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orchestrahearts · 3 days ago

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here it is! the wicked movie review.

Part 1: spoiler free

I’ll start by saying I’m pleasantly surprised. Given the previous few years of musicals to movie adaptations, I didn’t have the highest of expectations. I loved Jon M. Chu’s work on Crazy Rich Asians but I thought his adaptation of In The Heights had lots of pacing issues. With almost 3 hours of only act I, I was concerned about wasted time, but I’ll say that pretty much every minute of Wicked Part 1 was well used and the story flowed well. My friends will tell you I’m no big fan of some of Galinda’s costumes but there were plenty of them in the rest of the movie were well made and looked good. Ariana Grande also impressed me with her acting choices and vocal chops, which I had low expectations for. Cynthia Erivo’s voice was fabulous. What it comes down to is Jon M. Chu understood the assignment. I give this movie adaptation an A.

In depth spoiler thoughts below the cut.

Part 2: spoiler city.

Cast

Ariana Grande really surprised me with her vocal chops. I’d only seen a little of her Sam and Cat acting and heard her pop music, so I wasn’t super impressed with her voice but she really nailed it with the opera and the musical style singing. Her acting choices were fun to watch and the felt true to the Galinda energy that is the role in act I. I kind of wish they curled her hair more since it was varying levels of curled throughout the movie but I thought it looked best during What Is This Feeling, but that’s a personal preference. Her comedic timing was excellent throughout the entire movie, though she picked the hair toss that’s really big which I thought was an interesting choice. Overall I really was pleasantly surprised by her competency with the role.

Cynthia Erivo I liked from Harriet but also didn’t know her full singing ability. I thought she did a great job bringing out the multiple layers of Elphaba’s personality and she played the role in a way different than I’d seen on stage. I’m used to a more jaded, feisty and loud Elphaba but Cynthia was more quiet and reserved, but not in a way that took away from the character. She’s still sharp tongued and smart, but more like a cool thunderstorm with occasional loud claps than the raging fire I’m used to. She did a really awesome job with the balance of sharp to soft that Elphaba tends to need in order to be believable.

Nessa and Fiyero were great. Fiyero was cocky and extra before the Lion scene and more thoughtful afterward and always had a little chemistry with Elphaba, which makes it feel natural when we get to I’m Not That Girl. Nessa is played so well as a girl who wants to be treated like everyone else. She insisted that nobody help her when she needs to go somewhere and is visibly upset when people are moving her and, in a sense, controlling her when she wants to be self reliant for once after years of being babied by her father and nanny.

Choices

There were some choices throughout that I thought were a little strange though. I didn’t like the flash through all the different points with Galinda during No One Mourns the Wicked. 1) they didn’t show the scenes with Glinda from act II that happen before the song takes place and 2) it felt kind of out of context if you haven’t seen the film before. If you have, you can remember the moments Glinda is flashing back to but having seen it the first time, I didn’t like it.

Additionally they made the silver shoes belong to Elphaba and Nessa’s mom. I don’t know if I liked it or not but I thought it was a strange choice and I sort of prefer when it wasn’t and they were specially made for Nessa by her father, but I see how adding their mother to their significance makes them more important to both sisters.

I actually liked that the Animals walked on all fours. In both Wicked the novel and L. Frank Baum’s Oz, Animals were sentient and could speak and think, but they were still not humans and therefore walked on all fours. I also liked how at Shiz they had little pieces of technology around that allowed Dillamond to teach, like turning on the projector and closing the blinds. It easily could’ve gone too Zootopia if they had them on their hind legs.

Additionally I liked the inclusion of a nanny character in the childhood scenes. Not only does it feel like a little nod to the novels, where Elphaba was cared for by Nanny, and while the book Nanny was more tough love than the character included in the movie, I thought it added to the emphasis of rejection from her parents. I also thought it was a cool choice for her to be a Bear, so it could narratively added to Elphaba’s care of Animals later on in the story.

I loved how they handled the Dancing Through Life scene where Elphaba turns up in the hat. It really feels more intense with the way everyone is laughing, staring, mocking Elphaba and I absolutely loved how when Galinda joined her, her friends tried to stop her. It really showed how Galinda could be risking her popularity to show kindness to Elphaba, and how in this situation it paid off. It’s probably one of my favorite scenes in the movie. And more as a smaller note, I thought it was fun that during the whole song, Fiyero essentially seduced the entirety of Shiz. Sexuality is not an issue in Oz.

Costumes

I’ve said it to a few people but I don’t like the movies Bubble Dress. I’ve been trying to figure out for weeks what specifically I dislike about it, but after a lot of thought it’s the skirt. It uses too much tulle when I feel like for Glinda’s outfits, they should be using more silks or satins. I also really hate the wand they gave Glinda, it feels like a cheap Spirit Halloween toy rather than an expensive movie prop.

Both Elphaba and Galinda were wearing more formal attire you could almost call business casual while at Shiz, but I didn’t like how they were the only two not conforming to the uniform colors. Galinda by far was worse in this department, with her pink and lavender outfits, but Elphaba was also wearing slightly off shades of blue. It felt like they were imitating Wednesday and I didn’t like that choice. The outfits themselves were fine and I liked the cut and fit of the costumes, just not the color.

Galinda was in, by far, too much pink. I understand that pink is her iconic color that they always use in her merch, but it was too much. When you have Galinda constantly in pink, it takes away from the flair of when she wears it. It also feels a little childish of her to only wear one color, or at least cinematically elementary.

Overall the costumes were fine, but I kind of wish they chose a costume designer who had more experience in fantasy shows. They picked an artist who has only made costumes for period pieces, and it being their first foray into fantasy shows. I obviously have more to say about Galinda’s costumes, being a Glinda rper, but I have a lot of thoughts on the choices with the fabric especially that I didn’t like. There was altogether too much sheer and tulle fabrics in both leads costumes.

Music

Overall, I thought they did a great job with the music. It was well orchestrated for a full scale film soundtrack. I know they said they sang live onset but I think it’s a little obvious sometimes that (I think) they used a recording over the film to get perfectly clear sound. Maybe it was just me but I thought it looked a tiny bit lip synced at times rather than live sung.

This may have just been the theater I was in, but the sound mix for No One Mourns The Wicked sounded a little muddy to me. It’s the only song that did but as the camera was panning out of the witch’s tower and back to what looked like Munchkinland while the intro music played, the audio mix just felt a little off. It really could be the speakers at the theatre though, I opted for the regular tickets and not Dolby for my first pass at the movie.

The singing itself was excellent. I was surprised by how youthful Cynthia’s voice sounded, and I already talked under casting about how pleasantly surprised I was that Ariana had the vocal chops for Glinda. I also said (mostly as a joke) that if Ariana started doing runs through the movie, I’d leave. I’m happy to say both she and Cynthia generally sung it straight, and any runs they added generally had a good effect on the music. I won’t be buying the movie soundtrack, but I really did think it sounded great. I’ll definitely be purchasing the movie and using it to test new video watching setups the way I was previously using The Greatest Showman.

Conclusion

I will be seeing Wicked again. At least once, possibly twice depending on what my friends want to do. It was a genuinely enjoyable experience where it felt like seeing Oz again for the first time. Jon M. Chu truly understood the assignment and did the musical justice. If you saw the movie recently come talk to me, I’d love to talk about the movie more.

