#revenge of the rotten tomatoes

[wordofthewolf]

Media Update 2/8/24

Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey Part of the parade of Public Domain horror movies, I have been wanting to check this out at some point. After being abandoned by Christopher Robin when he went off to college, Pooh and his friends became feral and dangerous as they remained in the 100-acre wood. This movie had some interesting potential but the movie could have been honed more. The movie had some…

[bestanimatedmovie]

Revenge of the Underrated

48. Pokemon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back vs Cool World

Vote in the other polls!

Propaganda:

Pokemon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back

I watched this movie religiously as a kid. It always made me cry. I love the scenes with the clones emerging from the machines, it was so visceral. And the fighting between the two pikachus is so emotional.

Cool World

Have you ever seen Holli Would? She’s like an activist for evil sluts. Her entire motivation for her unleashing the apocalypse is that she wants to get some good dick for once in her life. It’s a live-action/animation blend like Roger Rabbit. It was a box office bomb and has only 4% on Rotten Tomatoes, which makes it a perfect cult classic underrated film

[lazlolullaby]

The Secret Saturdays: Post Script Season AU

so this is set a little bit after the series ends, give the Saturdays a few months to rest and relax.

And then they get a call from Argost's lawyer.

Tldr: the Saturdays have to film a season of Weird World in order to get legal access to help the cryptids that are stuck there. (I mean they are absolutely breaking and entering to get to them fast, but. Legal is better.)

Below is an outline/not!fic

Argost's will was a mess to figure out. And he stipulated that the Saturday family get the mansion and legal access to the cryptids, on one condition:

The Saturdays have to Finish Weird World. 10 episode mini series 42 minutes an episode.

It's Argost's final revenge, making the family that was hurt in these walls stay there for an extended period of time. Expose them to all of the stresses and pitfalls of fame.

Just by nature of being a "wrap up season" with another cast (and presumably crew, it's unclear if Argost + Munya handled all of the filming and editing themselves.). The Weird World fanbase is not going to be happy.

There were press releases, opening interviews, etc confirming that the tone wasn't going to be the same. but the backlash was immediate. Full down voting on Rotten tomatoes. Calling "woke" and "forced diversity" because Zak is mixed race and Drew isn't "technically American".

The Saturdays know they're not in it for the fame, the show is an obligation, not a passion. But it still hurts a bit.

"what, do you think we can actually copy Argost? Live up to his level of theatrics? He's passionate about his things, we're passionate about ours."

The tone of the show is more pg-13 rather than nearly R. More edutainment than horror stories. "Things like what we want our son to actually watch."

The episodes follow a pattern: cold open with a single handheld camera a la Blair Witch Tapes. Then the opening credits.

then it's standard 2 camera sitcom. The overarching plot is the Saturday family study cryptids, and while Argost is "away", he needed someone to take care of the house. Things like tending to the garden, exercising the cryptids, returning cryptids once they've healed, returning illegal artifacts, etc.

The first episode is introducing the house, the set up, the Saturday humans. That they can't just get a tent and sleep outside; a fast moving Zon yanks it out of the ground.

At the end of episode one: "Zak, I know you think you're ready. But you are not immediately going to befriend a cryptid. They are literally traumatized animals and might be unpredictable. Do not think that you're special because you know what you're doing. You're still in as much danger as anyone else."

And at the end of the hallway: glowing red eyes. Zak: "please let me be special." And a huge gorilla cat walks up to him. Cut to credits.

Second episode introduces Fiskerton, Komodo, and Doyle. ("We have to be very clear that Drew and Doyle are siblings right up front." "Why?" "Luke and Leia." "Say no more.")

Episode topics: basic hiking safety, tick prevention and care, stretching before exercise, a trip out to the lagoon for scuba diving, (big shout out to this fic), basic first aid, basic american sign language, PTSD care with Fisk + Drew, lab safety, disability care with Doc's blind eye, even racial discrimation when Zak and Doc go into town for supplies. Because they're going to get cancelled anyway Zak found it funny to include LGBTQ+ rights and history, how many animals have homosexual tendencies, transgender clownfish, polygamous animal relationships and so on.

Cryptids are always seen in the background/being worked on. Drew focuses on historical research, Doc focuses on science research.

The running joke is every episode they keep mentioning Yetis or alluding to Yeti mythology but they never actually show one on screen.

Of course there's bonus features like a gag reel, Zak flubbing lines and Fisk standing in for him, Komodo tripping everyone and general hugs and head smooches.

There's a post show Q and A a year later going over some "odd choices" in production. And debunking the persistent fan theories like Argost is the Blackwell's long lost father, Fisk is Kur and just hiding it, things like that.

Zak sometimes uploads quick PSAs to the Weird World twitter equivalent. Either quick sentences or short videos. He keeps it as a side hobby, more interested in teaching people than any ratings or fame.

And to throw some Omniverse into the mix:

When aliens are revealed to the public, Zak puts out a short video about learning about different cultures and acceptance.

When public opinion of Ben 10 becomes sour, Zak reaches out to Plumber Public relations. He breaks down Will Harangue's most recent monologue and advises how to spot manipulative editing, logical fallacies, and propaganda.

Ben tries to get a spot in Zak's channel to boost his influence, but Zak steadfastly refuses unless Ben can come up with a PSA. "You made me write an essay. And you made it easy."

Zak invites aliens to talk on his channel, and it does a lot for public opinion of aliens.

[jechristine]

It’s less about Tom and like revenge noted, it’s a reflection on how these outlets are noticing that more baiting headlines = more money for them. The more clicks they get, the more money they make. I think that these headlines and how people circulate that and only that on twitter without reading the article itself reflects how people engage with criticism. Imo, it is not good. That’s why I really connected with Scorsese’s point about rotten tomatoes and other review aggregators. It essentially does what a clickbait headline does - boils the conversation down to numbers and surface level thoughts, distancing us from actually engaging with the arts and forming our own opinion, or reading a fully written article to engage with the critic’s thoughts.

I am bummed on how things like this (a relatively minor thing) and so many other incidents of legitimately dangerous clickbait (not so much in the entertainment industry, but politics especially) are changing the way that we as humans approach critical thought. And I’m not happy about it!

I’m with you, Anon, and I agree with so much of what Scorsese has said, too 💯

[world-cinema-research]

The 400 Blows/Les Cuatre Cents Coups (1959)

By Cris Nyne

The directorial debut of pioneering French filmmaker, François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows, left a lasting imprint on the timeline of international cinema. To know Truffaut’s history before becoming director makes the film even more of a remarkable achievement. His life began as a troubled youth, engaging in petty crimes and was well on his way to a path of self-destruction. It was in his late teenage years when recognized film critic André Bazin would take Truffaut under his wing and give him a job as critic for the film magazine Cahiers du cinéma. During this time, Truffaut would become recognized as a brutal critic of French films. His infamy stretched to Festival de Cannes, where he would be denied accreditation in 1958. The following year in 1959, Truffaut would get his revenge by being crowned Best Director for The 400 Blows at Cannes. This all by the age of 27. Truffaut would continue to turn the film industry on its head and help pave the way for what today is known as French New Wave.

“If the New Wave marks the dividing point between classic and modern cinema (and many think it does), then Truffaut is likely the most beloved of modern directors -- the one whose films resonated with the deepest, richest love of moviemaking.” -Roger Ebert August 8, 1999

The 400 Blows is a semi-autobiographical tale that follows the young star Jean-Pierre Léaud as the mischievous Antoine Doinel. Antoine is humiliated by his teacher, skips school, steals, and smokes cigarettes while contemplating a better life A life away from his father’s failures and his mother’s affairs. Both parents find themselves exhausted of all options for their son (or the lack of attention they care to provide) and send him off to a school for troubled children. From the beginning of the film, his parents seem to have other priorities in filling the hole in their marriage, and Antoine is essentially a victim of having too much unsupervised time on his hands. By the end of the film, Antoine is contemplating his life outside of the observation center for delinquent youth. He makes a dash for it.

