#quiet rebels

[studyhelianthus]

[juvehiir]

apologies due, no harm

♪ rio romeo — nothing new

[silvantransthranduiltrash]

I feel like legolas is the kind of elf that, while he absolutely can take the reins of a situation and lead people, is also absolutely chill with being the second in command. Unless it’s needed or the one in charge is gonna do smth stupid, he’s fine letting other people deligate tasks and make decisions and such.

Legolas walks the fine line between being more of a solo act and being a team player

And you can see this pretty clearly in lotr too, like he lets Gandalf and Aragorn take the lead for the most part bc he knows this isn’t his area of expertise, but we also see his initiative and confidence when he volunteers himself for the quest instead of letting someone else take part (like glorfindel).

It’s also really important to me that legolas is someone who follows orders because he chooses to follow orders. He doesn’t follow orders bc he has to or bc it’s what he’s supposed to do, he lets other people tell him what to do only when he trusts them/trusts their decisions/agrees with them.

[mayquake]

if caitlyn was a man playing dictator wearing a neat cape we wouldn’t be fighting because you all would be too busy drawing self insert porn

[si-siwrites]

Vague design for the long quiet!!! Couldn't decide if I liked it more with or without the background, so here's that.

[serpentface]

Interview Question for Etsushir:

What was the vibe like as a foot soldier during the suppression of the North Finn Rebellion? Did it feel doomed from the start or did it only fall apart once the Odomache was assaulted and killed?

[shoot-i-messed-up]

the one het ship I genuinely really enjoy in EAH is Cerise/Daring. Like I’m sorry, I know Cerise gives off queer vibes, but the cool jock girl x loser pathetic boy got me….

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

2024 movies I’ve seen, crudely summarized:

The Substance —> The Barbie movie but with the charm of The Fly

Twisters —> Hallmark Channel movie but with the budget of a Marvel movie

Trap —> M. Night Shyamalan directed a music video for his daughter, then slapped together a story to try to pass it off as a movie

Transformers One —> Transformers: First Class

Deadpool & Wolverine —> Ryan Reynolds fanboys over the Marvel universe for two hours

Longlegs —> Silence of the Lambs, but instead of Hannibal Lecter, it’s Nicolas Cage being normal

MaXXXine —> evil La La Land

Speak No Evil —> Andrew Tate as a horror movie villain

Inside Out 2 —> “damn, that’s me onscreen fr fr” the movie

Megalopolis —> The Room 2

Civil War —> “we’re making some kind of a political statement” the movie

A Quiet Place: Day One —> a drama about a terminally ill movie living her life to the fullest in her last days…oh, and there’s aliens I guess

Bad Boys: Ride or Die —> cops going through mid-life crisis: the movie

Monkey Man —> The Raid 3

In a Violent Nature —> Jason Voorhees nature documentary ASMR

Cuckoo —> the trailer sold the movie —> something scary is supposed to be happening, I guess

Road House —> UFC commercial

Night Swim —> “goofy ahh monster ruins the entire atmosphere” the movie

Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver —> boring Warhammer 40K crossover fanfic with Seven Samurai and Star Wars

Alien: Romulus —> It’s totally a different Alien story, bro. Very original and new. —> it’s just the first Alien but slightly changed —> should’ve seen this coming because the director did the same thing with Evil Dead

[lu-is-not-ok]

Is the self in the mirror my reflection, or another being entirely?

[slaytheprofessor]

"The answer's still no," you say, immediately turning in the other direction. "I don't care how turned around this place makes me, I'm finding my way out of here."

The Guide: But---but it's right there---

Voice of the Researcher: Hey. It's not our problem.

The Guide: But it is your problem! You're the only one who can kill him!

Voice of the Researcher: We've got a choice in the matter, right?

The Guide: Wh---yes. Yes, of course you do. You always do.

Voice of the Researcher: Then we're not doing this. We're leaving.

There's a small pause. When the Guide speaks again, he sounds as if he's pleading.

The Guide: You're in the middle of a city.

Voice of the Researcher: Cities have ends.

The Guide: Right. All right. Fine. That's... that's your choice.

The Guide: You go the other way again, and... you find yourself back at the library.

The Guide: I... I don't suppose I can convince you to go in this time, right?

You shake your head. Your mind is made up.

The Guide: *sighs* All right, then.

The Guide: You continue to make your way through the winding city streets, growing more and more desperate as you attempt to find your way out. Then, strange things begin to happen.

The Guide: At first, there is a library on every other block. Then, there is a library on every single block.

The Guide: They're all tucked away between two larger buildings. You could easily miss them, but it's getting harder and harder to mistake, and harder and harder to avoid.

The Guide: The city is full of libraries. They are all identical. They are surrounding you, everywhere you turn. And they all want you to step inside.

Voice of the Researcher: *whispering* Whaaaaaat the fuuuuuuck is happening?