#wicked #the wicked movie #wicked movie #movie review

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psychicpinenut · 7 months ago

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netflix atla review

i decided that i wanted to see it through anyway so i finished the netflix atla. here are the things that made me want to hurl rocks at my tv (i might not remember a lot of things because i stopped watching after ep 4 and only continued this week so this might get rambly as i try to recall things)

let me start on the cast. no offense to these kids but my god. one of the things i hate the most is when you can tell an actor is acting. the whole time you could see that they walk up to their mark, stop there and recite the lines like they're in a high school play. and i get that they're young and probably don't have too much experience but i just keep thinking about the original voice cast who were children as well at the time of recording and they're some of the most talented actors i've ever heard. but then again i know they had to not only find people who resemble the characters but can do martial arts and act. so whatever, i hope they'll grow more during this. the only actor i liked was dallas liu who is the oldest of the main cast (i believe he was around 20 when they filmed this) which is probably why he doesn't have a chronic case of child acting.

constantly making up and/or changing lore:

why can aang only speak to past avatars in their shrines?

roku is sidelined in favor of kyoshi (who for some reason is extremely aggressive towards him) who can see into the future apparently because she gave aang a vision of the northern water tribe being destroyed instead of sozin's comet coming.

aang somehow being "lost" to the ocean spirit at the end which is ???

sokka and katara can enter the spirit world with aang

koh keeping his victims like some fucking spider and only gives them back after aang gave some stupid totem back. they also brought him so forward that he doesn't tell aang about tui and la which was the entire fucking point of looking him up in the first place

yue is a fox? in the spirit world?

wan shi tong is there also in the spirit world

i'm guessing they're already abandoning the ancient library storyline because they already intoduced wan shi tong and zhao was shown that he found out about tui and la from the fire sages in roku's temple. which is going to be interesting because that's where sokka finds out about the solar eclipse but i guess they'll come up with some other solution like toph can sense the moon moving through her feet or some shit

tui and la becoming mortals for only one night?

zuko having extensive research on the avatars should mean he knows that roku is his great grandfather but we're either leaving that one out or he's just not good at research

they took out sokka's sexism, thus eliminating any chance of character development, in favor of putting in actual sexism perpetrated by the show itself. suki is made into this small town girl, rapunzel type of character who needs sokka, the man, to bring the world to her and expand her mind. and then instead of sokka being grateful to suki for teaching him, she's the one that's thankful for ... going there? and bringing the world to her? because strong women mean they can punch right?

constant references to book 2 in the first season

they made so that aang didn't actually run away from his responsibility as the avatar - which is a pretty important part of his arc as that guilt follows him through the entire series - but that he only took a little trip to clear his head. which makes everyone accusing him of disappearing seem dumb and unfair

which leads me to bumi. why the fuck would bumi be so pissed at him? the whole episode he's antagonizing him and yelling at him to go do his job as the avatar meanwhile he's holding him hostage and making him do his challenges. like let him go so he can do his job maybe?? stupid

the entire ep 3-4. they really just shoved like 5 episodes together into one which i get because they don't have time to do everything but they did it so badly and the messages from each episode disappeared in favor of the CGI fight scenes.

like what do you mean sokka barely even got to interact with jet? that's the episode where sokka is proven to have good instincts and leadership because he saw jet for what he was.

why are teo and his dad here? what about aang's massive grief over the industrialization of his wiped out culture?

why would jet try to kill bumi? they completely obliterated the moral dilemma of jet wiping out a fire nation village because he sees that as justified even though he's killing civilians who happen to be fire nation.

for some reason they had sokka and katara go through the secret tunnel which is kind of fucking weird. i don't mind if they cut the kaang romance line but it is going to be interesting once it comes to the earthly attachments and some plotlines that revolve around aang having a major crush on katara. also what do you mean the badger moles sense "emotions"? toph is about to sense people's emotions in her feet and learn bending that way

they mary sue'd katara. she's bad at waterbending until she isn't and suddenly she's a master just from self taught basic waterbending she learned from the scroll gran gran gave her?? which is another thing they robbed us of because katara going to great lengths to steal the scroll shows how determined she is and desperate to learn waterbending but here she just gets handed the scroll. she's timid and lukewarm the entire season, the only time i can recall her even raising her voice is when she's arguing with sokka over jet. she gets mad at pakku for not letting her fight which is stupid because girl who is gonna stop you? go and fight?? you should be getting mad at pakku for not even trying to teach you waterbending. then she brings the entire untrained female population to the fight because girl power™. despite all of this, she's proclaimed a master without any actual training and beats zuko's ass purely because she's So Good. like at this point she shouldn't be able to hold her own against zuko without the full moon's help because as soon as the sun comes up zuko easily overpowers her ("you rise with the moon i rise with the sun"). which didn't happen here because she's a self proclaimed master now apparently

aang didn't bend a single waterdrop the entire season. it's book 1: water. it's called water. where's the bending aang? too busy doing another stupid walk and talk

stripped of iroh telling zuko he thinks of him as his son

stripped of one of the rawest lines i've ever heard on television: "my father says she was born lucky, he says i was lucky to be born"

which leads me into azula's character. they brought her in earlier just so her role in the whole season can be her groveling at ozai's feet, seeking his approval, trying to outdo zuko. which is insane cause she already outdoes zuko by a mile. she's a prodigy. they make it look like ozai favors zuko over azula which is so fucking insaaaane it made me so mad. she already knows she's better than zuko, she doesn't need her father's approval. also why isn't her fire blue.

iroh being the one who kills zhao. this one pissed me off so badly because in the original, as the ocean spirit takes hold of him zuko reaches out to zhao to try to save him.... that man tried to have him KILLED. and zuko still tried to save him. but zhao's arrogance didn't let him take his hand and that was his demise. that single act tells us so much about zuko and they just??? took that out??? so iroh can just murder him?? instead of it being the ocean spirit's revenge for killing its partner? instead of giving us that glimpse into who zuko is as a person? i'm going insane

don't even mention the fact that zuko fought back against ozai during the agni kai. he was literally banished because he refused to fight him. he got the scar because he refused to fight him. that's who zuko is!!!! and then they show us that he, a 13 year old boy who is still fairly inexperienced at bending, could have defeated ozai but he chose not to?? i'm sorry???

during the meeting where he spoke out against their plan, they made it look like he only spoke up because the general taunted him and not because he thought what they wanted to do was morally wrong.

now tell me which line hits harder: "compassion is a sign of weakness" or "you will learn respect and suffering will be your teacher". yeah...

yue bringing sokka to the spirit oasis to heal momo?? it was so fucking stupid and unserious that they were cradling a cgi lemur that i was in tears of pain. i almost gave up there

sokka constantly talking about wanting to be a better warrior and bossing katara around but doing absolutely fuck all to prove himself was insane. sokka was just standing around the whole season making bad jokes (cause wow they made sokka unfunny somehow) and flirting with women.

there was no goofiness or lightheartedness to aang. he took everything so fucking seriously it actually hurt to watch because they blew things out of proportion that didn't need to be. why was he so afraid of his normal bending power? not even his avatar state power but just his airbending. constantly angsting over his responsibility and how he's failing as the avatar. jesus fucking christ.

since zuko never stole katara's necklace, june had to use some fuckin random fabric she found on one of the trees that could've belonged to anybody??

zuko was able to capture aang after june found him instead of getting his ass whooped and paralysed so when zhao basically forces him to hand aang over to him, it's easier to guess who the blue spirit is as zuko makes a whole scene about it earlier

truly the one thing i really liked was the addition that the 41st division was the crew he protected at the war meeting

circling back to the first episode where we start out in the past and we get to see the whole genocide of the air nomads instead of finding out along with aang. we also get to see how he ends up in the iceberg so we don't get his story paralleled with zuko's backstory like in the storm. i mean whatever but the aang and zuko parallels were always dear to me.

hated zhao's actor. instead of him being intimidating and scary, he was acting like a frat boy and talked like tom cruise's character in magnolia. just simply annoying

jet telling katara to just stop being sad about her mom and she stops being sad and suddenly she can bend again. and later when he tells her she can bend because he helped her, she straight up denies it because it was "all her" like i gotta disagree there cause no, it was definitely him who helped you.

icing on the cake was when zuko walks into a bar and the patrons there reference like 4 storylines that they skipped over

so anyway... that's all i could think of at the top of my head and i hope they fuck up less in the upcoming seasons god willing

#long post #pine rambles #natla critical

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mrdarcygenderenvy · 10 months ago

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Recent Austen adaptations yelling

Ok I DID make this blog to review historical-set Pride & Prejudice adaptations (with an exception made for iconic B&P). But for everyone who was DEFINITELY WONDERING, yes I have also been storing away a lot of opinions about other recent Austen adaptations that I Must Tell Someone.