Source: Blu-ray.com

“The movie is full of actual incidents from Truffaut’s childhood, including his fabricating his mother’s death as an excuse for truancy. Few movies have been so personal.” -J.Hoberman, The New York Times September 21, 2022

The movie was well received by audiences and critics alike. He won Best Director at Cannes in 1959, as well as a nominee for the Palme d’Or, the highest prize awarded at Cannes. The French regional newspaper Nice-Matin claimed The 400 Blows to be “A Masterpiece”. The chemistry between Léaud and Truffaut was strong. They would go on to make three more feature films with Léaud revising his role as Antoine Doinel, Stolen Kisses (1968), Bed and Board (1970), and Love on the Run (1979). Currently, Rotten Tomatoes lists The 400 Blows with a rating of 94%.

Original Movie Release Poster

The film is in black and white and is shot in a very personal manner. There are lots of close-space encounters that make you feel as if you are squeezing into the room with them. The house that Antoine lives with his mother and father is very small. During one scene as Antoine is sleeping, his mother, Gilberte Doinel (played by Claire Maurier), comes home after a long night and cannot open the door all the way as it is stopped by the mattress that Antoine sleeps on. There are many fun street scenes shot from different angles- subterranean, street-level, and roof tops, that portray Antoine and his friends plotting and scheming around the streets of Paris. There are a few scenes that follow the main character along a stretch of blocks, and I found myself thinking about how smooth the camerawork was.

During its filming and release date, The 400 Blows took the idea of conventional filmmaking and shredded the blueprint. The director was only known as a stubborn critic and the main star of the film was completely unknown. The script was a unique story, one that, for the most part, Truffaut had lived and had made it through to tell the tale of a rebellious and delinquent child on a bad path. A child that by today’s standards would probably be diagnosed with an attention deficit disorder and prescribed medication. What was once an extremely unconventional approach to filmmaking has now become a standard in delivering a storyline. Truffaut’s confidence in leaping from critic to auteur has left a rippling effect that you can still see over 7 decades later.   

[bigyikes97]

recommend me another depressing Korean gangster movie

>:D

Hmmm hmmm ok so if you say "another", that means you maybe already watched either "The Merciless" or "A Bittersweet Life" or perhaps both, which were the depressing Korean gangster movies I posted about most on here and both of which I very highly recommend...A Bittersweet Life is one of my favorite movies of all time, if not my top fave. In case you watched one but not the other:

A Bittersweet Life - a story about a man who catches one imperfect glimpse of beauty and throws away everything in a inevitable and helpless grasp at something he knows he can never have. I cried at the soundtrack for days after my first watch, haha.

The Merciless - a stylishly shot and perhaps more hardboiled noir about a chosen one who really meant it when he said he shouldn't be the chosen one, which falls apart in a spectacular and heartrending explosion of betrayal, confusion, and devastation. Like watching a trainwreck in slow motion.

These are most definitely my top 2 in the whole world so far, and honestly nothing else really plucks exactly those same chords with me in terms of overall excellence, but here's a few others nonetheless:

A Company Man - More of a straightforward shoot-em-up. Could be taken as either an action flick kinda sorta similar to Bittersweet Life (gangster wants out, gang won't let him go) or a harsh satire of South Korean work culture, which makes it (imho) slightly more interesting. Definitely depressing gangsters, for sure!

The Man from Nowhere - it's more of a vigilante justice/revenge thriller and a lot of people liked it, but unfortunately since it was one of the first in the genre (at least from South Korea), in my opinion it's since been done better. Or maybe I'm just chronically Kdrama-ing so I have more stringent standards, lol. The main lead's looks are to die for though if that's an aspect that appeals to you--and many folks loved it, 100% on Rotten Tomatoes!

The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil - On paper it looks amazing--a brash cop has to team up with a gangster to take down an even bigger criminal, exposing the corruption of the cops and the weird code of honor among the criminals. Usually that's my cup of tea and I came in SO ready to love this movie but...somehow didn't. I don't know why. It even had Ma Dong Seok, who's usually great! However, it got 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, so maybe you'll see something about it I missed if you watch it :)

Gangnam Blues - So, I didn't watch this one myself, but it's got Lee Min Ho and a historical-fiction take on the real-life corruption and money/power plays surrounding the creation of the glitzy Gangnam district from a marsh in the 70's, it looks interesting! I'll probably watch it in the future.

Speaking of, Ma Dong Seok is pretty much the go-to guy for Korean gangster movies. He's been in the genre since forever, if you search his name you'll likely find some good ones I haven't heard about.

I don't know if you're interested in extending your search to dramas, but in case you are:

Insider - one of THE best kdramas I've seen, hands down. The set-up is similar to The Merciless in that a guy goes undercover in prison to catch a gangster and ends up forming bonds with a high-ranking member while working on the inside. However, the similarities stop there. I think I binged it in like 3 days. It's gritty and doesn't let up, but the main guy is one of my favorite protagonists ever and the ending was fantastic

Big Mouth - it came out around the same time and also involves a wrongful imprisonment, but with a hilarious twist (along with some Very Not Hilarious ones) that make it a different flavor. I got busy and didn't finish (and also didn't have subtitles while it was airing)

Watcher - This one's more on the one-righteous-cop-vs-corrupt-conglomerate side of things, which will always and forever be my jam. The moody atmosphere and insanely tight writing make this one of my favorites. I've seen it like 4 or 5 times and seem to catch something new each time, the writing is extremely satisfying and there are great female characters too, which I'm all about.

Nobody Knows - I'm watching this one right now and it's also more on righteous detective vs killer side of things, but it's got a fascinating female lead, great characters, consistent plot and great storytelling so far.

Triangle - this one is about gangsters and casinos and is unique because it's one of the WORST kdramas I've EVER seen, but it's so bad it crosses the line right back into good again because it's so freaking funny how everyone manages to act the worst plot and the worst characters with the deepest sincerity. Everyone's gorgeous, which helps. It's funnier if you're a chronic Kdrama enjoyer to see all the worst tropes played out in the funniest ways with dead straight faces. They actually wrote it episode by episode based on viewer feedback and ran out of time at the end because the feedback was conflicting--and BOY does it show in unintentionally hilarious ways.

Bad and Crazy - I LOVE this drama, especially the first act. It's violent and dark, with comedy thrown in, and one of the most interesting and sensitive portrayals of a mental illness on screen that I've ever seen in both American and Korean TV. Yet another righteous-cop-vs-conglomerate plot, my beloved. I'll eat that storyline up each time though.

So that's movies and dramas off the top of my head--if I think of any other good ones, I'll let you know! Happy watching and omg, if any of those tickle your fancy I'd love to hear your thoughts! :D

*Ok, one runner up: From the director of "A Bittersweet Life", "A Tale of Two Sisters" is a psychological horror that is just. so. good. I'm not usually a horror person and I was hooked and think about it all the time, very excellent!

[muffinmonstah-art]

Tell me why and how SasoSaku. Sell me the ship.

Oh, that’s an interesting challenge. I’ve made a post a few days ago about how freaking weird it is for me that there’s a new audience following me mainly for my western comics’ fanart, but those of them who are also familiar with Naruto and it’s characters, don’t know my SasoSaku headcanons, or don’t care about the ship in general. I have had an established fanbase for so long that followed me for this ship that I guess no one ever asked me “why and how” about the ship. But I think this is the perfect time to introduce new audiences to my vast, long SasoSaku lore. They are the core ship of this account. They are the main topic of the only longfic I own. They have their own month dedicated to them. I’ve made a vow to myself that no matter how tempting it is for me to write my first fanfic in English for other fandoms, I wouldn’t do that until I can translate Definiciones Torcidas to English.