The Guide: *audibly pained* You've been walking for... how long? You've forgotten. I've forgotten.

The Guide: Your legs give out. You collapse onto the pavement.

The Guide: As you look up at the star-filled sky, you realize that you are tired beyond belief.

The Guide: Would it hurt to rest? Maybe you should.

Voice of the Researcher: No. No. We get up, we keep moving, we have to find our way out of here---

The Guide: I... I'm sorry. I don't think it wants you to.

The Guide: You close your eyes, and your strength leaves you. The city has claimed you, and you know that there is no leaving. Not without a price.

The Guide: You're dead, but only for now. This isn't the end.

[studyhelianthus]

[cluelessrebel1988]

My Favorite Movies of 2024 (Honorable Mentions)

My Top Ten List is here

A Quiet Place: Day One

Inside Out 2

Lisa Frankenstein

Rebel Ridge

The Wild Robot

[grigori77]

2024 in Movies - My Top 30 Fave Movies (Part 3)

10. HERETIC – I’ve never considered myself to be a very religious person, I’ve always preferred to just be spiritual and not worry too much about the specifics of what might come after we die, so my particular relationship with organised religion has always been pretty academic. So I’ve always looked on the particularly interesting case of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from a distance, not judging them on the controversies or the running jokes from those outside of it, which made this deep-dive through the lens of psychological horror quite fascinating. Sophie Thatcher (who I completely fell in love with as an actress when I first saw her in Prospect and hasn’t disappointed me once since) and Chloe East (who I first saw in the criminally overlooked The Wolf of Snow Hollow) are Mormon missionaries Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton, who come to the home of Mr Reed (Hugh Grant) looking to convert him to their faith. At first it seems cosy and intriguing, as their verbose and highly intelligent host engages them in a fascinating debate about the values and tenets of their church, but as time passes they grow more uneasy, little hints telling them something is terribly wrong. But when they want to leave he won’t let them out, instead ensnaring them in a far more troubling debate about the nature of belief itself, and it finally dawns on them that they’re both in very real danger … I don’t want to give any more away, this is definitely a film which lives and dies on its surprises so I won’t betray any of the myriad skilful twists and turns the razor sharp screenplay takes. The writer-director duo of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods have been impressing me for a while already, first coming to my attention by conceiving the original story that John Krasisnki went on to refine into A Quiet Place before going on to create 2023’s criminally overlooked sci-fi thriller 65 and penning unsettling Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman,but this goes WAY BEYOND anything I’ve seen from them so far, the pair seeming to have progressed in leaps and bounds in the creation of what has to be one of the smartest and most downright ORIGINAL horror movies I’ve seen in absolutely AGES. They weave an atmosphere of pregnant dread that slowly blooms into deep existential horror when the big reveal comes, while asking far more profound questions than the already weighty central concept originally promised, ultimately making some particularly astute points that genuinely left me a little mind-blown for a good while after, ably supported in what’s essentially a three-hander by some truly exceptional tour-de-force performances – seriously, the small but EXTREMELY POTENT main cast are ON FIRE, Thatcher and East effortlessly supporting each other as their characters’ seemingly disparate personalities turn out to be perfectly complimentary, making it VERY EASY for us to root for them, while Grant is simply MESMERISING in what may well be the very best performance I’ve EVER seen him deliver, at once affably charming and unsettlingly threatening with nary any warning about which way he’s about to turn. This is a truly TERRIFYING piece of work, but more than that it’s incredibly challenging and thought-provoking too, a fiendishly smart little indie horror that deserves to be a proper MASSIVE hit, marking a major turning point for two filmmakers I’ve already come to admire a great deal. If this really is an honest indicator of what they’re TRULY capable of, then I’m beyond excited for what they do next ...

9. KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES – Matt Reeves is a tough act to follow, even before The Batman he was already blowing us away with his star-making directorial breakthrough helming Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and its follow-up War For the Planet of the Apes. The conclusion of that latter film put a very definitive exclamation point on one of the best cinematic trilogies of the 2010s, making ANY attempts to continue the rebooted franchise a tough prospect indeed, and something that even a seasoned filmmaker might balk at. But when I heard the proposed new trilogy, set hundreds of years after the events of War, would be directed by Wes Ball, I breathed a big sigh of relief – he did an INCREDIBLE job with the sci-fi trilogy adapting YA novelist James Dashner’s popular Maze Runner series, so I knew the saga was in very good hands indeed. Having come up in visual effects, Ball’s always maintained a very strong balance between physical and digital filmmaking, so he was certainly up to the challenge of bringing a new generation of photorealistic, vitally ALIVE super-intelligent talking apes to the big screen, as well as putting his flesh-and-blood actors through their paces with similar skill and flair. Most important, though, this film introduces a new lead protagonist who’s definitely got what it takes to succeed Andy Serkis’ mesmerizing Caesar in a new story, Owen Teague (It, I See You, Inherit the Viper, Black Mirror) thoroughly impressing in his first lead role as Noa, an uncertain young chimpanzee from an isolated tribal clan forced to grow up fast when his people are stolen in one terrifying night by masked ape raiders, leaving him to follow their trail with only intellectual orangutan Raka (The Orville’s Peter Macon) and an unusually smart “echo” (basically what humans have become since they lost their speech and intelligence) named Mae (The Witcher’s Freya Allan) to count as allies. Macon is a thoroughly endearing presence throughout, while Allan delivers a fascinatingly complex performance that fuels many of the film’s most interesting twists (although I’m sure you can spot one or two coming ahead of time); and then there’s Kevin Durand, who’s clearly having a whale of a time getting his teeth into a rewardingly robust screen villain in the form of Proximus Caesar, an ambitious bonobo warlord who’s using a corrupted version of his namesake’s teachings to build a tyrannical empire of oppressed apes – he’s not quite as compelling an antagonist as Toby Kebbell’s Koba, but serves most admirably indeed here. Altogether, this film definitely had A LOT of heavy lifting to do to even APPROACH the heights of Reeves’ tenure on the franchise, and Ball and screenwriter Josh Friedman (War of the Wolds, Terminator: Dark Fate, Avatar: The Way of Water) have risen to the task in fine style, delivering a thrilling, affecting and inventive epic action adventure which skilfully builds on the framework provided by the previous trilogy while courageously forging ahead into the future, leaving room to venture forward into exciting further instalments. Ultimately this isn’t QUITE as good as Dawn or even War, but with this the saga remains as rewarding, compelling and majestic as ever, and I see great promise in its future …

8. KUNG FU PANDA 4 – The Dragon Warrior is back once again for a long-awaited fourth adventure, and while there’s always room for more of my second favourite Dreamworks animated franchise there are strong indicators that this could well be the last, and if it is, it would certainly be a worthy bow-out for one of my favourite anthropomorphic movie characters. The eponymous martial arts master, Po (the boundlessly endearing Jack Black, inexhaustibly effervescent as always), is at the height of his astounding abilities, and his crabby red panda mentor Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) thinks it’s time for him to take his place as the spiritual leader of the Valley of Peace, while also choosing a successor to begin training as the new Dragon Warrior. Po, however, couldn’t be more against this particular idea, since there’s nothing he loves more than kicking butt and taking names (although he’s never been very good at the latter), so when it seems like his old foe Tai Lung (a welcome return for the great Ian McShane) has returned he jumps at the chance to investigate. Instead he discovers that there’s a new threat out there – a shapeshifting sorceress known as The Chameleon (Viola Davis) has taken control of the distance metropolis of Juniper City, making it her base of operations from which to launch her nefarious plan to reach into the Spirit World and steal the Kung Fu of ever master villain there. Po’s only hope of defeating her is to enlist the very reluctant help one of the city’s residents, a nefarious corsac fox thief named Zhen (Awkwafina) who may prove more of a handful than he bargained for … the series continues to fire on all cylinders with all prerequisite elements functioning exactly as they should – the franchise may have peaked with the second film, but they’ve maintained an impressive level of quality throughout, and this fourth entry definitely measures up very well in comparison, regardless of what some naysayers may have said. This is just as amusing, ingenious, exciting and visually arresting as previous outings, and rather than stripping away much of the fun by leaving the Furious Five out this time round, the story’s a good deal tighter and much more focused, rightly focusing on the relationship that develops between Po and Zhen as they go from rivals to uneasy allies to true friends in very organic fashion. It certainly helps that the two leads have such strong chemistry – Black’s having as much fun as ever while his creation remains his adorably geeky self, while Awkwafina brings plenty of likeable sass and snark to proceedings, and they gel very effectively over the course of the film. Davis, meanwhile, creates a compelling villain with strong motives for her dastardly plot, while there’s quality support from returning voices like Hoffman alongside Bryan Cranston and James Hong as Po’s two dads Li Shan and Mr Ping and series newcomers such as Ke Huy Quan, fresh from his post-Everything Everywhere All At Once success as Zhen’s estranged pangolin mentor Han. Granted, ultimately this feels like just a lot more of the same, but when the end results are still so consistent there’s no real room for complaint, and as far as I’m concerned the series remains as strong as it was when it started, from the gorgeous animation and stylish design to the exquisitely executed action and, once again, a spectacular score from Hans Zimmer, this time joined by regular collaborator Steve Mazzaro (the highlight here is a truly WILD orchestral rendition of Ozzy Osbourne’s Crazy Train during the film’s best set-piece). Ultimately, if this really IS the end of the franchise, it’s a fitting place to call it a day, although I’m sure I’m not alone in hoping for a little more, and there’s definitely a strong indicator where they COULD go from here …