Fire island (2022)

A modern gay party cheesy rom-com P&P that genuinely made me laugh. Having seen some other (whiter) cheesy gay romcoms that were extreeeemely PG & playing it safe, I was pleasantly surprised.

Also Bowen Yang and his story just came across really earnest in a way I was into - would watch this man cry again, 10/10.

Personally as an extremely disabled british nerd (now tragically unable to travel and/or go to the club...) this gay scene is a long way from my queer scene. But I still had emotions, you know?

Kinda wanted more of the Mary analogue and generally just normal looking people (almost everyone is so ripped) but I appreciate that's how beautiful smooth people often look in mainstream american films, we can't have everything.

DARCY WATCH: I do not want to dress like this adaptation's chinos Mr Darcy. But Conrad Ricamora was generally great and very hot and awkward and understood the assignment. Good ice cream throw.

Emma (2020)

I know I know, it's pretty... but I don't think that's enough!!!!!

Lovely production, beautiful costumes, a candy wes-anderson cinematography that really suits the story, and it's fun to notice references to actual outfits and prints from the time but lads. LADS. UNPOPULAR OPINION TIME: Where is the chemistry???

You can’t make Mr Knightley a nice sweet boy (so funny to have cast a posh folksy singing man) and leave the plot the same and expect it to work!! Also I was personally pissed off that a lot of the promo/ ads for this made it look like ~forbidden love~ when it's the 2 richest white people in town getting together?? ? There's actually not even a class difference in this one, guys.

Basically this romance was nothing to me!!! I felt nothing!!!!!!!! WHERE'S THE DEPTH

I did like the bit where he lies down though. Relatable.

Also why are you drawing so much attention to the servants when you don’t seem to have anything to say about class...? 'Wow look how many servants they had! Anyway, they don't get any speaking lines'... it's 2020 guys!!! like what are we saying here. 'isn't it cool to think about how people were rich'??

kind of the point of Emma (character) is she's pretty superficial, but the story does not, in fact, have to be

Persuasion (2022)

Weeping softly into a pillow........ did you know this version meant a version with Sarah Snook and Joel Fry got cancelled?? we could have had it all

(standing on a table yelling) THE MODERNISATION WAS NOT THE PROBLEM WITH THIS FILM!!!

Honestly I actively liked all the entire secondary cast in this. Louisa and Mary were extremely charming fun takes to watch. ('I'm an empath' IS right for the character if you're doing modern jokes!!!) And nobody can deny this was a correct and powerful use of Richard E Grant.

Henry Golding was naturally great. Apparently he got offered the lead and took the villain instead, which DOES mean the villain is super charming and fun to watch which is... hard to match and.... kind of shows up.... the main man.

It's been said before but the main two were WOEFUL imo. I have no beef with the actors I just question the DIRECTION and whether anyone making this knew (or cared) why people... enjoy things.

Book Anne is the quietest gentlest loser and I LOVE HER and so does basically every Austen nerd. Making her a quirky wine-bath girl who's honestly just cruel sometimes fully stops the main romance chemistry and plot from working.

And it means the main boy is still like 'god I'm so horny for how KIND AND CAPABLE YOU ARE' which is just 100% no longer true. You can't transplant a personality in a romance but leave the plot the exact same and expect it to work. The chemistry IS the plot in a romance..........

you can't act morally superior to your siblings and still rate people out of ten.... also so funny to me that everyone else gets period outfits and hair whereas this protagonist looks like she just glanced at a picture of any time in the past and grabbed a couple shirts from primark. it doen't even look good or build character!!!!!

Anyway, not to be an elderly man like 'ohhh why does nobody care about character these days' but the reason something like Clueless works is because it has the heart of the story right, instead of just copying the surface level stuff.

#making all of these a single post which probably means nobody will reblog it ever. OH WELL #emma 2020 #persuasion 2022 #fire island #austen adaptations #full disclosure yes I was midway through making a queer regency romance GN whose plot is partly based on emma and p&p when i saw 2020 emma #so YES.......... i have strong opinions... possibly UNPOPULAR ONES..........#anyway if you enjoy the things i'm complaining about more power to you. I'M TOO BORING tO ENJOY THEM UNFORTUNATELY

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centaurianthropology · 24 days ago

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Hammer Horror-a-thon Rapid-Fire Double-Feature: Nothing but the Night (1973) and The Gorgon (1964)

Because life got away from me and I couldn't get through nearly the number of 50s to 70s bad horror flicks I was hoping to during October, I'm holding them over during this, a slightly clear weekend. Instead of fully summarizing and commenting on these films, I'll be doing more rapid-fire thoughts and reviews.

So let's start with the more recent one, 'Nothing but the Night'.

So I've got mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, there's some really decently written women in this one, which is fairly uncommon in horror films of this era. Georgia Brown does really well in a slightly understated role as a hard-nosed reporter who slowly comes around to just wanting the truth. She's somewhat noir, and I really liked her performance. But Diana Dors' brassy, abrasive mom-on-a-mission is one of the movie's highlights. You're genuinely not certain what she's doing or why she's doing it, and the unfortunate thing about the movie is that you never really find out.

I suppose it's decades too late, but spoiler warning here. The movie ends with a bit of a weak twist, that I sort of feel undermines the movie. Apparently some rich assholes have set up an orphanage (you know that's never good) and are using the children there as vessels to transfer their consciousness into so that they can live again or something. The main little girl at the heart of the story is, in fact, an adult woman transplanted into a little girl's body.

It's a goofy premise, but no more so than most horror films of the era. But I honestly think this one might have worked better if they'd gone full 'Bad Seed' with it, and we as the audience know that she's the murderer from the beginning. The young actress in the role is honestly fairly good, and I think she'd be able to pull off playing innocent before killing more and more people who all seem to want to help her. The mystery could have become why she was doing this, rather than trying to figure out what's even happening in the plot. It's a movie so concerned with keeping its central secret until the big reveal that there are large parts of the movie with very little happening. It's a little TOO obscure, and it could have been a lot creepier if they'd let the audience in a bit more.

The good things here are the performances. As I previously mentioned, both Brown and Dors turn in strong performances, with a lot more drive, intrigue, and nuance than women were often afforded in this era of movies. Gwyneth Strong, the child actress in the central role, does a fairly solid job at it.

Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing are both solid, but aren't given as much to do as the women, and less investment in everything until near the end, which makes them a little less compelling. Still, their scenes together are a big part of the appeal of the movie. Their first scene together, in particular, ends with what feels like it's seconds away from devolving into an outtake, with the two of them exiting the scene almost giggling together. It's a moment of real genuine friendship that I really loved.

Also Christopher Lee has to fight a horde of semi-possessed children in a deadly game of tug-of-war to keep from burning to death at the end, which is both deeply goofy and really unsettling, and is one of the few parts of the movie that was honestly sort of chilling. Strong has to do a villain monologue, which she struggles a bit with, but there are moments where she's also fairly effectively scary.

