#sometimes a character is played by a poc SHOCKER

[donutdrawsthings]

can people online stop being racist and actually focus on the cinematography and character design flaws when talking about the HTTYD live action remake

I'm like, begging on my knees.

[gingerhastoomanyobsessions]

Seeing posts on the dash that r like “reminder that every Dracula character would be racist and sexist and homophobic and would hate you specifically” and I’m like. Yeah. We know. But we also like to take characters and go “but what if they were Like Me, Instead” and spit on the author’s grave Cause the fact of the matter is that people Like You (whether you’re gay, trans, intersex, a poc, of a minority religion, etc) have always existed. White literature didn’t depict them much, because Society. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to say “fuck that, actually, I see the potential for a story With People Like Me In It in here, even if it wasn’t meant to be that way, and the public domain is free for the taking”

Does the fandom have problems with racism and sexism and various -phobias? Absofuckinglutely. This is tumblr. Sometimes people on here are stupid. But when it comes to people who are having ultimately harmless fun saying “how would the story be different if this character was a person like me?” just like. Let them do that.

Also the same “ohhh they’d hate you cause they’re From The Past” argument could be applied to almost any historical media lol. If you’re a fan of other white-authored classics and you think that it’s a Cool Argumentative Point to say that the Dracula characters would hate their fandom then…buddy idk what to tell you but by your logic then every white character from earlier than the 1980s would be the same way. But shocker, people don’t like being told that their blorbos would hate crime them. Let people play with their fictional blorbos so long as they’re not being actually harmful. Some Dracula fandom problems ARE an issue (ex. people being ableist about Renfield and to a lesser extent Jonathan, people prioritizing Jonathan over Mina, people not questioning the hidden xenophobia in the original Dracula character when they’re creating their own adaptations, etc). however if someone is like “what if Mina was a WOC” or “what if Quincey was gay” then like. they are just doing the public domain equivalent of tumblrites playing with jpegs like dolls, trying to see themselves in a story that originally left them out of it.

I guess what I’m trying to say is

[romcomathon2016]

Admission (USA, 2013)

Predictions: Alex predicted, based off vague memories of the trailer, that Tina Fey worked in admissions for...somewhere, and Paul Rudd was a parent trying to get his kid into a school? Kat, feeling a desire to mix it up, predicted that Paul Rudd wanted to go to the school himself. Ooooo, a twist!

Plot: Tina Fey is a Princeton admissions officer -- a position that makes her both wildly popular and wildly unpopular. She lives with long-term boyfriend Professor Michael Sheen, but their relationship is...shall we say...lacking. When her boss, Wallace Shawn, declares that this will be his last year as Dean of Admissions, Tina Fey knows she has to be more competitive to get his job. She journeys to Paul Rudd’s hippie school in New Hampshire to meet his first-ever graduating class. You know, one of those farm schools with cows and snowshoeing and stuff. (Okay, you may not know. BUT WE SURE DO. #a very specific New England experience) There, she meets Paul Rudd’s favorite student, Nat Wolff, who is apparently a genius.

BUT OH LOOK, A TWIST (not the one we predicted): Paul Rudd secretly actually brought Tina Fey there to meet Nat Wolff not just because he is a genius, but because Paul Rudd suspects that Nat Wolff, who was adopted, is actually Tina Fey's biological son, whom she gave up for adoption while she and Paul Rudd were both at Dartmouth. (The non-stop East Coast academic name-dropping in this movie, btw. Colleges. Private schools. We lol-ed.) Yeah, he just springs this on her after dinner, nbd, and she’s like WHAT???? and he’s like, “I have a Xeroxed birth certificate that matches with my vague recollection from the Dartmouth grapevine!” (Spoiler alert: this is not the thorough amount of research one should do before dropping this kind of bombshell on a stranger, PAUL RUDD.) Tina Fey, scarred from her disorganized upbringing at the hands of Lily Tomlin, who is...a very specific kind of New Englander, is basically terrified of parenthood, though. So she flees from Paul Rudd. Understandably.

However, also understandably, back at home/work, Tina Fey cannot quite put this news out of her head. Furthermore, Professor Michael Sheen tells her he’s impregnated a co-worker and is leaving her. Yikes. Rough go of it for Tina Fey. Then Paul Rudd, good old persistent Paul Rudd, accompanies Nat Wolff on a Princeton tour** and takes this opportunity to continue to accost Tina Fey. After like...three of these confrontations, she agrees to look at Nat Wolff’s transcripts and whatnot. Shocker — he is not an amazing student. Like, had a D+ average before transferring to Paul Rudd's hippie school. But he does have great test scores and is, like we said, apparently a genius. So Tina Fey, questionably in terms of both admissions-officer ethics and wisdom, goes to bat for this kid she thinks is probably her son.