7. A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE – It’s interesting, most of the time when you get a really great movie that becomes a big hit and spawns a franchise, THE LAST THING it needs is a prequel, and oftentimes when it DOES happen it feels like a shoehorned mess or even a disrespectful retcon (they can’t ALL be Furiosa, after all). A Quiet Place was never one of those – right from the start it was clear that how it all began was going to be JUST as interesting as where the original story was going, a fact that was DEFINITELY reinforced when Part Two dropped that TERRIFYING flashback cold open. So when this finally arrived I was FIRST in my local queue, raring to go and so unswervingly excited that anything less than amazing was liable to be a disappointment. Thankfully it turned out to be EVERYTHING I was hoping for – this is a super trim 99 minutes of knuckle-whitening terror with a (by now, not really all that) surprising amount of emotional power packed in, one of those films that brings you to tears when it’s not scaring the living bejeezuz out of you, just like the first two. Lupita Nyong’o is a breath of fresh air as our new lead protagonist, Samira, a world-weary young New Yorker who’s been beaten down by a life of tragedy and chronic pain from the very same kind of advanced cancer that killed her beloved father, only to find a reason to stay alive (at least for a few more days) when the sound-seeking murder-beasts crash-land in the middle of the loudest city in the world and instantly go apeshit from all the noise. Stranger Things’ Joseph Quinn, meanwhile, puts us through the emotional wringer right from his entrance as Eric, a timid Brit law student whose anxiety is going THROUGH THE ROOF as this all goes off around him, forced to find inner reserves of courage he never knew he had after he latches onto Sam as she makes her way across the city in search of the last slice she’ll ever be able to get from her favourite Harlem pizzeria. There are equally heartfelt turns from Alex Wolff (Hereditary, Jumanji, Pig) as Reuben, Sam’s put-upon hospice nurse, and Djimon Hounsou, showing how his character started his own apocalyptic struggle as Part Two’s Henri, but perhaps the biggest stars of this film are, unsurprisingly, Nico and Schnitzel, a pair of tuxedo cats who perfectly portrayed the role of Frodo, Sam’s service cat, who’s probably THE MOST CHILLED-OUT feline I have EVER SEEN in a movie, and definitely one of the cutest. Ultimately this is an absolute TRIUMPH for its breakout writer-director, Michael Sarnoski, whose INSANELY impressive feature debut Pig already made him one to watch back in 2021, and he definitely did the original property justice while carving his own equally impressive path in the franchise. The end result, then, is a welcome addition to an already INCREDIBLE horror movie series, and definitely a strong contender for the genre’s movie of the year.

6. DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE – Damn … if ever there was a movie that I really can’t say much of ANYTHING about for fear of dropping spoilers, even if most of the core fandom has already seen it … this is an IMPORTANT MOVIE, maybe the most important of the past year, because the MCU has been on the rocks of late, despite Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 going a long way to setting its fortunes back on the right track (but then that one has very much been considered a BLIP, really), and this one looks to have SINGLEHANDEDLY knocked the whole mess back on the right track while simultaneously mercilessly ripping the piss out of the whole debacle. No, I mean IT REALLY DOES, there isn’t A SINGLE STONE that the Merc With a Mouth leaves unturned in his quest for meta-fuelled irreverence (except maybe that dead Celestial poking out of the Pacific that NOBODY seems to be talking about after Eternals … or maybe I missed a joke somewhere). Anyway, this is EVERY BIT as good as James Gunn’s third and final feature for the franchise, as well as another SUPER-solid entry in what was already Fox’s now expired X-Verse’s most popular series, but most importantly it’s also an EXTREMELY successful bridging film between that and the flagging Marvel Cinematic Universe, the perfect way to bring Mutantkind into the franchise with the least amount of fuss. That being said, the BIG attraction here is getting to see two of Marvel’s biggest heavyweights going head-to-head in one movie, and of course beating seven shades of shit out of each other while they’re at it. If you will … yeah, if you haven’t seen it yet and don’t want to get spoiled, you really should jump off at this point and just GO SEE FOR YOURSELF, safe in the knowledge that it’s a fucking AWESOME movie and you won’t be disappointed. Now SHOO!!! Be off with you … okay, still here? Right then, watch me try to be as spoiler-light as I can moving forward … as much as Wade Wilson and Logan may be the very EPITOME of chalk-and-cheese onscreen, behind the scenes Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman have got on like a house on fire for a while now, ever since the former started lovingly teasing the latter in the first Deadpool movie and started his long-running campaign to lure the original Marvel Movie superstar into a big screen team-up, so