It ends on a fairly downer note, and I'm not sure I'd recommend it, but it's definitely not the worst of the movies I've watched. It's a bit slow, keeps its secrets so well not much happens for the bulk of the film, and doesn't do as much with Lee and Cushing as it could have, but the performances are strong, the character writing is decent, and it's fun just to see Lee and Cushing be pals for a bit.

'The Gorgon'

Tragically, I can see why this attempt at another serial from Hammer never took off. The key to their serials is really the strength of the central monster. The 'Dracula' flicks work because they feel racy for the Hayes Code era, mostly because Christopher Lee can convey a level of feral sensuality that turns some really poor scripts into something worth watching. And because you like to see him and Peter Cushing fling one another around a set for a bit, if you're me. But mostly you watch 'Dracula' for Dracula. Likewise, you watch the 'Frankenstein' flicks because you want to see Peter Cushing be completely unhinged. Appropriately to the source material, the creature is not the central monster of these films, the doctor is. You watch those films for him.

So 'The Gorgon' had to sell us on the Gorgon. This was already tough, since gorgons are a bit more obscure than vampires or mad scientists. We had enough cultural context to know, even without being told, what it was that both Dracula and Dr. Frankenstein want. Their motivations are clear going in: Dracula is driven by hunger and sexuality; Frankenstein by hubris and a desire to prove his intelligence. But what is a gorgon's motivation? Why does she do what she does?

We don't know from context, and the film doesn't seem interested in telling us. In fact, the film does very little to really sell its newest monster. Prudence Hyman can mug for the camera quite well, but she's given so little to do! She essentially stands in one place and stares. She doesn't get to talk. She doesn't even really get to interact with other actors. The nature of the monster is solitary.

I was hoping that, since we find out late in the film that she's actually projecting herself through another person, we might use the character of Carla (Barbara Shelley) to explore the monster. She could be a monster of loneliness, of resentment that every attempt at connection is doomed to end the same way. That's sort of a cool concept, honestly, but Carla spends the entire film with amnesia, unaware of what she is, and so no exploration gets done. And the film is far more interested in telling the stories of the various guys who try to hunt the monster or protect the monster or avoid the monster than it is in exploring its central monster. So she fades into the background of her own movie, and the movie falls flat as a result.

Which is too bad! Like I said, the concept is good. Cushing's performance is actually really good in this one, as the doctor who's figured out his assistant is, in fact, the one housing the consciousness of the gorgon. He goes to increasingly desperate lengths to protect her, willing to sacrifice anyone else to do so, and all the while not trusting her enough to just tell her why he's doing what he's doing, which eventually destroys their relationship and gets him killed.

Lee gets to turn in one of his rare heroic performances as a crotchety professor turned monster hunter, who is the only one to make it out alive in the end. He doesn't get as much to do as Cushing, and they only share about a minute of screen time, but it's a workmanlike performance.

And hey, a wild Patrick Troughton appeared out of nowhere as a major supporting character! He's always a fun one to see crop up, even if he's given as little as Lee to do in this film.

Richard Pasco as Paul Heitz is the doomed lover of Carla (though they spend all of two scenes together before declaring their love, so I sort of doubt their connection), and is probably given the most to do in this film. And again, he does fairly well in the role, as does Shelley as Carla. She's got some strong scenes, but she's hampered by a script that lacks the one thing that really could have turned this one into a gem: someone going completely off the wall. Someone turning in such a bravura performance that you want another film with them. If Prudence Hyman had been given more time and more to do, she might have been able to do that, but because of the way the movie was written, that was probably more likely to fall to Carla, who never gets to realize what she is and fucking WRECK some assholes. I was waiting for her to get to cut loose, and instead she gets ... nothing.

And there was never a second 'Gorgon' movie. Having seen it, I'm not surprised, but I am disappointed that the Hammer films were too cowardly to let a lady get as unhinged as they let Lee and Cushing get in their respective series.

#hammer horror-a-thon #nothing but the night #the gorgon #Christopher Lee #Peter Cushing #Diana Dors #Georgia Brown #Patrick Troughton #neither of these were terrible #but neither of these were great either #hoping for something stupider and more fun next time

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atinydetective · 4 months ago

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ATEEZ Universe part 4

▾Inception

“The moment all the senses stop” does this remind you of a sequence we saw in Diary Film?

When Seonghwa meets the girl who dances freely for the first time, everything around him freezes. When Inception plays…

Essentially this is about her, the one they I’m in “LOVE” with. Not only about her, they also mention that the dream called thing when they search if any trace left by her is: “It's too vivid to conclude it as just a dream."

Thus there is a space between Thanxx and Inception because they are trapped somewhere that they can not escape.

What’s more, the detail can be easily missed out is the scent they try to find. Only thing they can sense about her is her scent. As if the members smell very well like a vampire.

Mv also has points to be review:

◦These corridors. They must be the way to dream in a dream. Actually we know that the communication method dream is not just a dream it is like a shared consciousness.

◦Fight between blue-water and red-fire. But still we see blue flames on Tv in Hongjoong’s part.

↪In choreography:

◦Yeosang falls asleep and wakes as Yunho. Only possibility that can happen is when they look the same or really similar as if they are twins or brothers.

◦Jongho punches the air as if the is breaking the wall between worlds to escape like how Hongjoong describe the wall between world he live and TV star’s world.

◦Like they said in lyrics they trapped in the world they teleported in Diary, but when members show this state in choreography, Yeosang is dancing on his own.In a way that he has the antidote for this world maybe immunity which enable him to be leader in Thanxx.

◦And also Yeosang is the one who able to see San’s falling, because the is in the moment who can move freely and time flows for him.

◦Also on a Vlive, San adds that they are dreaming in a dream because of his- an ego. Term ego will have a returnee soon. Like how the whole story originally born from their existence.

▾Good Lil Boy

Someone calls ATEEZ a little boy which leads us to believe that he is a higher person. And also ATEEZ mentions that they see their reflection on the floor in rain.

Maybe this person or people are their alter egos, their reflection itself.

ATEEZ tries to find the way out from this Möbius strip-like world with their lead.So whenever they recall the name Möbius strip, it’s the world they stuck in this album after Diary.

Thus Good Lil Boy is their trailer, we will see them again in future.

▴FEVER ROAD

We have special sequences for each member:

Hongjoong’s Time, when members separated into their own lifes..

Yeosang’s Yearings -which holds high value to conclude that the Diary’s owner is Yeosang-

Yunho’s Dream - which Yunho again implies that Hongjoong resembles his brother. But in the diary he directly says he looks alike to him.

Seonghwa’s Liberty - which takes the topic after Seonghwa met the girl who dances. Moreover there are some notes on the wall which are about “The King”?

Jongho’s Despair - the story of how he passes his basketball dreams over time and grabs his precious, one and only will Music.

Mingi’s Wound- when he messed things up and had to run away, Jongho was the one who reached out and saved him. Jongho easily got angry and frustrated when he saw Mingi’s empty eyes because he saw his emotionless state when basketball’s doors closed to him.

Wooyoung’s Fear- in which we see his other side, which has chosen the other light, the one about to turn off. His dark, alter ego.

San’s Fever Road- when all members and San go back to the old factory around the same time for sake of their dream. And as Dear Diary says, I become “WE” with this unknown fever these children have.

Moreover in this Tv show Wooyoung gets kidnapped by a man who wears black in EP3 .They even cover his eyes while traveling . Also the episode Precious’s melody pops up, Mingi goes on an adventure because of the mission he received.

Finally they inform us that when the crescent moon rises, it can deliver messages through dreams and when the full moon rises, it can move dimensions.