So, welcome to my first essay attempt. Why do I ship SasoSaku, and why it’s so important to me. -Feel free to throw rotten tomatoes at me if I fail at explaining myself-

I think I should split this explanation into two main points:

The canon material that every SasoSaku fan quotes to showcase the ship’s potential. And in second place, my personal story/headcanon/established universe for the ship that exists separately from other people’s headcanons.

The canon material

To be honest, this part is kinda boring to me after so many years. The base it’s always the same since these two characters only interacted on one arc of the story. Quick summary for everyone reading this introduction and it’s not familiar with the source material: There’s a two-year timeskip. The main characters got split during said time skip and they have a rescue mission right after they get back together (Three of them get back together, Sakura, Naruto and Kakashi. Sasuke has left their village before the time skip on bad terms. He follows his own path of revenge, and when Gaara’s rescue arc happens, his location is still unknown).

Side Note # 1: I’m very much a Naruto hater. I think after this first arc, the quality of the story does nothing more than go down and down to the very bottom. I’ll try not to fulfill this essay with my complaints and rants about Kishimoto as a writer and his creation, and will try to focus on the task at hand, which is Sasori and Sakura and their canon interactions. But I think my overall critical perspective adds some context to my analysis.

 Back to the story, we are introduced to Sasori as a genius puppet master, the greatest one the Sand Village have ever given to the world. But he is a member of Akatsuki, the terrorist organization that kidnapped Gaara (The Sand Village’s leader - Kazekage - ). In fact, it’s both Sasori and Deidara who are given that kidnap mission. Deidara fights against Gaara and wins. Sasori does nothing during these first events. In fact, Sasori is presented as a mysterious, monster figure that just lies in the background while Deidara kidnaps Gaara. Basic trait of them both: they are artists. Sasori believes art is eternal, that’s why he created tons of puppets that can endure through time. Deidara believes art is ephemeral, that’s why his techniques are based on explosive clay figures of all sizes and forms. He blows things up, he can even blow himself up if the situation requires it. We see them fight a lot about their visions of art. Sasori threatens to kill Deidara a few times.

By the time Sakura, Naruto and Kakashi arrive at the Sand Village to help, they team up with Chiyo, a wise elder who is also Sasori’s grandmother. She has some other background story involving Kakashi’s father, who killed Sasori’s parents in the past but that is never explored. It doesn’t matter. She learns her grandson is a criminal that is behind this terrorist act so she goes with the group to help. 

This is the important part. By the time they track Gaara, they find him already dead. Akatsuki wanted the Racoon beast that was sealed inside Gaara’s body. These things are called bijuus. There’s nine of them. Naruto has the Kyuubi, aka the Nine tails fox beast sealed inside him. Once they extract the bijuu from Gaara, he dies. The encounter happens, the heroes learn they were too late, Naruto is furious. Deidara decides he’s going to take down Naruto so he leaves the scene flying above one of his giant clay birds with Gaara’s body. Naruto follows him, Kakashi goes too. 

So… Chiyo stays with Sakura and they are going to team up and fight against Sasori.

I forgot, Might Guy’s team is also present on this arc. They go as reinforcements to help against the Akatsuki. But they don’t matter. You could cut them and little to zero would change. I don’t think they are well integrated into this arc.

I think the fight is pretty good. 

See, Sakura suffers from being a main female character in a story written by a male writer who has NO CLUE how to write female characters. For that, she’s very unlikable during part one. Superficial, selfish, and with little to no focus on her. Besides of that, much of what she does is related to one of the most nasty romantic subplots I’ve ever read in fiction. Her rivalry with Ino (her ex-best friend) which should serve to create some empathy with the reader and make her a deeper character, achieves the opposite result when we learn early in the series that Ino was her role model, the one that saved her from bullying, and Sakura chose to cut ties with her after she discovered they both had a crush on Sasuke. None of them have had an actual conversation with him, they just think he’s hot. 

But hey, much of this can still be forgiven when we consider Sakura is 12-13 years old in part one, and she is one of the few characters living in the ninja world that has living parents. We are shown through many characters on this series that being a ninja = dying on a mission and that results in many traumatized orphan children left behind. And the last time we saw Sakura before the time skip, she promised to Naruto she was gonna get stronger. I think this arc FINALLY delivers on that regard. Chiyo and Sakura make a fantastic team against Puppet Boy.

She has super-strength now and has medical abilities like her teacher, Tsunade. (Another thing that annoys the shit out of me is… Why does Kakashi ignoring Sakura in favor of Naruto and Sasuke, to the point that she had to learn from another teacher is never brought up in the story? Anyway, moving on.)

Chiyo explains the Sasori we see is not the real one. That’s Hiruko, one of his many puppets. The real one is hidden inside Hiruko. So, they make a plan to take him out of Hiruko:

He’s all cute and young, hasn’t aged a day since he left the Sand Village 20 years ago. (Meaning, Sasori is 35 years old by the time this fight is happening. Sakura is 15).

How can it be? No time for answers. Sasori summons his most lethal weapon: The Third Kazekage.

We are told the Third Kazekage disappeared a long time ago, no one has any idea what happened to him. It’s implied Sasori may have kidnapped him and killed him, turning him into his human puppet. The thing is, Sasori’s real technique and the reason why he is considered an ultimate genius is that he created this grotesque, unique process to turn humans into puppets, preserving the bloodline special powers they had in life. In this case, the Third Kazekage had the natural ability of Iron Sand. Meaning he could create metallic sand and form metallic giant geometrical things to use as weapons. Badass, am I right?

This is when the fight really happens. Sasori mentioned he was Orochimaru’s companion in Akatsuki before Orochi left the organization. Sakura associates Orochimaru with Sasuke, because the latter left the village to gain power and knowledge from Orochi himself.

This little interaction right here picked many people’s interest back in the day. Including me. Sakura’s goal is not just to defeat him. She wants him to tell her what he knows about Orochimaru. Yeah, she’s thinking about Sasuke but finally having her interacting with other characters beside the nasty crush is fresh for her. Finally we got her on a serious and committed mode, and the Sasuke thing is not even romantic here, because the main theme of the arc is her promise to Naruto about being stronger and useful. It’s to give closure to her little arc.

The fierceness in the way she talks here is just something we didn’t get to see to this point. Kishimoto just did not use her for anything else than a pairing fodder and crybaby for so long that it’s gratifying to see this warrior face of her without the other two annoying boys around. It’s great that a character like Sasori makes her be the best version of herself she has been so far, and without even trying. It’s also hilarious how he ignores her in a bored way and throws kunais at her.

Chiyo stops his attack by summoning Sasori’s parents puppets. They’re not human puppets. Sasori created these puppets back when he was a child to not feel lonely.

Side Note # 2: We’re not shown anything more than this about Sasori’s background. Everything else is speculation, including if he was a baby when his parents died, or if he was already old enough to understand what happened. 

Moving on.

Side Note #3: The way he grabs Sakura with robes to keep her trapped on a poisonous cloud while Chiyo tries to pull her back with her chakra threads looks hot to me, lmao.

“Oh, how can you say that when he’s trying to kill her?”

Number one, he does not care about her. He doesn’t know her. He just fights her because of circumstances. He’s just being practical. Number two, it’s only used to make her look badass one second later:

She makes an explosion of her own to dissipate the poisonous cloud and free herself.

Look at his face though. He is impressed. They’re enemies, he is 20 years older than her. He has tons of experience in combat. And him complimenting her skills continues to happen during this fight.

