#please explain why photo quality was so awful even 10 years ago

[princesscatherinemiddleton]

MONARCHS OF EUROPE (that I care about, sorry not sorry to the others)

[xoruffitup]

Just want to flail over Adam’s parts? People, I AM HERE FOR YOU. Here’s a time-stamped cheat sheet of Adam’s comments and generally precious moments. (Basically Round 2 of my overall flaily recap of this panel right after it happened.)

I start the video and my heart freaks out remembering when he first walked on stage. Get me a paper bag before I pass out... His little ‘Hello!’ and one-handed wave when he walked out I was already deceased.

1:35 - Everyone please just watch this adorable tall man awkwardly sit and fidget and bite his lip and make his oh god public attention face

11:25 - Adam makes no judgments about his character’s morality. He empathizes more with Ben Stiller’s character in the While We’re Young film than with his own, but recognizes that his own feelings about the character are irrelevant; as are his feelings about his own performance. 

“It’s not about me feeling it, it’s about an audience feeling it.”

I’m constantly struck by his humility and maturity in always thinking of himself as only a small part in every film project, regardless of how large his role might be. He’s hyper-aware that none of it is about him, and becomes uncomfortable when people try to make it so. Although he explains here that he relates to the “debilitating” pressure to play a role correctly or authentically, and we know that he constantly over-thinks and scrutinizes his own work to the point of not being able to watch himself on film; He also recognizes his personal gratification with his performance comes second to the overall story being told. Internally, he might hold himself to high personal standards, but he never presumes those standards should be projected on anyone else. He finishes this answer with “Who am I to say if they’re right or wrong?” (If audiences respond to a less authentic version of a work.)

I would love to hear him answer this same question about Kylo’s character.

27:50 (One of the moments when I had to physically restrain myself from flailing in my seat because he’s so damn presh) - The moderator tried to “bring back Adam” because he’d hardly spoken so far, and Adam goes “I’m good, I’m good.” Ben Stiller interjected, “Can I just say something about acting with Adam?” and Adam immediately shakes his head and waves his hand in a silent “Please no”, but then very magnanimously tells Ben to go ahead, even while squirming in his seat a tiny bit while Ben talked about him. 

29:00 - Adam says Noah’s writing is very “theatrical.” I did find it interesting how he talked here about a whole range of different potential meanings within the same words of a script, depending on how they’re delivered. I also love when he talks about working in theatre, just because I have a soft spot for stage actors. 

(Watching this whole video back makes me realize Adam really did quite effortlessly and unconsciously charm the audience (not just me), even speaking so little compared to the other panelists. I remembered clearly when he had his ~showdown with the moderator towards the end the audience was 100% on his side, clapping for him, but generally there are so many audience laughs for the little self-deprecating jokes Adam mixes into all his answers.)

31:10 (Alert alert, fangirl moment) - Perfect capture of how he fiddles with his fingers and listens so attentively. 

33:28 - THAT L A U G H

35:08 - My other favorite funny/presh moment! “There’s humor in doing the same things in life and still trying to make them more efficient... Like I still don’t think I’ve ever gotten into a car the right way.” (Confused audience laughter?) Then Adam gets serious with chagrin right away like “...that was a bad example...” (Audience continues laughing with him even though most people probably don’t get it.) He made a last-ditch effort to explain himself by saying “the Tesla” - but didn’t quite get to fully explain that he was referring to the uber-modern Tesla car that was driving him around the island over the weekend. Regardless, everyone found it amusing and I was there like I stan a man who can’t get into a car right WHAT A GEM

36:27 (Alert alert, another fangirl moment) - Everyone please just watch him take a drink of water. Why every single damn thing he did was totally mesmerizing to me I don’t know, but you’ll thank me later. 

46:13 - The moderator mentions Paterson screened at the Nantucket Film Festival several years ago. Adorable moment where he goes to start listing all the famous people from Paterson and has to give up with “...and a bunch of other people I can’t remember right now.”

47:10 - Hilarious moment but first strike against the narrator. Ben Stiller had to ask Chris Matthews if Paterson was the first movie he’d seen Adam in because yeah, he’d kind of been neglecting Adam a bit (not that Adam minded, clearly), but Ben went “...he’s also in Star Wars,” and the whole place cracked up. 

49:10 - Non-Adam moment, but I was really intrigued with Noah Baumbach’s comment here, talking about developing his dialogue and how “there’s communication, and then there’s talking.”