Summary of the ZERO: Fever PART.1:

#ateez #ateeztheory #ateezuniverse #wooyoung #ateez mingi #ateez wooyoung #hongjoong #ateezlore #seonghwa #yunho #jeong yunho #ateez yunho #yeosang #jongho #song mingi

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tilbageidanmark · 3 months ago

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MOVIES I WATCHED THIS WEEK (#190):

Jeanne Moreau X 2:

🍿 First watch: MR. KLEIN (1976), my third by blacklisted Joseph Losey (after 'The servant' and 'Modesty Blaise'). An intelligent mystery about mistaken identity. Privileged art dealer in occupied Paris Alain Delon benefits from the misfortunes of his clients who must liquidate their collections at fire sale prices. That is, until he's suspected of being Jewish himself. One of Delon's best roles.

RIP, Alain Delon!

🍿 THE ADOLESCENT (1978), one of the only 3 movies directed by Jeanne Moreau, was a delightful coming-of-age French bonbon. In the summer of 1939, just before the outbreak of the war, a 13 year old girl is vacationing in a small village near Avignon, and falls in love with a young doctor, 20 years her senior. And then her mother, full of sensual energy, has an affair with him instead. (Suzanne Lindon re-worked the same story in her wonderful 2020 'Spring Blossom'). Thematically it was a bit thin, but the pastoral landscapes, accordion score, and nostalgic haze were catnip to any Francophile worth his Vin Rouge. Simone Signoret plays the grandma, and there's one explicit naked scene of the young girl. 7/10. [*Female Director*]

🍿

I AM GRETA is a terrific 2020 documentary about Greta Thunberg, the then-17 brave crusader. It was made by somebody who had close personal access to her from the very beginning of her journey. I admired her steadfast heroism from the first weeks of her school-strikes in Stockholm, and was deeply-moved by her ascent into a global icon and torch-bearer environmentalist. And of course, she reminded me of Adora, both physically and in spirit. It's a very personal experience to me. What an legend. 9/10.

It must be devastating (to her, and to us) to look back today at the enthusiastic movement that she inspired, and recognize that it didn't amount to jack shit. (Screenshot Above).

🍿

Bergman X 5:

🍿 BERGMAN, A YEAR IN A LIFE (2018), another documentary of another complicated Swede, is the best biography about the legendary filmmaker. It focuses on 1957, a year in which he directed both 'The Seventh Seal' and 'Wild Strawberries', as well as television play and 4 massive theater productions. He also had 5 simultaneous relationships, and spent a month in the hospital, suffering from stomach ulcer and mental exhaustion. It paints an honest portrait, warts and all, of a truly iconic 'artiste', and one who enjoyed, from this point forward, the recognition and worldwide admiration as a one-of-a-kind genius. But also a selfish, lonely 'Erotoman', a megalomaniac workaholic, and a power hungry autocrat. (Also, a Nazi sympathizer until at least 1946). Essential viewing to all Bergman fans. 9/10. [*Female Director*]

🍿 TORMENT ("HETS") (1944) is a love triangle between fallen "shop girl" Mai Zetterling, a good looking student who falls for her her, and a sadistic Latin teacher who tortures them both. It was the very first Bergman screenplay which was produced, and he also directed some of the exterior scenes. A good review - here.

🍿 WILD STRAWBERRIES was made by a 39 year old man and perfectly captured the mindset of a really 'old' man, a bitter and resigned man at the end of his life. Of all the thousands of great movies made, this is the one nobody will object to when calling it a 'Masterpiece'. An immaculate 10/10. Re-watch ♻️.

🍿 KARIN'S FACE, a 14-min. visual poem from 1986, composed of still photos of his mother Karin, the most important woman in his life.

🍿 MINNS NI? ("DO YOU REMENBER?") is a quick mash-up of clips from 170 Swedish films, including many of Bergman's. The concept was better played in 'Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen'.

🍿

My 18th terrific film by Agnès Varda, SALUT LES CUBAINS. After her 1963 visit to Cuba, she composed a poetic montage out of the 4,000 still photos that she shot over there. A beautiful homage to the faces and the spirit of the people as well as the revolution. Narrated by herself and Michel Piccoli, and with great music score. I watched it in the original French. 9/10. [*Female Director*]

🍿

Ali Abbasi is an Iranian-Danish filmmaker, who directed 4 features so far. After seeing his 'Holy Spider' last week, I wanted to continue with the rest of his work. BORDER (2018) is an inventive folklorist tale about a woman with a Neanderthal appearance who works for the Swedish Border Service. She uses her feral sense of smell to sniff out people's fear, guilt and shame, for example when they hide child porn on their phones. It's a dark and disturbing story which starts with an unusual premise, but ends as a weird body-horror fantasy about forest trolls and changelings and what-have you.

As a completist, I was planning on seeing his debut feature 'Shelley', which looked like a 'Rosemary's Baby' re-boot out in the country, but I'm not in the mood for another Horror Nordic. Instead I'll just wait for his upcoming Trump Origin story, 'The apprentice'.

🍿

"Don't kill anyone unless you really have to."

GREEDY PEOPLE, a new, twisted black comedy in the Coen Brothers mold: Bumbling characters turn small time crooks by making one worst decision after another. A surprising fun ride, with a specific small island community feel. The title only comes up at 24:00 min. and the defining dog murder falls at exactly the mid point of the story. The initial reviews were not that great, but I enjoyed it very much for fulfilling its genre requirements. 8/10.

🍿

OCEAN WAVES (1993), a lesser known Ghibli Studio film about two student friends who both fall for a new girl who just transferred to their school. Not a typical Ghibli drama of a teen romance, with flatter anime style, but still an understated, whimsical score.

🍿

"The continent is peopled almost entirely by homosexuals..."

DANCE FIRST, my 3rd fictionalized film by British director James Marsh, (after his much better documentaries 'Man on Wire' and 'Project Nim').

A deferential, melodramatic and uninspiring Samuel Becket biopic. I dislike filmed literary biographies in general, and I hated this boring, affectatious one in particular. I don't particularly care for Gabriel Byrne high-brow/low-brow acting style, and I definitely couldn't stomach the dude who played his younger self. The fake inner monologue, the horrible attempt at bringing James Joyce back from the dead... It was excruciating to sit through.

🍿

Michigan J. frog X 2:

🍿 “Hello, my baby; hello, my honey; hello, my ragtime gal.”

ONE FROGGY EVENING, a 1955 Chuck Jones cartoon which introduced the all-singing, all-dancing frog, but who does it only when it feels like it. Based on a Cary Grant movie from the 40's.

🍿 First watch: Mel Brooks Star Wars parody SPACEBALLS, the inspiration to 'Black Mirror' USS Callister. But I never saw any Star Wars or Star Trek movies, and it just wasn't very funny. The jokes were on the 'I Love URANUS' bumper stickers level, and Stephen Tobolowsky as a gay trooper. 2/10.

Colonel Sandurz was much better when he later played Rabbi Nachtner.

🍿

2 by young Canadian documentarian Carol Nguyen:

🍿 NO CRYING AT THE DINNER TABLE (2019) is a simple, yet powerful, family interview. Vietnamese family, father, mother and sister, opens up for the first time about private traumas they each carry with them. Then they listen to the recorded conversations together. 8/10.

🍿 NANITIC (2022) is another simple and sensitive look into the psyche of a young girl who is spending the day with her Vietnamese grandma, as she lays on her death bed in the living room. 8/10. [*Female Director*]

🍿

2 by another young Canadian, Justine Gauthier:

🍿 DEATH TO THE BIKINI! (2023) an award-winning short about a rebellious 10-year-old girl who refuses to start wearing bikini tops when going to the water park. Like the Jeanne Moreau film above, it features nude scenes of the unapologetic prepubescent girl.