it comes as NO SURPRISE that they’re both clearly having the time of their lives finally working together. Their chemistry in this is OFF THE CHARTS, the pair trading razor sharp quips, dirty looks and well-deserved face-punches with gleeful abandon from their first scene together RIGHT to the end, while the incredibly strong screenplay from Reynolds, series regulars Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, Robot Chicken’s Zeb Wells and the film’s director Shawn Levy (who previously worked with Reynolds on Free Guy and The Adam Project, as well as Jackman on Real Steel) definitely gives them a really big Multiversal playground to let loose in, all while doing a really beautiful job of taking the baggage that the current condition of the MCU property’s left the franchise in and stuffing it all into what’s always been a much more stable (if also far less RESPECTFUL) cinematic sandbox. There are easter eggs galore, both overt and a whole lot more subtle throughout, especially during an extended sojourn in the Void (the TVA’s pruning dumping ground) which not only introduces a few fun (relative) new faces (including at least one X-Men franchise missed opportunity AS WELL as the VERY welcome return of my very favourite Marvel mutant of them all – so nice to see you back, Laura! Sure hope you get to stick around for more) but also a bunch of fan favourites from across Fox’s Marvel pantheon, and as far as I’m concerned there ain’t a single bum note in the entire symphony here! Certainly this is BY FAR the funniest Deadpool movie so far (which is saying something), but that’s not really surprising since Shawn Levy has consistently proven to be one of the VERY BEST cinematic comedy directors out there (especially with his consistently high quality Night At the Museum series), so this is just another day at the office for him, and he definitely delivered something TRULY SPECIAL here. This is THE MOST I laughed at the cinema this past year, but thankfully like its predecessors it’s got plenty of emotional heft on offer too, meaning that it definitely fits in JUST FINE with the best that its new peers in the MCU have to offer. Topping this off with a selection of genuinely BRILLIANT soundtrack needle-drops (particularly in the thoroughly irreverent and MASSIVELY disrespectful opening title sequence which sees Wade mercilessly desecrating one of Marvel’s most sacred cows) and a genuinely moving closing credits farewell homage to Fox’s Marvel legacy, the filmmakers have done their material so very proud as well as opened the door to so many fresh possibilities in the Marvel Cinematic Universe moving forward, and I for one hope this is a sign that things really are FINALLY back on the right track for the series. Now if they could just get that Blade reboot out of Development Hell (wink wink) …

5. THE WILD ROBOT – My animated feature of 2024 pretty much came out of nowhere to steal my heart in the closing months of the year, a truly spellbinding work of art which made me cry MULTIPLE TIMES through its hundred-odd minute runtime. Writer-director Chris Sanders, who already had strong form bringing us to tears helming Lilo & Stitch and the first How To Train Your Dragon film, continues to manipulate our emotions without mercy by introducing us to Roz (Lupita Nyong’o), a caretaker robot who’s part of a shipwrecked cargo consignment which washes up on the shores of a deserted forest island. After being accidentally activated, she follows her prime directives and goes in search of someone to assign her a task, but with only animals around her she finds this is a far harder prospect than she has any kind of programming to compute. Ultimately her journey finds her taking accidental responsibility for a lone gosling, Brightbill, forcing her to rewrite her core programming and become something more than a mere thinking machine as she discovers what it really means to become a parent. Roz is a magnificent creation, endearingly fallible as she goes far beyond her initial capabilities without ever losing her core principles to help those around her by any means necessary, and in a way this is just what ultimately makes her such a great mother; Brightbill, on the other hand, is a wonderfully complex character in his own right, perfectly encapsulating the various evolutions a child goes through from sweet innocent to awkward, uncertain teen, with Kit Connor getting to build upon his similarly exceptional vocal work on His Dark Materials; Pedro Pascal, meanwhile, is very much the third part of the heart of the film as Fink, the wily fox almost universally hated by the island’s animal population, who goes from initially trying to take advantage of Roz for his own gain while helping her navigate the wild world she’s found herself thrust into to genuinely coming to love and depend on her while becoming just as much of a loving parent to Brightbill. The rest of the cast is pretty stacked too, rounded out with stellar turns from Catherine O’Hara, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All At Once), Mark Hammill and, best of all, a particular scene stealing performance from the ever reliable Matt Berry. Not only is this a really excellent example of how to do a perfect family film, it’s ultimately one of the most perfect FILMS I’ve seen this past year, PERIOD, incredibly well written and directed with particularly inspired flair, gob-smacking gorgeous compositions and complex but rewardingly clear thematic insight, Sanders and co delivering something which is so much more than the sum of its already quite superior parts. Perfectly pitched in its humour, wonder and pure, beautiful HEART, this is an undeniable MASTERPIECE of the animated art-form, and I really cannot possibly praise it ENOUGH. This is one of those films that deserves to be seen by EVERYONE ...