Side Note # 4: Even if I like this fight and personally consider this arc to be the end of the series, lmao, I have a problem with THIS

He makes iron spikes to crush them both separately, TWICE. Until they cannot use the chakra shields from the puppets to protect themselves. The shields get useless after one use because the iron sand invades them from the inside by contact. So… why doesn’t he use the same technique a third time? Just throw spikes at them again. 

But he can’t do that because he would have won. The end.

So what does Kishimoto do instead?

He makes Sasori create geometrical giant things for Sakura to crash with no problem. For no reason. Why? Why does he change his strategy so suddenly? Because is plot convenient.

Dumb. Makes me angry. Moving on.

The cave crashes because of the constant hitting, so they are now fighting in the daylight. Sasori creates a giant web of iron sand, that covers everything so they cannot escape. Sakura gets hit, Chiyo ends up trapped under a rock and it turns out, the iron sand was poisoned too this whole time. Sakura falls on the ground, Sasori laughs, feeling like he already won. He commands the Third Kazekage to give her the killing blow and…

She used an antidote she crafted during her time on the Sand Village, while she was curing useless Kankuro from Sasori’s poison, and faked being about to die so she could be close to the puppet to crash it.

I didn’t mention it, but this doesn’t come out of nowhere. Kankuro, Gaara’s older brother, tries to fight Sasori first to rescue his baby brother. Sasori kicks his ass and leaves him to die from his poison. Sakura cures him when she arrives to the village and keeps some antidote with her the whole time.

SHE DESTROYED HIS MAGNUM OPUS AND LOOK AT HIM. HE IS JUST IMPRESSED LMAO.

This is the moment we learn why he looks so young. He has turned himself into a human puppet, with the exception of one compact living tissue he keeps on his chest.

I’m gonna speed up from now on. The fight is still good. He uses 100 more puppets he controls with chakra threads from his chest. Chiyo uses 10 puppets, one with each finger of her hands. Sakura uses her punches. In the end it seems they could trap Sasori inside one of Chiyo’s chakra special tools but it was just his body. The living tissue escaped and migrated to another body at the last moment. He uses the confusion to try and stab his grandma from the back, but Sakura saves her by putting herself on the line of the blow.

I think it is hot how he is just that careless and continues to mess with her, like he isn’t almost out of resources at this point. Again, they’re fighting a fair duel. Everyone is giving their best and this whole scene is just to portray Sakura in a heroic way.

He continues to be impressed with her skills. Nothing to add, it’s just great.

Speeding up to the resolution of the encounter.

Chiyo and Sakura are both fighting against Sasori’s poison by this point. There’s just one antidote. Chiyo gives it to Sakura and Sasori laughs at his grandma for this.

Look, if there’s one spiteful, resentful reaction from Sasori during this fight it’s not against Sakura, but against Chiyo. We’re not shown their history together. We just know Chiyo raised him after his parents’ death and taught him to be a puppet master just like her. He created a lot of puppets while he lived in the Sand Village and, at 15 years old, he left. We know his mind became twisted enough that he started turning humans into puppets so I think it’s easy to assume Chiyo was a terrible parental figure and failed to keep him from following a dark path. And I like Chiyo, she’s easily the best female character Kishimoto ever created.

When Sasori tries to make the killing blow against Sakura, Chiyo uses Mom and Dad to stab him on his living tissue. 

Sasori now is about to die. Chiyo does not have an antidote, so she’s also agonizing. This is when a bullshit plot convenient moment happens. Despite having an antidote for Sasori’s poison, Sakura is about to die from the blood loss. She falls to the ground and Chiyo cures her with a forbidden technique she has been developing over the last years to turn inanimate puppets into living beings. She tells Sasori she planned to use it to give life to Mom and Dad as a gift for him. You’re still a terrible caretaker, but this is cute. 

Chiyo explains the price for reviving someone with that technique is to lose her life, but since Sakura is just unconscious, this is not enough to kill her. The reason for this technique to exist is to revive Gaara at the end of the arc, a happy ending for everyone except grandma Chiyo. It 's not subtle.

His indifference towards life moves her, makes her angry. Makes her care. He’s about to die, she knows that. But she still cares enough to have an emotional reaction to his words. To question his views in life. This makes me frustrated to no end. Why put an effort on making these characters have some type of exchange about their views on life if this is not going to matter? This had potential.

I must repeat myself. This is personal to Sakura, she is angry but she is almost trying to understand why he thinks that way. It’s alien to her but she has empathy. Sasori just answers honestly, like he doesn’t understand the human aspect of the question. It’s one of the last times the dilemma between Ninjas are tools vs Ninjas are more than tools makes itself present in this story. Like many other themes, it gets abandoned eventually because the writing of this series is dumb, and this interaction, while interesting, does not mean anything in the long run… 

BUT SO MUCH POTENTIAL. To me it looks like Sakura would have tried to make him change his mind or show him what she learned back in the Land of Waves on the Zabuza arc, that ninjas are more than tools. 

Chiyo stops the yelling by telling her Sasori is this way because of the traditions and culture of the Sand Village. So, these ninja villages are fascist places that brainwash their citizens to make them heartless tools that serve the interest of feudal lords and rich warlords. Sasori is not a deviant, it’s a product of the system… Another topic that will never be addressed again. Pathetic.

This is the last thing we see that can make us see the potential on the ship. Sasori is the one to bring up the information about Orochimaru to Sakura. He says “I'll do something pointless for you” just as earlier he was mocking the emotional impulse of Sakura as “Women like to do useless things.” The phrasing is curious.

And like that, he gives her information as a gift. Just because he felt like it. He had to be moved by what she did or said in any way to make this decision. Even if he only respected her as a worthy rival. It 's great.

As a last information before we jump to Deidara, Kakashi and Naruto, Chiyo says this: "Sasori saw my last attack... but... Somehow, he couldn't avoid it. It gave him a small opening..."

Sasori chose to die. I don’t know why Kishimoto did this other than to show Sasori as hyper-competent until the end. Even after all these years I’m still not sure if I like this or not. I guess this proves he really wasn’t that interested in remaining on Akatsuki and finishing his task. 

So this is the canon material. I think I covered most of it. But as I said before, this is just the base of everything. With the years, I have built my own thing from this. So I’m not your devoted fan that continues to revisit this fight over and over again. Far from it. For me it’s just the starting point.

Side Note #5: I stopped caring about this series from this point on. Starting with the next arc, I consider Sakura to be nothing more than a disappointing piece of filler, and sometimes just a plot device to showcase her male comrades as more competent or more virtuous/evil when Kishimoto needs it. She has very underwhelming “shining” moments from here and there, but she is not a main character anymore. She doesn’t have another arc or motivation after this either. What a perfect point to deviate from canon and build my own thing, right?

My personal story/headcanon/established universe for the ship

Now I can dive into the juicy part.

Back in the 2012’s, my boyfriend and I were going through a tough time in our relationship. He moved to the capital city, in another province to start university. I started university too. We were so young, so full of doubts and fear.  It’s natural to feel intimidated and anxious when you move apart from your loved ones for your studies. Being together long distance was the only option for us, really. We had been together since we were in school, in the same class and we were very close. Still the fear of a break up was latent because long distance relationships are hard as hell. Statistics say the majority of long distance affairs do not last.

I came up with the idea of writing a story together when we had our Skype weekly reunions. To pass the time, to have something to entertain ourselves and not miss each other even more than we already did. I already was a SasoSaku shipper so I said “let’s write a SasoSaku fic together, you write Sasori, I write Sakura and we take turns to write the rest of the characters according to what the story needs”. He accepted and like that, Definiciones Torcidas was born.

The fic is in Spanish, our mother language, but back in 2017’s SasoSaku month, I made a short fan-comic in English that serves as the prologue for our fic. You can check it out here.