50:10 - THIS IS IT, FOLKS, THE GOLD MINE OF ADAM CHARM AND SASS. THE LEGENDARY MOMENT IS NEARING. Watch Adam’s life flashing before his eyes in a panic when the question “Who is the most influential person in your life” is suddenly thrown at him. He wasn’t ready for this!! (Although great question, Rea, so glad it was asked!) Then after he says he’ll pass on the question, you can see him basically flying to Mars in his head pondering. Then the cuteness and laughter when he announces he does have an answer!! He was 1000% the whole audience’s darling by this point. Then his answer is basically, “Listen to how insightful my wife is because she’s the best.” Then after boasting about his wife it’s right back to his modest self: “On to the next question and then I’ll finish this monologue...”

LOOK, okay he wasn’t even talking for that long! He’d given what, 3 answers before this during the whole hour-long panel?! The moderator himself blabbed at least twice as much. I was loving this monologue because it was the first time Adam was actually talking for an extended time. But apparently we can’t have nice things becomes here comes Mr. Rude-ass, Clueless Moderator...

(Also, Ben and Noah were 100% engaged with what Adam was saying so literally this was only the moderator’s problem...)

52:32 - The moderator audibly sighs into his microphone in the middle of Adam’s “monologue” and I’m SO glad Adam unpretentiously called him out: “.....Are you bored by my answer?” The whole audience laughed in sympathy with him because it was so weird and rude? Then Adam went on to be even more of a clever QT like: “You were thinking about another question? That’s what I was doing during your answers...” And the man is so straight-faced about it you genuinely can’t even tell if he purposefully meant that well-done, five-course ROAST. 

I cringe so hard at this memory I can barely watch it back, but ughhhh queue the moderator interrupting Adam’s attempt to resume his answer, with some bullshit about Jeff Goldblum... What even? Jeff Goldblum was mentioned once in the panel previously, but wtf how does your mind go there when Adam Driver is giving a painfully earnest, precious, and over-thought monologue for you???

52:50 - “...SO STAR WARS.” BOOM. In three words Chris Matthews has been KO’d. omg look at the almost proud look on Noah’s face like yeah you tell him bb and Ben’s cracking up, and the whole audience flips out like DAMN, SAVAGE!!!

(Also for ~context reference, walking out from the auditorium afterwards, I remember overhearing two guys saying to each other “Chris Matthews was like one of those old guys who just blurts whatever’s going through his head.” “Yeah but you’d think when you’re talking to Adam Driver you’d be more respectful and reign it in.” and in my head I was like DAMN RIGHT. Watching this whole thing back, Matthews gets on my nerves basically the whole time. He seems to enjoy hearing himself talk so much that he forgot what a moderator’s actual job is.)

58:40 - Adam’s advice to aspiring filmmakers about the usefulness of going to school, getting a firm foundation in your craft, and having the insulated space to fail and build yourself. 

Just so I can ~complete my revisiting of this whole experience~, I’ll add this photo taken by @wherethepastaat aka Rea aka https://twitter.com/cosmicreas in the parking lot outside after the event. I love her for asking the incredible question that gave us a world-class #SassybutClassy Adam moment, and also for snapping this A+ covert photo documenting the referenced Tesla car that caused Adam so much stress about how to get in it correctly. (Joanne’s getting in before him.)

I also owe her my firstborn because she inadvertently GOT ME IN THE PHOTO WITH ADAM!! That shoulder in the pink tank top directly behind him? THAT’S ME. THAT’S ME AND ADAM. IN THE SAME PHOTO. DEEP BREATHING, OKAY. Now I can always prove that I really was that close to him! (He came by even closer when he walked down the sidewalk. No, a month later I still have not gotten over it even .00001% percent.) 

Admittedly, there have been brief moments where I berate myself like ‘ugh why didn’t you ask for a photo?!’ but A) I was frozen in awe for the 10 seconds he was in front of me (pretended to be on my phone so I wasn’t overtly staring, lol) and B) You can see in this photo that there were a bunch of people milling around. If I’d asked him to stop, he probably would have gotten stuck taking pics with lots of people. I did the right thing AND got to witness more wholesome Adam moments as he was leaving!

Once again, Rea I owe you a gift basket because I am SO glad I got to witness when you/your brother called ‘Bye!’ to Adam from your car and your dad called “Hi Kylo!” and ADAM RESPONDED, smiled and waved and said ‘Hi Thanks!’ back. IT WAS SO PURE I CRY AT THE MEMORY.