4. CIVIL WAR – Alex Garland is a filmmaker I’ve been a big fan of since before he even WAS a filmmaker, back when he was just writing screenplays for the likes of 28 Days Later and Sunshine. That being said, he’s consistently blown us away ever since he covertly took the reins for 2012’s criminally overlooked Dredd (I’m definitely inclined to believe the rumours that he actually helmed that one himself, since it’s SO MUCH an Alex Garland movie), rightly wowing audiences with both ex_machina and Annihilation (Men was, ultimately, TOO strong and visceral an experience for me to really LIKE, but I must admit I was definitely IMPRESSED by it), so I was already onboard for this one even before the genuinely exciting first trailer starting making the rounds. But even if I hadn’t already known his work, I definitely would’ve been up for this truly fascinating premise – set in an uncomfortably believable near future (especially given where the current US political system looks to be heading), it follows a quartet of journalists as they travel into the war-torn heart of an America ravaged by a potent clash between the loyal forces of an authoritarian President who’s refused to step down after the end of his official term (Nick Offerman) and a coalition of secessionist states determined to oust him and his administration. Kirsten Dunst leads the cast with what might be the best performance of her career as Lee Smith, a cynical photojournalist with a fearsome reputation, joining her longtime work-partner Joel (Narcos’ Wagner Moura, effortlessly charming and lovably cocky as an unapologetic adrenaline junkie) in his quest to interview the President before he’s forcibly removed from Office; tagging along, meanwhile, are Sammy (a typically charismatic and stately turn from the mighty Stephen McKinley Henderson), a world-weary veteran reporter who’s just hitching a ride to the front lines of the conflict, and Jessie Cullen (Priscilla’s Cailee Spaeny, sweet and naïve but with a deep reserve of feeling), a wannabe photojournalist who idolises Lee and is determined to prove herself to her hero, even if it ends up getting her killed. Through their experiences on the open road and the various events they witness, we watch this terrifying war unfold as it builds to its powerful endgame, moving from the wilds of Upstate New York to the streets of Washington itself, and it’s brought home in genuinely harrowing detail just what a nightmare this could well be if it really does happen. Garland’s certainly not pulling ANY punches here, clearly fundamentally aware of where America might end up if we don’t wise up REAL QUICK (although by this point I wonder if the warning came a bit TOO LATE), while also delivering an endlessly fascinating dystopian action thriller for good measure, packed with stunning explosive action sequences and at least one genuinely UNBEARABLE scene of proper pants-wetting pregnant implied threat (those who know will already know), all while making us really THINK thanks to a particularly shrewd and fiendishly subversive screenplay, and even offering up moments of incongruous aching beauty in the midst of all the chaos, much as he did on Annihilation. Ultimately this is a perfect demonstration of a master filmmaker reaching the very height of his powers, final confirmation, if it was even NEEDED any more, that Garland is one of the most original and challenging cinematic storytellers out there right now.

3. REBEL RIDGE – I’ve been a pretty massive fan of writer-director Jeremy Saulnier ever since I first stumbled across his very original indie thriller Blue Ruin, and that love grew consistently with his next two feature films (Green Room and Hold the Dark) and the first two episodes of True Detective season 3. So I was VERY EXCITED when I learned he was returning to the big screen (sort of) with his second collaboration with Netflix … but I really wasn’t prepared for what was to come, which is essentially HIS VERY BEST FILM YET!!! Seriously, this is a stone cold MASTERPIECE, not just the best screen thriller of 2024 but one of the VERY BEST for the decade so far, and to be honest one of my biggest takeaways from it wound up being what a criminal shame it was that this DIDN’T release in theatres! The Underground Railroad’s Aaron Pierre (soon to be seen as the new Green Lantern in the upcoming DCU TV series) stars as former US Marine Corps instructor Terry Richmond, who finds himself the victim of an unfair civil forfeiture of funds which he intended to use to bail out his little brother during a seemingly routine traffic stop in the small Louisiana town of Shelby Springs. Backed into a corner, he attempts to come to an arrangement to get the money back from local police chief Sandy Burne (Don Johnson), who instead gives him the runaround just because he can, which just makes things SO MUCH WORSE, because it turns out that Richmond really isn’t the kind of person you screw around with … starting subtly, this is a wonderful exercise in increasing stakes and cranking tension, Saulnier letting the story and characters breathe first while slowly revealing just what a serious BADASS the main protagonist actually is before FINALLY letting him off the chain in SPECTACULAR style, and the film is all the better for the time taken to establish just how badly these ignorant, self-entitles racist cops have fucked up before it finally all goes off BIG TIME. Of course it helps that Pierre is SO GOOD at being quiet, still and oh so patient, doing so much with a simple look or gesture to deliver a genuine MASTERCLASS in subtlety while letting his showier cast-mates let off some cracking performative fireworks around him. Johnson is, as always, AMAZING, portraying a pitch-perfect entitled douchebag villain that it’s so easy to love to hate, and David Denman (13 Hours, Brightburn, The Equalizer 3) and Emory Cohen (The Place Beyond the Pines, The OA) both shine bright as the two very different patrol cops who kick this whole mess off in the first place, while AnnaSophia Robb (yes, that IS the little girl from Bridge to Terabithia) is the film’s only real ray of light as local courthouse clerk Summer McBride, the one friend that Richmond has in this whole shitshow, often very much to her own detriment. This is essentially a PERFECT THRILLER, Saulnier having basically unlocked the ideal blueprint for how to wring tension and dread out of a seemingly everyday miscarriage of justice in America and showing how, when the wrong person’s pushed too far, it can go so terribly wrong for EVERYBODY. No surprise, then, that this film has been very favourably compared to First Blood, and indeed this does feel like a very natural successor to that action cinema classic, albeit one which is much better suited for today’s far more morally ambiguous cinematic landscape. Needless to say Saulnier really does deserve to become a proper MEGASTAR filmmaker because of this, and I’m just happy to have been proved right for all the faith I’ve had in him over the years ...