The premise of the fic was basically this: “What happens if Sakura, following an irrational impulse, does not let Sasori die at the end of the fight?” and more important than that, “What if we try to exploit the age difference between them to develop every single one of their dynamics and interactions?” 

That was the start, and we took the project very seriously. We wrote Sakura as an inexperienced girl who had little to no experience on making difficult decisions and seeing the complexity of the world. There’s little to nothing explored about her in canon to know her views on anything, but we worked with the pro Konoha propaganda the author seems to spoon feed us constantly as a start. Konoha does terrible fucked up shit like murdering children from a clan to avoid a coup and using other villages with little to no military force as war zones for money and power. But still they’re depicted as the good guys. Sakura starts the story by being a Konoha brainwashed tool on her speech and actions.

Sasori and Sakura have a second encounter in the wilderness around Konoha’s territory after she saved his life, and canonically after she and her team came back from Orochimaru’s hideout and Sasuke walked off again. During that brief encounter, Sasori just asks what she wanted from him and she cannot answer. She gets nervous and defensive pretty fast. Sasori demands to know if someone else gave her the order of sparing his life but does not believe her words when she tells him that’s not true. It’s a tense start. Sakura leaves telling him to piss off and use his second chance in life to not start trouble, knowing he is not part of Akatsuki anymore. Sasori is very frustrated by his new status as a fugitive from the nations and Akatsuki, he even threatens to make some public terrorist attempt to make the public know he is alive, out of desperation because the irrationality of Sakura’s actions do not make sense in his mind. 

Sakura does not believe him, because that would alert Akatsuki that he is alive. But still, she leaves feeling terrible because she believes Sasori is mentally unstable.

She keeps what she did a secret, and cannot stop thinking about how her actions may put Konoha in danger. She ends up making up her mind that she needs to find him before he leaves the territory, and finish him for good.

My boyfriend put a lot of effort by crafting Sasori’s mind and views as pragmatic and not resistant to changes. He decided Akatsuki was not a safe option for him anymore, so he left. He has no weaponry, no way to contact his spies, no purpose in life, but he can recover. Start again. Evolve as an artist. He just sees Sakura’s resistance to listen to him as stupid and a waste of potential. He also leaves feeling frustrated. A few days later, when Sakura finds him again, by following the clues he left behind while trying to create a poison arsenal again (cut herbs, a dead opened snake, etc), he is not that surprised about hearing she comes to finish him again.

It was a fun combat to write. Sakura is out of focus, she tries to hit but she really does not show the templance and cold mind she demonstrated in their first fight. Sasori messes with her constantly. He says she is a stupid brat, she could accept his offer of an alliance or working together at Konoha’s back. But Sakura is fully committed to prove herself she’s loyal to Konoha. Nothing else matters. His mind games are starting to affect her, though. She becomes more aimless, more distracted, more confused. Sasori does not waste the chance he had created and uses his poison and the cutting blades on his disposal to make her lose the fight. The intention is very clear, he wants to see the broken will in her eyes. Something that reads as “I should have accepted his offer”. In the deep of his mind, he is resentful because he couldn't have an eternal, unbreakable will. In their first fight, he could have won but he had a weak mind and instead chose to die in the last second. He wants to prove she is not different from him. That people are all the same, they all show their will is not unbreakable at the doors of death. Only eternity matters.

But that doesn't happen. Sakura spits on his face and tells him to go to hell. She tries to hit him one last time but she’s really hard on drugs by that point, so she fails. Sasori is really, really impressed by the end. He won, but still it doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t feel right because he just saw an eternal will being showcased in front of his eyes. And according to his definitions… that’s art… that’s beautiful.

Sakura opens her eyes, hours later. She finds out she is bandaged and there’s no more poison nor drugs on her body. She was treated, by who? She sits on the ground and she sees Sasori watching her. He answers coldly that indeed, he saved her.

It’s pure irony that now, Sakura is the one that demands answers and Sasori is cold honesty by saying he couldn’t let her die because she carries beauty with her. He does not give it more importance than that. “I allowed beauty to exist. The end.”

Sakura feels disgusted, she cannot understand those motives. She tells him he should have let her die, so she shouldn’t have to face her defeat with her village. Sasori just laughs and says if she wants to die, she can try by herself, he’s just not going to help with that. He considers himself to be an outsider of the system by this point, a player that uses the system in his favor. So he cannot stop mocking her for her nationalism.

Sakura starts crying and tries to step up to hit him but she falls against his chest. She cannot make herself look him into the eye. She 's furious, humiliated. Sasori does not do anything other than lean to her ear and say “This is why I let you live”. 

So he leaves her to cry and defeat. He believes he did the right thing. He’s at peace with his personal values… for the most part. From this moment there’s gonna be what he describes to be a “losing piece” inside his mind, that he cannot name nor accommodate. He’s going to meditate a lot, and try to find himself again on his artistic path.

During her loneliness in that remote forest, Sakura realizes she woke up in a smoother place than the dirty ground. She goes back to her waking point and discovers Sasori’s black travel tunic. He just left her another clue to find him with one of Kakashi’s ninja hounds. They’re gonna meet again. And the chaos of their interactions and getting to change each other’s perspective on things has just begun. The story is +60 chapters so it’s a slowburn construction of their relationship.

We started publishing it in 2013 on ff.net and not only we put a lot of effort and hours of our lives into crafting that story. But the publication process also coincided with a turbulent time in our relationship. We had to adapt to being apart for most part of the year. Seeing each other on vacations, dealing with communication issues while we were apart from each other, emotional problems and tough shit. We were still growing into mature adults. We had many childish behaviors that were hurting ourselves and each other. So, while Sasori and Sakura’s relationship progressed on paper, our relationship grew and matured in real life. We ended up putting so much of our experiences, thoughts, fears, learnings on these two characters, that, even if they are fictional creations separated from us and that have their own arcs on their own fictional universe, have become like a reflection of our relationship. 

Sasori ends up calling Sakura by her first name in chapter 17 for the first time. They are having a heated argument for the 10th time about how Sakura does not trust him to not go into a murderous rampage while trying to understand what’s different about himself, when she suddenly says “How can I believe you see me as a person, when you have never called me by my name? I have a name, you know?”

He shuts up, tries to cool down a second, and says “Sakura Haruno… that’s your name.”

She starts trusting him a little more after that.

My partner also wanted to add his piece to this essay. Quoting his message from last night:

“If I were to explain it in a short version.

We wrote a fic in which we contrasted a young Sakura with little experience in the real world, who lived her entire life being fed only by pro-konoha propaganda and we made her share time with a supposedly dead Sasori, who is without any ally but who has a lot of experience about the world. There’s not a romantic context between them initially.

We made Sakura learn from the grays of morality and reality, and from there we progressed the characters over a long time in-universe to the point where Sasori is giving space in his existence to things other than his art (because he can't practice it anymore) and Sakura is becoming a Root spy (because the Konoha tale is no longer bought by her).

And from there, the ship happens.”

Side Note #6: My boyfriend and I are working together on a BruDick fan-comic. So the BruDick fans, and DC fandom are going to have a first hand grasp of our cooperative work in English!

[jamiebamberdaily]

Strangers - What We Know So Far

The film that Jamie was filming, and then announce for last year, Strangers finally has more information so we are now able to put it all in one post!

The Cast

Jamie will be playing hitman Sky. With Sienna Guillory as Laura. Emmett J. Scanlan is her husband, Tony. Jon Voight is Richard. IMDb also has Nico Seedsman as Mike and Ana March as Sofia, whereas Rotten Tomatoes states that Alex Blake plays Kirk.

The Plot

A synopsis of the film on released by Rotten Tomatoes reads:

Laura (Sienna Guillory) is seeking revenge on her abusive husband, when her life takes a dark turn when she meets a mysterious hitman. Drawn into a whirlwind romance, she spirals into a dangerous vigilante spree. As the body count rises, she begins to unravel the true nature of her partner and the secrets they both conceal.

