy, and an image of Cary Grant running from the airplane in North By Northwest. (The home’s former owner is also featured in the room’s den, where on the wall is a gigantic Kurt Kauper painting of the actor fully nude, walking through the house.) Deitch commissioned Israel to paint a mural in the bedroom, and there’s a very early Warhol in the guest bedroom, which is going to be loaned to the Whitney for the giant retrospective planned for this November.

We had originally planned to meet at the new gallery space, but the construction workers can’t work in the rain (Los Angeles more or less shuts down when it rains). It’s a breezy 15-minute drive from the house to the gallery, and when the programming starts in early September, he’ll use the house for dinners and events. The gallery is in a neighborhood that’s south of Hollywood and close to Paramount Studios, just an eight-minute drive. Galleries such as Regen Projects, Various Small Fires, and Hannah Hoffman are so close to Deitch’s space, you could walk there without Angelenos giving you weird looks—when the fair opens in February, all those spots will have shows up, creating a center of gravity in the sprawling town.

Even if it’s opening five months into Deitch’s programming, the planning for Frieze L.A. is already very much underway; when I ran into director Victoria Siddall at the Hirst opening, she said they’ve already started whittling away applicants for the founding exhibitor list, which will set the tenor of the fair. Unlike Frieze New York, which has 190 galleries per year on Randall’s Island, Frieze Los Angeles will have just around 60 galleries.

“That’s the problem right now, figuring out which galleries will make it in,” Siddall said, with an easy smile that made her appear not the least bit concerned.

Infinity Mirrored Room - The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away, 2013. Yayoi Kusama "The Inaugural Installation" at The Broad, Los Angeles

Saturday morning saw more evidence of the growing appetite for art in Los Angeles: A ten-deep mob of people clutching iPhones swelled around a building downtown, mucking up traffic as cars slowed to catch a glimpse of the action. But it wasn’t some star-studded Oscars Eve happening—it was the line to get into the Broad, the private museum opened by the collectors Eli and Edythe Broad in 2015 to instant acclaim and crowds. The queue was primarily to get into Infinity Mirrored Room—The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away, the 2013 Yayoi Kusama work that inspired hours-long waits when it debuted at David Zwirner’s Chelsea gallery in New York. The Broads acquired it in 2014, and the rest is selfie history. (The wait to get that precious selfie last Saturday: 250 minutes.)

From the Broad, past a throng of taco stands and Thai food hawkers at Grand Central Market, the pastel-colored huts of the Toy District, and the web of yakitori spots in Little Tokyo, one arrives at the industrial feel of the Arts District, which is now anchored by Hauser & Wirth’s complex in a former Pillsbury flour mill. The Swiss-based mega-gallery’s L.A. outpost has three separate gallery spaces, an education lab, a bookstore, a gift shop, and a charming restaurant, Manuela, whose walls are hung with profane anti-Trump drawings, which Hauser artist Paul McCarthy likes to scribble onto stationery when he comes by. The first gallery had ten new paintings by Mark Bradford, all of which sold in the show’s opening days for figures between $2.5 million and $5 million, setting the tone for more sales to come. The guestbook for the Bradford show had been signed by Tracey Emin and Sam Taylor-Johnson, the Turner Prize nominee who also directed the first Fifty Shades of Grey movie.

Casey Fremont Crowe, director of the Art Production Fund, was strolling the Arts District that Saturday. She had, earlier in the week, unveiled a new project with New York artist Zoë Buckman at The Standard Hollywood, a neon work called Champ. It soars nearly 50 feet over the Sunset Strip, and it is something—“a glowing white neon outline of an abstracted uterus with fiberglass boxing gloves in place of ovaries,” according to the fund’s website.

Crowe is based in New York, but said that L.A. during Oscar weekend was now firmly on the calendar for her.

“It makes sense to take advantage of the crowds who come to town for the awards,” she said. “I’m sure it will become the next must-attend destination.”

Sunday saw the opening of a gallery consortium space-sharing experiment, something similar to (though not associated with) Condo, the gallery share that Carlos/Ishikawa co-owner Vanessa Carlos started in 2016, allowing London spots to host gallery programs in other countries. Three Los Angeles galleries—Hannah Hoffman, Kristina Kite, and Park View—would be hosting a dozen spaces from overseas, including Düsseldorf’s Max Meyer, Cologne’s Jan Kaps, and Tokyo’s Misako & Rosen.

And Sunday was also, of course, the Oscars. Deitch said he used to enjoy attending the ceremony when he was director of MOCA, taking in the full majesty of Hollywood. It was a reminder that, however big the art scene gets in Los Angeles, it will always be second banana to the movie business. After The Shape of Water won Best Picture, stars went on to a variety of parties—the Governor’s Ball, the Vanity Fair party, the under-wraps bash at the Chateau Marmont garage thrown by Jay-Z and Beyonce for Time’s Up. But Deitch said he was already looking ahead—The Armory Show was set to open in New York, and the next stop on the global art tour beckoned.

from Artsy News