2. DUNE, PART TWO – As if there was ever any doubt, after the already amazing first part made its KILLER debut back in late 2021 … no, it was a foregone conclusion that the second half of writer-director Denis Villeneuve’s immensely ambitious adaptation of one of his very favourite books OF ALL TIME, Frank Herbert’s genuine game-changer space opera Dune, would be JUST as incredible as the first, and it thrills me to no end that that proved to be entirely the case. After all, this is also MY favourite book of all time, if they’d f£$%ed it up I would have been more heartbroken than I could possibly imagine, so Villeneuve and co have made me a VERY HAPPY BUNNY INDEED!!! Picking up RIGHT where the first film left off, we return to the desert world of Arrakis tens of centuries into the future, with young Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet), now the Duke of an all-but-eradicated Galactic noble House, and his mother, the Bene Gesserit holy woman Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), forced to hide among the desert tribes of the Fremen, hatching a desperate plan to take revenge on the monstrous Harkonnens and seize control of the planet, its massively lucrative trade in the obscenely valuable spice Melange, and through it the Galactic Empire in its entirety. To do so, Paul must use his growing prescient abilities to convince the Fremen that he is the Kwisatz Haderach, their prophesied messiah, but he’s keenly aware that this means walking a deadly knife’s edge in order to prevent triggering a bloody Holy War that will burn half the known Universe … once again, Chalamet and Ferguson are the beating heart of the story, both acquitting themselves admirably throughout as they perfectly encapsulate the myriad complexities of their characters, but this time round they’re finally joined by Zendaya, barely glimpsed in the first film but now brought front and centre as the emotional CRUX of the film in the role of Chani, the free-spirited and stubborn Fremen warrior Paul falls in love with as he learns to become a true denizen of Arrakis; other old faces return too, with Josh Brolin bringing a roguish twinkle and welcome sense of humour to proceedings as the exiled Atreides warmaster Gurney Halleck, and Stellan Skarsgård once again chills our blood as the repellent Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. More newcomers make their presence felt throughout, however, with Florence Pugh particularly standing out as Princess Irulan, the fiercely intelligent daughter of the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken, nowhere NEAR the bum note some have made him out to be), although the true shining star among the new cast (beside Zendaya, at least) is Austin Butler (Elvis), enthusiastically sinking his teeth deep into the meaty role of the Baron’s viciously sadistic sociopathic nephew Feyd Rautha. Once again Villeneuve has done his dream project justice in EVERY conceivable aspect, continuing to pay truly REVERENT respect to the source material as he makes Herbert’s incredibly rich universe live and breathe on the screen, the peerless production and costume design, visual effects and cinematography never hitting a single off-note in any scene, while the screenplay perfectly translates the weighty themes, compelling narrative and shocking twists into a deeply involving cinematic tour-de-force that keeps you invested throughout its seemingly brisk and pacy run-time (this may be close to THREE HOURS LONG but it sure doesn’t FEEL like it), enthusiastically propelled by another MASTERPIECE score from fellow Dune superfan Hans Zimmer. This was a truly MASSIVE cinematic event that left 2024 audiences awed by the experience while also drumming some EXTREMELY weighty ideas and themes into us, as well as perfectly setting up the continuation when Villeneuve gets his already in-development adaptation of the next book in the series, Dune Messiah, off the ground. I’m definitely looking forward to that, and I know I’m not alone …