The film is directed by Tony Dean Smith and written by Steven Paul. It is produced by SP Media Group. Scott Karol serves as executive producer with Kyle Otto as consulting producer.

Trailer

The trailer was released in August and you can view it below.

Strangers | Official Trailer | Paramount Movies - YouTube

Release

Filming took place in Bulgaria last year, largely at the Nu Boyana Film Studios. It will be released on Paramount + on 17th September 2024.

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | Pray for Death (Hessler, 1985)

The ‘Scope cinematography makes this look slicker than the Cannon Ninja trilogy, but this lacks their gonzo energy. Compared to the lightning fast ninja action of Revenge of the Ninja, which I watched recently, the ninja action here feels like it plays at half speed, consisting mostly of the hero handily taking out scores mob goons, none of whom pose much of a challenge. So it isn’t nonstop thrills, but as a result it plays as a purer exercise in ninja fetishism, the action slowed down enough for you to savour the lovingly captured ninja weaponry and techniques. If you look at the poster and think the ninja helmet looks really fucking sick, you’ll have a good time with this.

The movie does try to solution for the lack of threat to the hero by having James Booth play a pretty sleazy villain, who layers a v-neck sweater over a v-neck t-shirt at one point, and does something pretty reprehensible that I’ll refrain from spoiling at another point. That plot development does leave a bad taste in the mouth, but the movie compensates for it with a scrappy, violent finale where Booth pulls out a chainsaw at one point.

Other than that, while Sho Kosugi is playing to certain stereotypes, he does make a pretty likeable lead as a family man who moves with his wife and kids to America. His son Kane Kosugi gets his share of stunts, which reminded me that I was recommended this years ago on the Rotten Tomatoes forums by someone who emphasized all the child endangerment. I don’t remember if he brought it up as a warning or a selling point. I do like that the movie has a pro-immigrant message. So that’s nice. And of course I cheered when Kosugi told Booth to “pray for death.”

[captain-grammar]

Netflix cancelling a BUNCH of their shows featuring diverse casts and WLW characters reminded me of a rant I had earlier in the year on Twitter with regards to The Old Guard but didn't share here. So, here it is.

I've seen tweet after tweet on yonder Twitter from people who were unaware that there's going to be a sequel to The Old Guard so if you'll indulge me, I'm about to don a tin-foil hat and speculate wildly as to why it's slipping in under the radar and what might be the reasons for that.

Within the first week if The Old Guard being released in July 2020, it was already in the top 10 most streamed movies on the platform at reached around 72 million households in a month. Incredible viewing figures. It was well-reviewed by critics and a runaway smash hit with viewers - "certified fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes - and gained an active, passionate fanbase online the instant it was released (hello, welcome to Tumblr) due in part to the fresh take the movie had on the dull, formulaic action-movie genre.

Netflix had momentum. They had the stats to work with and a fanbase to back them up. They could have announced their intention to make a sequel back when interest was fresh (as they did with the likes of The Gray Man) and gotten everyone excited while it was being talked about. Because it was being talked about. A sequel was in the works fairly early on with the cast and crew pretty much confirming as much on social media. But in this fast-paced, binge-consume world, Netflix seemed to wait until all the hype had died down before making it official.

WHY? Why take a big-hitting, genre-bending, record-smashing movie that you KNEW had proven to be a success and KNEW had a follow-up in the pipeline and let it die? A hugely sceptical part of me has a theory that it was down to just how genre-bending it was.

From my experience online, the vast majority of those who enjoyed it reflect the characters of the movie and the team behind it - diverse, LGBTQ+ individuals who rarely see themselves on screen without it feeling like a kind of tokenism. The movie was directed by the amazing Gina Prince-Bythewood - a black woman. The cast was lead by two strong females who were neither sexualised or portrayed as damsels in distress. Two of the men were unashamedly in love with each other. All of the main male cast were allowed to be emotional and even cry. In the action genre, these things are all but unheard of. Male characters are rarely given emotional complexity beyond revenge and women are usually relegated to the role of side-kick, love interest or doe-eyed ingenue learning from the "best".

Because the genre tends to lean towards a stereotypical male audience.

A part of me wonders whether that's why Netflix didn't give it much promo and kudos and have let the pot come off the boil in terms of hyping The Old Guard's return. The service has a history of platforming voices that are anti-LGBTQ and cutting diversity within its ranks. And now they're at it again, axing a slew of shows after only one or two seasons that all seem to feature wlw relationships fairly prominently.

If you're not a straight, cis, white male then they're not interested in catering for you. If you're a minority, too bad. The fact that The Old Guard was a hit with the very communities they seem to be actively oppressing is a hurt that Netflix seemingly refuses to live with.

I'm just sick of "was the movie/show popular among straight white men?" being the metric against which a piece of media's success is measured. As if that demographic is the Holy Grail and if your fans aren't 28 year-old cis dudes, you've somehow failed.

I thank Netflix for bringing some truly great stories to life but at this point, I cannot trust them to keep them safe any more.

[fuckyeahfightlock]

My first scary movie for Horrorflictober '24 was objectively pretty damn good, but ultimately not for me.

Oddity is a taut, truly scary haunted house story from Irish writer/director Damian McCarthy. A doctor (the guy who plays Gregor, the cuckolded best friend of Emperor Peter, in The Great) and his girlfriend are staying in the country house in which his wife was murdered the previous year. The wife's sister (the fantastic Carolyn Bracken plays both sisters), a psychic/medium who owns an oddity shop full of cursed objects, suspects justice was not done. Did we mention the doctor is chief muckty muck at the local insane asylum? Of course he is.

Tension builds steadily and is broken with explosive scares that really pay off; this movie has perfected the rhythm of a traditional haunting film. The characters are compelling from the beginning and become moreso as revelations come to light about each of them. There is vulnerability and secrecy and perversion and revenge. Oddity has the highest scores on Rotten Tomatoes I've ever seen for any horror movie, and the accolades are justified. It's compelling, scary, fun, and satisfying.

All that said, for me, this movie suffers a little from some clunky structure (one character accuses another of bad deeds, immediately followed by a flashback confirming she's right; at another point a line of dialogue is repeated in a flashback within 20 seconds of it being delivered; both of these moments imply the director does not trust the viewer to pay attention, and both went *thud* when they landed), and at times the auteur really puts a hat on a hat. The murdered woman's surviving sister, for instance, is not just a psychic/medium, she is a twin, she is blind, and her hair turned prematurely white from trauma. She also gives haunted items as gifts, and builds a golem.

The house is not just isolated, it's got stone walls and floors indoors, a weird disorienting floorplan, and it's near an asylum.

The asylum is not just an asylum, it's an asylum for criminals.

I mean, we love a horror trope, but tropes on tropes on tropes. Now and then I was just saying to myself, Well this is a lot.

I would absolutely recommend this to folks who like a haunting/haunted house story, or who like paranormal horror. I did not see the twists coming, which was nice. The acting is stellar. It's just not one I'll personally rush to watch again.

[warningsine]

The fourth chapter in the True Detective saga, subtitled Night Country, is good. Really good, in fact. As Navarro, Reis brings a bristling intensity, whether she’s pinning down a bad guy or reluctantly opening up about her mother’s unsolved murder. The 37-year-old more than holds her own among a heavyweight cast, led by Oscar winner Jodie Foster, after two forgettable seasons fronted by Colin Farrell and Mahershala Ali, respectively.