All in all, despite the fact that Adam didn’t actually talk that much on the panel, it was still a 100% Quality Event and I still think about it daily. :’) My Adam crush has morphed into an all-consuming real-life thing that I do my best to control but look, a girl can only do so much in the face of THIS. I AM ONLY HUMAN, ADAM.

[tearasshouse]

Mostly vidya ramblings pt 3A

Previously, on Vidya ramblings

We’re in the final stretch! The cream of the crop for games I managed to complete in 2020. If I had to be arbitrary and quantitative about these things, I’d put these at an 8.5/10 minimum, going all the way to the extremely rare 10. These were the whole package and I’ll likely think about these long after I’ve finished them. 

Sayonara Wild Hearts (PS4  -- also available on Switch, Steam, Apple Arcade)

This feels a bit weird, because it came out in late December 2019 and I finished it in January, so this is actually one of the newer games on this grand list but it feels like a lifetime ago when I’d played it. 

Anyway, I was skeptical of the title just... based on the title alone what with the random use of Japanese but OK I’m hardly the language police here. I suppose “Farewell Wild Hearts” or “Goodbye Wild Hearts” wouldn’t be as catchy but MOVING ON... This game is just great. It’s just fantastic. The soundtrack took me back to my days of binging on electropop, particularly of the Swedish vintage from the likes of Robyn, The Knife, Lykke Li, Royksopp, The Field, etc etc. Simogo themselves are two Swedes who (at least to most like myself) just came out of nowhere last (last) year with this breakout banger and there’s just nothing like it. Like, there are many things that it should remind you of, seeing as how the gameplay and presentation is some kind of genius concoction of REZ spliced with an auto-runner threaded through a rhythm game and crossed with a far more forgiving take on a WipEout title (the last part is a pretty poor frame of reference admittedly). It’s also unlike and greater than the sum of these influences. Just...take my word for it and play this. Or “experience” this, if you so please. 

Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4 -- also on Steam, GOG, EGS)

So I did a silent groan when I initially saw the concept for the game back circa 2016? 2015? I’m not sure if I even had a PS4 at the time, so suffice it to say this title had completely passed me by as the years rolled on. Robot dinosaurs? How much more phoned in can things get? Are they trying to appeal to the Transformers crowd? How about that awful name? Noun: Nonsensical Subtitle. Meaningless and less than poignant to be sure. Guerilla Games? The team behind the somewhat forgettable Killzone franchise? Yikes and no thanks. And what’s with the protagonist talking to herself like that? I know it’s meant to be an in-universe way for the protagonist to narrate what she’s doing so the mouthbreathers watching the gameplay demo can get an idea of what’s going on but man, does she keep gabbing like this all the time? 

Well well! Who’s the idiot now? It’s qualities slowly started becoming apparent to me over time and I figured this year was as good as any to indulge in one of Sony’s new tentpole franchises. Yes, the gameplay is a by the numbers open-world checklist action RPG, but understand that I don’t really play these kinds of games so the fatigue hasn’t set in and shocked gasp, could there be a reason why this formula has been so successful in the AAA space? Could it be that the tried and true is the way it is not (only) because developers are creatively spent, but also because if something works, and works really well to boot, then there’s no sense in trying to innovate too hard? 

So the gameplay just works and there’s no shame in doing the Ubisoft thing. It works because I now personally know it does. The 60+ hours I’d spent with Horizon were incredible, polished fun. As with the case in Marvel’s Spiderman, or to a lesser extent Rise of the Tomb Raider and MGS V. Curiously enough I bounced right off of Batman Arkham Knight, despite being a big fan of the previous Arkham games, but I suspect the set dressing is what makes it all work.

You see, the world in Horizon is wonderous and daring. It has a great sense of place is perhaps my favourite interpretation of the post-apocalyptic sci fi future. The robot dinosaurs I’d written off as adolescent pandering are just amazing, at least in the way they’re realized and so brilliantly animated here (though I’m not quite sure why they’ve taken on dinosaur forms--it was briefly explained somewhere in the game but zzz). Even if it feels like Guerilla thought up “robot dinosaurs fuck yeah!” first and then reverse engineered a story around that butttttt we won’t get into that. I also did the whole touristy photo-mode thing, which I almost never do because it’s just that darn purdy.

Shame that Horizon 2 will also be shackled to the PS4 and not made a full on PS5 exclusive (and for the sins of tying down next gen software to dated hardware, one only need look at CP2077...). But for the PC peeps out there with decent enough rigs, you should absolutely give this a spin and see what the good life’s been like in Sony land.