1. ALIEN: ROMULUS – Ultimately landing JUST AHEAD a certain other major genre heavyweight entry on my list for the past year, my number ONE science-fiction film of 2024 was also easily the SCARIEST movie I saw in the entire year. It’s also a very interesting and IMPORTANT film in that it goes A LONG WAY to knocking yet another major cinematic franchise back on track after spending years spiralling further and further out of true alignment. Okay, I admit it, I LIKE Prometheus a whole lot as an actual FILM, but even I can admit that IN UNIVERSE its attempts to connect with Ridley Scott’s own original masterpiece and James Cameron’s (even better) follow-up were clunky at best and downright EMBARRASSING at worst (and in the end, the less said about Alien: Covenant the better, really). So I guess it’s actually A GOOD THING that Scott took a step back into more of a producing role to allow somebody else to take the reins for this sort-of soft reboot, and it turns out that Fede Alvarez, writer-director of the first Evil Dead remake and Don’t Breathe (as well as the CRIMINALLY underrated The Girl In the Spider’s Web), was the PERFECT CHOICE for this job. Fitting in somewhere between the events of Alien and Aliens, Romulus sees the dastardly Weyland Yutani Corporation find the blasted remains of the Nostromo floating in deep space, as well as traces of the original xenomorph itself, which they transport to the film’s eponymous space station, in the orbit of colony world Jackson’s Star, in the hopes of exploiting the organism’s unique properties for their own gains. Something clearly goes HORRIBLY WRONG in the interim, because when a gang of opportunistic young colonists, looking for a chance to jump ship to a freer life in another system outside of Corporate control, sneak onto the station in the hopes of scavenging some cryogenic resources for their journey, they find it derelict and ravaged by some kind of horrific disaster. Then their poking around lets loose some of the fruits of the scientists’ biological labours, and before they know it they’re neck-deep in facehuggers and more than a few of their bigger brethren too … Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla, Civil War, Bad Times At the El Royale) is a surprisingly robust action heroine in the classic Ripley mould as Rain, her diminutive size belying her character’s fierce determination and wily resourcefulness; Archie Renaux (Shadow & Bone) and Isabel Merced (Sicario: Day of the Soldado, Dora & the City of Gold, Turtles All the Way Down) are both extremely likeable as Tyler and Kay, a brother and sister who are, respectively Rain’s ex-boyfriend and best friend, while Spike Fearn (Tell Me Everything) is kind of a prick as their cocky cousin Bjorn, and newcomer Aileen Wu is standoffish but precocious as talented young pilot Navarro. The real breakout star of the piece, however, has to be Rye Lane’s David Jonsson, who delivers a complex, multifaceted turn as Rain’s adopted brother Andy, a former Weyland-Yutani android dug out of a scrapheap and reprogrammed to protect her by her late father.

They’re all put through hell by the events that unfold within the faltering station, Alvarez turning the screws and fraying our nerves with his characteristic masterful skill as their situations progressively go from bad to worse to truly fucked, paying loving homage to the first two movies while also creating something new and fresh for the series if they do decide to move forward from here. Best of all, though, as he’s always done in the past he largely eschews CGI, preferring to do as much as he possibly can with physical effects, which makes the impressively icky creature work and seriously NASTY gore all the more delightfully gnarly throughout, with the film’s ONLY bum note being a particularly problematic “resurrection” choice which has already had a great deal made of it in the press, but which I, ultimately, found was actually handled surprisingly well in the end, so that it didn’t really detract very much from my personal enjoyment of the film as a whole. Rounded off with an evocative and enjoyably old school score from Benjamin Wallfisch (who clearly had a great time channelling both Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner here), this is a rousing success, a phenomenal return to form for one of my very favourite sci-fi cinematic franchises and yet another standout offering from one of the very best young turk talents working in horror cinema today. If he does indeed choose to stick with the property, I think Alvarez could well keep this series fresh and exciting for a fair few years yet.

[chronicparagon]

📘

@electricea

📘 Newly Started Romance

[ I think their story is going in that direction. Really, it's a sweet story. Childhood friends who were estranged thanks to Kamoshida. Yet, they talked about it and rebuilt the bridge between them. I adore Ryuji and Harmony being friends and classmates, but there's some tension there.

Harmony has a crush on Ryuji but she's incredibly shy as a teen. At this time, she's more hesitant and scared of hurting her bond with Ryuji again. But yeah, I think it will come to a point when she admits her feelings for him, only to find out it's mutual. The thought of these two being high school sweethearts is adorable. I would love to give it a try if you are willing. ]

[iztea]

Ehehe, wise words dear Iztea. I shall remember to appoint you Grand Master Artist once the French conquer the world :)

I'll let your misplaced comment slide for now since it would be a waste to eliminate a talented artist like you so soon 👁👁

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(just kidding ily too omg I feel so honoured you made my day tysm ToTTTTT)

oh Your Highness I am but the court jester i may clap my feet in merry dance just as I may swing my brush and paint thee pretty pictures that I might keep my head upon my shoulders still

[purplepixel]

You've been so quiet lately! Everything alright?

Ya I'm good!

Buuuuut since you asked, minor silly thing I'm experiencing rn. I've been mega struggling with focus the past week and it's *flops on floor* very frustrating. Can't draw anything unless it's tmnp related. Then all the sudden three hours are gone and I have entire outlines of what I want to do with this au. Rn it's a constant fight with my brain trying to get myself to work on my other projects. Really want to finish a couple of things by next week before I'm back to being unemployed self employed. And it is a BATTLE

But yes, other than that, I'm doing alright :]