With Night Country, Reis and Foster have guided the show back to the brilliance of Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson’s searing first series, but in a very different way. Foster plays Liz Danvers, the cantankerous police chief of a small town on the fringes of the Alaskan wilderness. She and Navarro must work out how and why a group of polar scientists left their station and ended up naked and frozen to death in a jumble of bodies out on the ice. In McConaughey and Harrelson’s Louisiana-set series, women fell into three categories: sex workers, “nagging wives” or dead. Night Country flips these tropes on their head. “This series wouldn’t work with two female nurses,” Reis says. “You have two detectives in a male-dominated world who have a gender fluidity that you can see throughout the series. They have this very masculine energy they both have to carry in this profession.”

It didn’t take long before this role reversal drew the ire of misogynistic “bros” – to use series director Issa Lopez’s term. The showrunner recently spoke out against “bros and hardcore fanboys” who review-bombed Night Country on Rotten Tomatoes, posting negative ratings to sabotage the show’s score. “If they could just get their heads out of season one’s ass, that’d be great,” Reis asks of the critics. “Issa did not attempt to rewrite the first season; there are connections to the first season, there’s an homage to the first season, but it is not trying to duplicate it.”

In a recent interview with The Independent, Christopher Eccleston (who plays Danvers’ married lover and boss) praised the series’ stereotype-defying sex scenes. “In the first episode you see both female detectives coming to men for sex and then leaving. Both men are shown trying not to come because they want to please the women, who are absolutely in charge,” he said. In the scene Ecclestone describes, Navarro flips local musher Eddie Qavvik (Joel D Montgrand) on his back and rides him while grabbing his throat. “I got accused of my character being a raper!” Reis says incredulously. “I’m like: what century do you live in?”

Sex scenes are new territory for Reis, who marks just her third-ever acting role in Night Country. The newcomer made her screen debut in Catch the Fair One, Josef Kubota Wladyka’s 2021 revenge thriller about a boxer who voluntarily joins a sex trafficking ring to find her missing sister. It was an obvious route into the acting world for Reis, who had built a name for herself as a professional boxer with a formidable record of 19 wins – five by knockout. Put her name into YouTube and you’re more likely to find clips of her bludgeoning opponents in the ring than a BuzzFeed puppy interview. “Everything was so new,” she says of filming the more intimate scenes in True Detective, “I was like, ‘OK, you guys gotta explain everything, is there tongue in there?’”

There were some more familiar fight scenes, too, of course. In one, Navarro goes on a self-destructive rampage, picking a scrap with three barflies who give her a beatdown (after taking a few thumps themselves). Was it hard for Reis’s boxer ego to get handed her first knockout defeat? “Navarro wasn’t knocked out, she was just knocked down,” Reis is hasty to point out. “That was a little tough, though, but I took notes from the people I’ve knocked down in the ring.”

Today, appearing from her home in Philadelphia, the former world champ looks comfortable. Her hair is tied up in a ponytail and she’s wearing a baggy T-shirt with the slogan “Stay Trippy” on it. Her face is punctuated by silver jewellery in her ears, cheeks and septum, and her nails are pointed black claws. She’s conscious that, from the outside, both she and Navarro might appear intimidating. “Being a professional boxer, you can hand me a gun and I can stand there and look mean,” she says. “The hard part is being able to bring the audience in without saying a word.” Throughout the series, the detective’s icy exterior melts into moments of fragility. “There are a lot of ways I’m like Navarro and there are a lot of ways I’m not,” Reis says. “I believe for me, personally, that my strength has come from my vulnerability. As soon as Navarro allows herself to become vulnerable, that’s when she finds her true strength.”

In 2017, a year after Reis won the WBC female middleweight title, her brother died from brain cancer. “Boxing was our thing,” she explains. “After he passed away, I didn’t want nothing to do with it.” As a result, Reis started exploring other options. She’d always been creative, or as she puts it, “a little Virgo” – “I asked for a violin aged nine for Christmas.” She laughs. Her mum, who raised Reis and all five of her siblings by herself, was always “throwing” her into plays as a child, whether she liked it or not. Besides that, though, there really wasn’t much thought behind her new career choice. “I was like, ‘You know what? Acting seems kind of cool.’ I don’t know, it was on my radar. I was thinking I could land like a cameo in a commercial, be an extra? I just wanted to try it.” Just one week after Reis put out some feelers, Wladyka reached out to her on Instagram about Catch the Fair One. “And here we are,” she says.

Both that film and Night Country deal with the murders and disappearances of indigenous women, a cause that Reis is extremely passionate about. The actor is of mixed Cape Verdean and Wampanoag Native American ancestry, while Navarro is Iñupiat and Dominican. “I am not Native Alaskan, Iñupiat or Inuit, but there’s a collective group of morals that indigenous people share,” she says. “So it’s very important for me to be able to have this type of project done the right way. We had Alaskan native producers going through the script with a fine-tooth comb. I don’t want to make the age-old mistake of assuming I know about a culture.”

We’re speaking the day after Lily Gladstone made history by becoming the first Indigenous American woman to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress, thanks to her role in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. “When she won the Golden Globe [another historic first], I was sitting folding laundry,” Reis remembers. “I literally burst out screaming and crying. This is an amazing time for Native American Indigenous talent.”

It might only be her third-ever acting gig– she also had a small part in Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s yet-to-be-released paramedic thriller, Asphalt City – but Reis carries Navarro with the assuredness of someone who knows they’re in a role they were born to play. “It’s funny, looking back at it now: I’ve been training to be an actor my entire boxing career,” she muses. “The constant ups and downs; repetition, repetition, repetition; being able to take criticism; thinking on your feet.” She compares directors to coaches, and likens working with two-time Academy Award winner Foster to training in a “gym full of champs”. “I’m not walking into a gym to be the big dog; I want to be the worst one in the room so I can get better,” she says.

The Silence of the Lambs star sounds like the perfect sparring partner for an up-and-coming talent. “She doesn’t take anything too seriously – if she screws up, she screws up,” Reis says. “And she’s so generous with her knowledge, her time, her ideas. She’s an amazing person.”

The cast also had an incredible set to work with, I tell her, addressing the elephant in the room, or rather: the “corpsicle” in the ice rink. In episode two, the frozen bodies of the scientists are transported to the local hockey rink to thaw in a mangled mess of limbs and frostbitten private parts. It performs a surprisingly central role in the series, with characters returning to it again and again like a demented version of the Central Perk café in Friends. “It was so amazingly made,” Reis says; “everything was so detailed, every hair, every testicle – the frostbite on the feet.” It didn’t take long to become desensitised. “By day two I was drinking coffee next to it, giving the dead dudes a fist bump.”

Without giving too much away, thawing the corpsicle promises to unlock the key to cracking the case. “It’s gonna shock everyone,” Reis teases of the forthcoming series finale, and the big reveal of who has been behind the murders. “I really think it’s gonna throw people off – in a good way.”

Reis now has “Prestige HBO Drama Star” to add to her list of titles. Will it be enough to tempt her out of the ring for good? “My career and women’s boxing as a whole has been on a really great trajectory,” she says with a smile. “I haven’t hung up the gloves just yet.”