After some shenanigans -- including Tina Fey hooking up with Paul Rudd and sucking up to all her colleagues -- the admissions committee nonetheless fails, alas, to accept Nat Wolff. (Understandable. Look, it’s Princeton. Nat Wolff, perhaps you should have visited some other schools. Hampshire, perhaps?) BUT THEN. An extremely disappointed, disillusioned Tina Fey receives a phone call from a high school counselor who informs her that one of Princeton’s accepted students will actually be attending Yale. An extra spot!!!! Tina Fey seizes this opportunity, super unethically, and switches up the admissions records so Nat Wolff gets in. OF COURSE SHE IS FOUND OUT IMMEDIATELY, having committed the World’s Most Obvious Admissions-Officer Crime, but, as she knew would be the case, Wallace Shawn can only demand her resignation, not rescind the acceptance, as he does not want Princeton’s whole ~system to be called into question. Clever-ish, Crazed Tina Fey...we suppose...

Anyway, so, she’s lost her job, but it’s fine! She has new meaning in her life! She’s going to bond with her son, Nat Wolff! Right?? NOT SO FAST. Turns out Nat Wolff is not her biological son — Paul Rudd, like, misread the birth certificate, basically. (OH MY GOD. GET IT TOGETHER, PAUL RUDD.) Tina Fey is understandably super pissed at Paul Rudd, etc. Has a confrontation with Lily Tomlin, blah blah blah, grows as a person, blah blah blah... Eventually, she and Paul Rudd get together for real, and she goes to the adoption agency to try to initiate contact with her actual biological son. He writes back that he isn’t ready yet to meet her, but maybe someday.

**A Quick Geography PSA: In this movie, people are constantly driving between Keene, NH, and Princeton, NJ. As people who are familiar with both of those places/have Google Maps, we would like to inform anybody who is thinking of making this drive themselves (MISLED BY THIS FILM, PERHAPS) -- it is a five-hour drive. Not a twenty-minute jaunt, as this movie makes it appear. UNLESS YOUR CAR IS SECRETLY ALSO AN AIRPLANE.

Best Scene: Tina Fey at the English department party she hosts with Professor Michael Sheen, during which he leaves her. Her breakdown is quite humorous. Poor Tina Fey. Also, we enjoyed every time Professor Michael Sheen turned up subsequently, his appearance generally serving to highlight Tina Fey’s sad life. (Oh, Michael Sheen. He’s always so Michael Sheen.)

Worst Scene: Hmmm. Honestly, watching the admissions officers reject the various accomplished high-schoolers was sad. (WE'RE SOFT, OKAY???? WE WOULD NEVER MAKE IT AS ADMISSIONS OFFICERS.) (Although...we did also judge those poor kids a bit ourselves. ONLY TWO EXTRACURRICULARS, HUH. AT PRINCETON???? ...Alas, we are all products of our #millennial time.)

Best Line: “We’re going to play a fun game. It’s called ‘Spot the Nobel Prize Winner.’” — Princeton tour guide, making us nerd-giggle at the beginning of the film. Also, we enjoyed when Tina Fey went to Paul Rudd's hippie school and got dressed down by his Extremely Argumentative & Socially Conscious students, and managed to retort that, GOSH, IN ORDER TO CHANGE THE WORLD, REGRETTABLY, SOME OF THEM MIGHT NEED A COLLEGE DEGREE.

Worst Line: This movie was relatively self-aware and basically fine, for what it was. We didn’t groan at anything specifically.

Highlights of the Watching Experience: "Wait, have I seen this movie? ...Or have I just been to this house??" -- Kat, when Tina Fey first walked into Lily Tomlin's bicycle-filled, plant-filled, New-England-hippie home. Alex: "Girl, we have both been to this house."

How Many POC in the Film: Paul Rudd has a tween son (adopted from Uganda) that, whoops, we did not mention once in the plot summary, but who is actually a fairly major character that we enjoyed. Also, Tina Fey's main admissions-office rival is a woman of color. Those were the big ones. To be fair, it was semi-rural New England/Princeton. #white AF #we would know

Alternate Scenes: Well... It's not like we loved this film, but it did not actively offend us. We probably could not be bothered to change anything about it. We did find it slightly implausible how “rootless and impulsive” Paul Rudd apparently was. He does usually seem like he'd be the other person in that argument, if you know what we mean.

Was the Poster Better or Worse than the Film: Worse? The poster, while slightly funny, makes Paul Rudd appear even more uncouth in his choices than he actually is. Also, it needs punctuation.

Score: 6 out of 10 highly selective smooches. Look, we should clarify. This was not a great romcom. It was, like, fine. It was inoffensive. The premise is a bit weird. The movie is mostly about Tina Fey. It's kind of funny...sometimes…? We perhaps got particular enjoyment out of this film for personal reasons. #new england #privilege #nothing could be more familiar to us than this collection of well-meaning, miscellaneously wealthy white people who love sailing and/or trees and/or slightly tone-deafly helping the poor

Ranking: 47, out of the 148 movies we���ve seen so far. Welcome to the top 50, Admission! Boy, was that unexpected. (If you are not from this very specific world that we are from, we do not recommend this film. Just to be clear.)