🍿 "...So, there's only a living room and a kitchen and a bathroom?"

THE APARTMENT (2018), a newly-divorced mother spends the first weekend with her two kids at her new small apartment. Sad. 8/10. [*Female Director*]

🍿

Philips Cinema / Parallel Lines had a contest in 2010 where 600 filmmakers created shorts using only six lines "What is it? ... A unicorn... Never seen one up close before.... Beautiful."

THE GIFT (2010), one of the only few science-fiction shorts I love. A messenger delivers a mysterious box to a rich man in dystopian Moscow. A frequent re-watch ♻️.

THE BURIED is a 'Breaking Bad' final scene at the desert.

25 of the finalists are on YouTube.

🍿

A few more shorts:

🍿 In THE HAIRCUT (1982), busy executive John Cassavetes has only 15 minutes to get a haircut, but he gets the best one of his life. It includes a manicure, pedicure, shoulder rub, shoe shine, romance, and a performance by The Bangles. Directed by Susanna Hoffs' mother. [*Female Director*]

🍿 PAS DE DEUX (1968), my second by Canadian Norman McLaren (after 'Neighbors'). A ballet short with Romanian pan flute music score.

🍿 Only my second by D.W. Griffith, THE MUSKETEERS OF PIG ALLEY (1912). An early gangster movie, starring Lillian Gish

🍿 FUNERAL AT NINE (2022), a beautiful short directed together by 6 animators. Three brothers deal with grief differently.

🍿 THE COOK is like a Swiss 'Ratatouille' but with weed instead of food, and also it's just a dream.

🍿

IT'S A GOOD LIFE (S3E8) is my fourth-ever 'Twilight Zone'. I wonder how much of the American mindset of 'Magical Thinking' was born out of it. Or did the 1950's paranoia and crushing conformity produce this sense of 'Normalcy' threatened by the mystic, the bizarre, the 'odd'? 'Everybody must always smile, and think good thoughts.'

🍿

"...So I reached out to my local militia..."

AMERICA'S RIGHT-WING RADICALS is a new, German documentary about the military veterans who are systematically building a functioning shadow army ready for a civil war in the near future. Trumpists, Nazis, fascists and racists united for one glorious holy fight, to get rid of the Jews, the blacks, and the poor...

🍿

Throw-back to the Adora Art project:

Adora with Alain Delon.

Waiting for Godot Adora.

Adora with Greta Thunberg.

Seventh Seal Adora.

Ballerina Adora.

🍿

(My complete movie list is here).

#movies #adora #greta #greta thunberg #i am Greta #Skolstrejk för klimatet

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ilovescaredysquirrel2 · 1 year ago

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So I watched Chicken Run 2 (is it knock off sequel?)

So yeah, Chicken Run 2 is technically a knock off since Sam Fell kind of stole the movie that wasn't his in the first place... but it was actually a decent movie? Dare I say it was, a GOOD MOVIE! Nothe first movie but it wasn't bad at all. I do think it got a little too dark, more than the first movie did. I mean, the first movie was dark but was dark because of the heavy topics like disability (Rocky's broken wing), racism (Fowler negativity towards Rocky for being American), and Mr and Mrs Tweedy keeping everyone trapped (could be symbolism for different things). I feel like this didn't have the same vibes as the first one but it wasn't a bad movie in general. Just like Barnyard and Back at the Barnyard, in which the knock off tv series was different from the movie but still funny and enjoyable. There is A LOT that didn't make sense from the first movie.

First off, WHERE WERE ALL THE LITTLE CHICKS FROM THE FIRST FILM? Molly was apparently the only chick and that doesn't make sense at all. Chickens usually lay more than one egg at once, and Rocky and Ginger probably had chicks at the end, along with Flower and other hens (one of them obviously being Bunty). Second, the art style looked slightly more Aardman when it came to the humans, the designs looked very different. Like, they looked like Victor Quartermaine wannabes. The biggest issue I had was Mrs Tweedy's new design and that I'm assuming Mr Tweedy went to jail so she married Dr Fry for money. Like, I know the studio had a fire and lost the models but did they have to make Mrs Tweedy look 20 years younger???? Like, they ruined her design! She was cool looking before, not "attractive" but just a plain normal looking woman. We don't have to make every female adult character be attractive, do we? Come on, Aardman! That was a bad move! Like, I liked that she looked like a plain ordinary farmer lady, even though she was the villain. They changed her design by making her body type look different and making her eyes bigger and more makeup. Third, I think if DreamWorks was doing their part like in the first one, it would be better but this wasn't bad. I'm mostly mad about the new voices though (especially Ginger and Fetcher's voice). Say what you want about Mel Gibson, but he does an amazing job playing Rocky! He's not the nicest person but he's not the worst either. Ginger sounds NOTHING like Ginger, Molly sounds more like Ginger than Ginger! Nick's new voice kind of worked but Fetcher was a big no! I think the new voice for Fowler did good, Nick was okay, Rocky was... meh but it wasn't as off as Ginger and Fetcher. I was so mad when I heard Ginger and Fetcher's new voices because they were so in character (especially my adorable mouse boi Fetch).

At least they didn't make Molly as bad as I thought she was going to be. I didn't think I was going to like her but I did! It's the girls-support-girls thing that really won me over and Molly helping Frizzle! I thought Molly was going a spoiled teen rebel but she wasn't! She was just an adventurous chick who was tricked by seeing a colorful van (I didn't care for that symbolism in the movie, it symbolised HT). I also wished more people from the first movie were working on it by understand not everyone could return.

The music was good, the art at the end credits made me laugh but it didn't feel like Chicken Run (they did Ginger so dirty tho). Anyway, that's my review on Chicken Run 2 sequel. Tell me what you think! This movie was still better than Wish! I still hope the new Wallace & Gromit movie makes more money though... If you want, feel free to write your own opinions in the comments

#chicken run 2 #chicken run #chicken run dawn of the nugget #chicken run dawn of the nugget thoughts #my thoughts on new movies #my thoughts #dreamworks #aardman

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kourt-wants-a-pager · 4 months ago

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Movie Review: Last Night In Soho (13/10)

hiii so basically yesterday i decided to watch this movie due to one tumblr post i found of Pearl (from Pearl, the X trilogy movies) and Sandie and also i really love Anya Taylor-Joy's acting.

[SPOILERS ahead!!! i will be talking about the movie's plot so keep that in mind]

[Also TW: SA]

the movie has to be one of my favorites, i really love the fashion and the cinematography of the whole film, it's a really gorgeous production. The scenes with that '60s glam are literally eyecandy. i also really loved the choreography elements in some scenes. the whole thing with the mirrors was genuinely so peculiar and entertaining to me, especially when Ellie broke the mirror while screaming "Look at me". speaking of Ellie, Thomasin McKenzie did an amazing job at portraying her character, Ellie feels like someone you would actually meet in real life. I also really like how Eloise didn't help the men who literally assaulted Sandie. In general I really liked the scene where Sandie explicitly says "They deserved it." and Ellie agreeing. I really loved that scene due to how that's literally so truthful and how Sandie (and every other girl who was also entertaining those bastards) didn't deserve any of that. Sandie is probably one of my favorite fictional characters, similarly to Pearl. Both of them just wanted to follow their dreams and become the stars that they also wanted to be. Sandie's monologue to Ellie was also one of the best scenes I've ever seen. Diana Rigg (the talented actress who played Senior Sandie) absolutely delivered that speech and I still feel so sad about Sandie dying in the fire. What I really love about the ending is that technically we don't even know if it was real or fabricated, since Ellie could have not survived. We don't really know that. I also really love the soundtrack, Anya Taylor-Joy delivered with her covers of 'You're My World' and 'Downtown". The scene where Senior Sandie is trying to stab Ellie while 'You're My World' plays and we get to see young Sandie 'perform' is literally peak cinematography.