[jinnxd]

Not only was I just thinking about you and your fic just as you updated it, you also wrote Mizuki in a way that absolutely made me disgusted, it was too perfect. Like spot on with some of the guys that have hit on me and one I ended up dating. Absolutely gross, I loved it! Even though it made my skin crawl. Like fuck Mizuki, Orochimaru can have his body if you ask me. And I can't wait to absolutely melt when you get to the point of actually making Kiya and Kakashi date. Is fanfiction off of fanfiction a thing? Because I can imagine it now: they get together and everything around the same time as team 7 is formed, and then Naruto and Sasuke get assigned to team 7, and they gotta warm up to Kakashi one way or another, and he to them, and it all ends up in the most adorable family picnic. Or family vacation. Where Kakashi and Kiya are trying to have a romantic moment or two that the kids keep ruining because they're trying to have a dumb contest, the kind Kakashi and Guy regularly have. Meanwhile Kiya and Kakashi are working on a way to take down Danzo. And both of the boys end up overhearing that goal but never know the reason why they wanna do that. And also I headcanon sasunaru so Sasuke leaves after the exams anyway, and along the way realizes his feelings for Naruto run deeper and so he returns to his family. And Naruto realizes his feelings after training with Jiraya. Kakashi and Kiya are kinda weirded out but they've seen weirder things so it's fine. And as a family, they take down Danzo. But during the fight Danzo reveals what he wanted to do with Kiya which makes both kids rage so hard they don't even leave a single atom of him remain once he's dead. Is there a plot to this? Absolutely, it's called revenge and happiness because fuck Danzo and I want everyone else to be happy. Anyway sorry for rambling, THANK YOU FOR THE UPDATE, and I love you baiii <3

omg… you were thinking about me?! hehe I’m blushingggg (*´ ˘ `*).｡oO ( ♡ )

I felt horrible writing Mizuki and Kiya’s interactions, but they’re really just all based on past experiences of mine :3 that and I just took every single revolting aspect I could think of and threw them all at him hehehe—self-proclaimed “alpha male”? Check. Constantly interrupts Kiya and refuses to take no for an answer? Check! Negs her at every possible turn? Check, check, check!!!

(AU headcanon: Mizuki is a die-hard Andrew Tate fan)

I feel like we’ve all had shitty experiences with shitty men before (like wtf why are they EVERYWHERE) so this chapter/Mizuki’s WHOLE character is a tribute to all the victims of shitty men (≧o≦) I sincerely hope that the guy you ended up dating did not last long at all, and I hope he got what was coming to him! No one deserves to be treated that way >:(

(but I admit I’m having fun with this—it’s like Mizuki is being put in a public stockade and we all get to throw rotten tomatoes at him :) in a way, it’s nice to see that he’s so widely hated, because WE ALL DESERVE BETTER!!!)

I can’t wait for Kakashi and Kiya to get together, either🤭 there’s been a tiny hint of progress, but there’s still a long way to go until they both stop being idiots and just KISS already 👺

The fanfic of a fanfic is ADORABLE, I love that so much :’) I just want them all to be happy, they deserve so much love <3

And as for the Danzo takedown, there are a million different ideas in my head that are floating around!!! It sort of drives me crazy because everything else has an outline, but Danzo’s demise is just one big question mark🙈 the goal is to have it be a team effort, give everyone a chance to get their revenge, y’know? But then in the meantime Danzo just gets to LIVE until Sasuke’s old enough to beat him up… AHHHH idk idk idk all I know is I want everyone to jump his old mummy-looking ass 😌

RAMBLING IS MY FAV, I LOVE RAMBLING!!! (as we can all tell, I physically cannot shut up… we’re barely halfway through the story and at almost 300k words… oopsie) DONT APOLOGIZE FOR RAMBLING!!!!! Thank *you* for this lovely lovely comment, it was a pleasure to read 🫶🫶🫶

SENDING YOU SO MUCH LOVE!!!! ( •ॢ◡-ॢ)-♡

[world-cinema-research]

Stand By Me (1986)

(SHORT ESSAY)

By Jensen Boles (THE 112C 01)

The movie I watched this week would be Stand By Me. Starring the likes of Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, Kiefer Sutherland, and Richard Dreyfuss. The film was released August 22, 1986 and directed by Rob Reiner who also directed such films as The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, as well as an adaptation of another Stephen King Novel known as Misery. The reason I chose this movie is because it happens to be one of my favorite movies of all time and every time I watch it I'm always reminded of the good times I used to have with my friends throughout my childhood.

Regarding the numbers at the box office, Stand By Me had a decent budget of 8 billion dollars for 1986 standards. It also made $52,287,414 domestically and only $1,236 internationally. Making a total worldwide budget of $52,288,650. While the opening weekend for this film was 0.5% of total gross, it also did rather poorly with their DVD sales with only $1,431,608 in total DVD sales (link for more details). The film was critically successful with positive ratings such as an 8.1/10 on IMDb, a 92% for rotten tomatoes, and a Metacritic rating of 75%. Regardless of the poor DVD sales as well as the poor international sales, this film has been deemed successful by fans and critics alike. Not to mention it made more money than the film's budget. One review that I found would be from The New York Times which says "Some 15-year-olds may well enjoy this tale about some 12-year-olds, so parents will have to decide how much they are willing to endure for their kids." I think this quote from the review means that certain age groups will have a deeper understanding of the movie once they watch it (link for the full review).

The movie begins with the narrator named Gordie Lachance who happens to be grown up in this scene and is reflecting on the summer of 1959 when he was only 12 years old, living in a small town in Oregon known as Castle Rock. Soon after we meet his friends named Teddy Duchamp and Chris Chambers playing poker in their clubhouse until another friend named Vern Tessio shows up and asks their friends if they can camp out for a sleepover when it turns out that they’re going to look for a dead body and they go on a 3 day hike to search for him, Vern found out about the body when he overheard a conversation about a missing kid named Ray Brower. The reason the kids are looking for the body is so that they become famous, however there’s a gang of bullies that also want to search for the missing kid and become famous as well (link for synopsis).

While the plot of the movie is a bit dark and depressing, I do personally think that it is good for establishing an emotional coming of age story, after all this movie is based on the novel by Stephen King entitled The Body. Despite the movie being R rated, I do think that the director wanted to target the movie to a certain age group who will deeply understand the movie (as I mentioned above). I also have to mention, the movie also has some really impactful scenes that people can somewhat relate to. Especially the ending where they mention how we have to say goodbye to our childhood (see clip below), you can tell that this has left an emotional impact on a lot of people who watched this movie, me included.

One of the limiting factors that I can think of for this film would be the R rating and how it limited most viewers under the age of 17 from seeing this movie when it first came out. By today's standards, this is still regarded as an all time classic and is also still being favored by fans and critics alike.

Although this film falls into the category of being conventional, there is one scene of the film that would be considered unconventional by some viewers. What happens in the scene is that Gordie tells a story about an obese kid looking to get revenge on the people that made fun of him because of his weight, and the kid gets revenge by entering a pie eating contest and creating what is known as a "Barf-o-rama" which involves him making the other contestants vomit as well as the attendees at the contest by vomiting on another contestant after drinking castor oil and eating a raw egg, as well as 5 blueberry pies. The reason why this would be considered unconventional is because the talk about vomit being used in a silly story that was thought up by a twelve year old, as well as being humor targeted towards middle school aged kids.

Overall, I have noticed a few personal things when rewatching this movie. Even though I have rewatched it a few times from when I last saw it at the age of 12, it would emotionally impact me more each time I would watch it, cause a lot of people can relate to not seeing their friends again after their childhood ends. For me personally, I can somewhat relate because I also have had many friends come in and out of my life.

[jonathanmoya1955]

Godzilla, Minus One: Toho Creates a Rip Roaring Monster of a Film

Toho Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: Post war Japan is at its lowest point when a new crisis emerges in the form of a giant monster, baptized in the horrific power of the atomic bomb. Review: Toho Godzilla, Minus One gets it all right: the creature, plot, character, emotions. Toho Godzilla is not just a monster, he is death itself, revenging, unpitying, black as fury and rage and despair.…

[pitymisskitty]

With: @cantfightmoonlight (Jas) Where: Rotten Revenge

Kitty looked through the pile of tomatoes, humming under her breath. She wanted the squishiest, juiciest one, the one that would make the most mess when it hit its victim. Which victim was still being decided. Kitty was an equal opportunist, after all. She didn't care who was getting pelted with a tomato as long as someone was getting pelted with a tomato. She picked one of and gave it a little squeeze, nodding. "Alright," she said sagely, looking over at Jas with her decision made. "I'm ready."