So overall I really enjoyed this movie and it's definitely one of my favorite movies ever. Everything about this movie is genuinely perfection and it really resonated me with it. I rated the movie a 13/10 'cause I can.

#tumblr fyp #viral #fyp #trending #anya taylor-joy #last night in soho #acting #movies #movie review #movie #oscars #actor #music #relatable #fypage #slay #review #Spotify

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byrdiboo · 9 months ago

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There is no sexism in Ba Sing Se

By now I think everyone has their opinions formed about the live action ATLA remake but as a non-fan I figured I'd offer my two cents to anyone still on the fence or who might be interested in a slightly less biased opinion. To clarify, I don't hate the show, I actually like hearing my friends talk about the fan theories and how they thought the various heavy subjects are handled, I just never got into it myself. Because my partner is one of those people who did get into it, I've at least seen up to the point of Kyoshi Village in both shows (ep2 Netflix, ep4 original). One of the things I've seen most people excited about is the special effects, especially the bending. I will say, it looks...fine. I'm not up on my fighting styles but the choreography seems decent. The effects are nothing groundbreaking - we've had these water and fire sims for at least 10 years - but it's definitely not awful to look at...when you can see it. Way too much of the show (ie more than 0%) utilizes the inexplicably popular "someone forgot to turn the lights on when filming" lighting technique and "shakeycam meets too-many-cuts" editing with motionblur out the ass for good measure (some of the opening scenes are on youtube, judge for yourself). At least all two of the creatures we get to actually look at look awesome. Perhaps the biggest thing I've seen talked about is the changes to the characters themselves. I will start by saying the actors deserve no ill will, they're clearly doing their best with a subject they love and a script written by people who thought ATLA should read like GoT. Aang and the others have a few goofy moments thrown in to keep people happy but for the most part he plays the part of Main Character Boy while the others are The Support Characters, rather than three children in extraordinary times doing what they think makes sense. This is where my knowledge of Aang and Katara is lacking, but I do want to talk about Sokka cuz his changes (rightly) had a lot of people worried (and a lot of his character arc is pretty obvious from ep 1, rather than revealed past the point I've seen). They didn't just tone down his sexism, they removed it entirely, taking him from an obnoxious but teachable idiot to a generic annoying dudebro. Maybe this is just me, but I was endlessly annoyed that they took away his sexism without addressing the things that made him sexist in the first place. After being told by the leaderly elderly matriarch character about the fire nation attacks wiping out most of the village, we are told Sokka is how he is because he was appointed the village leader at 13 for...reasons. So the village is still sexist enough to declare a 13 year old boy leader over the woman everyone already looks up to, but this didn't affect his character in any meaningful way, I guess? And for those looking forward to the Kyoshi warriors, you can go ahead and put those hopes down. The warriors themselves get minimal action time before Deus Ex Kyoshi-ghost-possession (yes, really) deals with the fire nation attackers for them. As for the love interest, they took what was a solid moment of "sexist gets ass beat by woman, begs woman for training, learns woman can do stuff too, ends up liking and respecting woman so hard she reciprocates" into the most bland "popular girl falls for cute boy at school" complete with eyelash fluttering, shy-can't-look-at-yous, and the most vomit-inducing "training" scene I've seen in a long time. No lessons learned, no character growth achieved, but hey they got rid of sexism or whatever. All this to say, I'm willing to give live action some passes, but personally I don't think this one's even worth a hate watch. I won't tell you to hate it, it does have a few moments of brilliance, but they're the glitter on a turd imo and Netflix doesn't deserve to be rewarded with your watch time. Despite my misgivings, the show is (supposedly) still getting at least mixed reviews from fans and non fans alike, so if you've bothered to see it I'm curious what you thought the remake (or my impression) got right or wrong.

#atla #atla live action #avatar the last airbender

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weed-ols · 11 months ago

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Reviewing Every UKISS Release: By Unpopular Demand ~ Bring It Back 2 Old School

So...where do I start with this? The most questionable of questionable comebacks, a comeback so uncool that I cringed even as a kid. The only silver lining about this era is I can finally start dropping some great lore about them since they were getting some attention and doing reality shows. Anyway, god help us with this difficult journey.

(Quick note, yeah I have such a soft spot for Kibum. I'll always like him because of how eager he was to do slapstick comedy and fight another member for shits and giggles, always had his foot on Kevin's neck, and was Soohyun's sidekick/bestie-in-chief before Hoon showed up.)

Bring It Back 2 Old School - 2nd Mini Album | 2009.02.03

Still before my time as a KissMe, so I only listened to this after MMHN, and god was that a mistake. It confused me a lot as a kid, and still somewhat confuses me now as an adult.

So, I can forgive and understand the cringe Not Young debut, like I get it. But I don't understand how after seeing their fellow '08 boy groups that this is the comeback NH decided on. The other boy groups were all cool, hip, trendy, fun, and what have you, and NH gives them this to fight with. Is this self-sabotage? It feels like self-sabotage.

But yeah, somehow around this time, UKISS started getting a bit more attention. They had their in-house promotional webshow that was done around the spring/summer of 2009 that was filmed on a potato and had the production value of like 1000 won/episode that was brilliantly titled 'You Know U-KISS' (because they were really trying to make the hyphen a thing y'know).

It's a little pathetic to watch, but overall fascinating because they're still trying to figure out what role they should play for the cameras, like Kevin calling himself the angel of the group, and then just snarking at the others and getting called out by Dongho for constantly making fun of him. We got Kibum making fun of Soohyun and Kevin in this album but mimicking their singing-yelling; Soohyun and Kibum wrestling and pinning down an unsuspecting Xander with Dongho putting the cherry on top by covering his mouth like he's being kidnapped; girl group dance enthusiasts Xander-Kevin-Dongho dancing their little hearts out + camera-hungry Soohyun joining while Kibum just slowly dissociates while sitting on the floor, it's cinema.

There was also this little docuseries/variety show they did while promoting Talk To Me that I don't remember the name of, but it was great. There's a part where they're worrying about Dongho making friends at school, so they decide to help but bringing him lunch while doing promotions and being general public menaces. They also like publicly humiliated themselves at least 4 times to the general public in locations such as - an airport (I think it was some kind of busy public transit station), a subway car, a subway station, and at an amusement park.

So yeah, uh back to the actual album.

When I tell you I was shook when I checked the streaming numbers for these songs, I was shook. I Like You has over 1M streams on YouTube Music, and Talk To Me has 307k streams on Spotify.

To put this into perspective, on YouTube Music if we're comparing their Korean releases, I Like You is comparable to Playground (1.5M), The Wonderful Escape (1.7M), Someday (1.5M), Take Me Away (1.3M), and Without You (916k).

On Spotify (which is honestly just a mess I'm not about to get into), I did a quick check, and most of their title tracks clock in around 700k-1M streams, while popular B-sides are around 100k-300k. Shut Up!! is sitting around 530k streams, and Someday is at 330k. Talk To Me is just under Someday, and it's outperforming She's Mine (107k) and Mysterious Lady (258k). I'm so baffled by this, I have no explanation for these numbers.

Intro (On Fire) | YouTube Music 22k | Spotify 3k

Wonderful duet with Soohyun and Kevin, and alleged feature by Kibum who sounds suspiciously like Kevin

What can I say? Another banger intro that shows off their singing

They sang it live on You Know U-KISS, and it really emphasizes how loud they are, and that they are indeed good singers

UKISS Sex Song #2

8.5/10, all we needed was them singing together dramatically to make it even better

I Like You (Audio) | YouTube Music 1M | Spotify 22k

The opening makes me want to crawl out of my skin

"Hell yeah" everything Eli says makes me laugh

"Girl let me hold you down" SOOHYUN QUOI

Other than that one line, the lyrics are kinda cute in that this is basically just like any standard boy group cutesy love song

The song itself is kinda ass but is also, unfortunately, pretty catchy

I also like that this is less of a group song than a shouting match between Soohyun and Kevin, with Eli and Xander as their respective cheerleaders

I like how Xander and Eli are just present throughout the entire song, so it feels less like the rap was just an afterthought

Kibum and Dongho were also there

Look, I'm not gonna knock Dongho's 4 words the boy was going through puberty and voice changes I get it, it's cruel to make him sing

But yeah, Kibum got 4 words, he was basically the Kiseop before Kiseop joined

Yeah, you know there's not much to say about this song really. It's a song, they sang it, they rapped it, people were present, they had the Brave sound

6/10 it's just a shouting match with a peanut gallery in attendance, so while impressive for that vocal power, it's very meh just listening to the audio

I Like You (MV) | Official upload 88k

Honest to god I don't think I've ever watched this MV

Okay this is goofy af I have no idea how I'm gonna do this without screenshotting every frame because this is peak comedy

So this came out 2009, right? Probably filmed that January, or maybe even December 2008, but like not that long ago, right?

Why the hell is this shot on a potato? Not Young's fan upload had better quality than this

YouTube is alleges this is 480p, dare I say this is 240p max

Also, fun lore from the comments, but a KissMe in there says they were an extra at the club, and you know what, good for them

The image of a bus going around to pick up like 10 kids to bring to an empty club after school is very funny

I also love that nobody in that comment section full of KissMes is delusional enough to actually say anything nice about this MV

They're all going "oh well it's a catchy song", "it's kinda cute, right?" or just straight up making fun of the low production value, the godawful hair and clothes, and offering their condolences for this MV

Stupid Windows Movie Maker effects are back, babyyyyy

Perm!Soohyun and Perm!Kevin, you'll always be famous

Remember how they said that while getting the perm, Kevin was crying in the salon, called his mom, and told her he'd leave UKISS if he had to keep this hair?

Also remember that time when ASC just opened a Line chat room or something, and fans just spammed it with pics of Perm!Kevin because of course that would happen

I imagine Soohyun stoically getting it done because he's too committed to the bit, but I'm pretty sure they said he cried too

I also like that the perm wasn't bad enough, so they also gave Soohyun a mullet

A KissMe on their new fancafe set their profile pic as Perm!Soohyun and I'm in tears every time I see it because it's so high quality

Poor Xander still has his perm

Kibum rocking a wig stacked on top of that visor, which confuses me greatly because his hair at the time was genuinely really nice and thick so how much hair did they want him to have

Dongho and Eli escaping the hair crimes with a buzz cut and bowl cut. Do you think they thanked god for that?

Also I'm gonna be honest, despite his hair, Kevin is serving a bit of face here and I gotta respect that

They look goofy af walking into the club in those clothes don't clubs have bouncers that kick people out if they're not dressed right or something?

Oh wait never mind I just remembered how old they were, this is the Mickey Mouse Club, my bad

Not this fakeass band shit

Well I mean I guess Dongho being the drummer is technically true, they did say he took drum lessons while harassing him at school

So yeah about the clothes, like I get this is a retro themed comeback, but goddamn why would you do that

Soohyun looking like he's about to pull up in his pickup truck and crack open a cold one while listening to some country

Okay you know what, I don't even hate this denim jacket look, it's just made goofy by everything else

Not this stupid recurring harbour walk shot

Also, they're dressed so well here? Like that's the worst part, the stylists clearly know how to style them, but then they get given the worst concepts that demand the worst clothes

Like tell me this doesn't scream late 2000s boy group???

If Not Young was High School Musical, I Like You is a mix of Camp Rock and Spectacular

I like Kevin's pixelated distressed expression here while Soohyun is positively beaming

Okay I know they're at the Mickey Mouse Club, but like imagine hitting the children's club and someone is dressed like that

They would get bullied so hard

Like, do you see how unserious this MV is???

Also, stupid ass conga line

It's okay, they're drinking club soda because only 2 of them could legally drink at the time

Girl how old are you why are you still at the children's club??

So yeah, the plot of this MV is Eli is our protagonist, and at the start he meets our Female Lead while hitting up the Mickey Mouse Club. We're led to believe they're kind of in that flirty-not-quite-dating stage where there's this undisclosed understanding of exclusivity, I guess

FL is like kinda stalking Eli throughout the club, watching him bust a move with the boys in that horrible outfit, and I think she's relieved he's not really around any other girls

So then we get to the club soda shot, and this Jezebel struts her way over to them and starts whispering in his ear like a harlot, which our FL interprets as cheating? Betrayal?

She angrily leaves the children's club and gets into a taxi while Eli chases after her

Why are grown adults starting beef in the children's club?

We get some shots of Eli and FL looking all sad and lonely

Then DANCE BREAK!!!!!! Naturally, interspersed with shots of our depressed and teary FL because whiplash?? Never heard of her

More dumb conga lines, more harbour walk boy group shots, more dance breaks, a DJ shot

Every time they do the shirt lapel pop thing, I have to laugh it's really dumb

Like Kevin, sweetie, you're wearing a print hoodie that's sold at The Children's Place

MV ends with FL finding Eli sitting in a park, alone and cold, and we're led to believe they'll reconcile

The pro of this is this is probably one of their most plot-heavy(?) MV that's done with a clear narrative structure. It's kinda like the shameful older sibling of 0330

Again, I got two ratings for it

11/10 if taken completely unseriously, like the poor quality, low budget, terrible clothes and hair, tween movie plot are all absolutely hilarious. I was thoroughly entertained, even though I cringed every time they did the stupid conga line or showed their whole outfits

3.75/10 if taken seriously. I'm giving this a bit more grace than Not Young because of the coherent story being told, and the fact they were so serious wearing those horrible outfits into the club.

I Like You (Stages) | Highest viewed 36k Inkigayo

Oh dear god I need someone to hold me

I only found official Inkigayo stages, so I guess that's what we're watching

This one in particular is their actual first comeback stage so that's gonna be a fun mess

Also lol why does everyone get an intro slide with their full name except for Eli?

Okay before I actually talk about the stage, it is really cute how many Korean comments there are from when they went viral in 2020. It just warms my cold heart

And the older, predominantly English comments laughing at them and cooing over how courageous it is to come back after how bad this was

Thank god it's these outfits rather than the horrible hoodie ones

I don't actually hate these outfits, I just have a lot of questions

The hair is horrible, Eli's hat is terrible, why are they still wearing tags on their clothes? But those pants were kinda cool back then

This part of the dance is kinda cool I guess

STUPID ASS CONGA LINE

Perm twins centre lol

Also have I talked about Kevin's brows here? This is before he started shaping them, so he just permanently looks concerned and mildly distressed

The stupid tags flapping all over the place is *chef's kiss*

This dance is so stupid, but actually requires a lot of work?

The footwork isn't that complex, but there's a lot of jumping, travelling around, and some surprisingly sharp movements

So this live in particular....isn't that bad, given what they had to work with?

I'm fairly certain it's sung live because Soohyun and Kevin are loud as hell while Kibum is almost inaudible in one of his lines

Unsurprisingly, Soohyun and Kevin sing great, pretty stable, despite the jumping

Xander and Eli did their jobs, and Kibum and Dongho were there lol

They definitely improved a lot from Not Young though

Again, Soohyun, Kevin, and Kibum are the most polished still, but Dongho improved a lot and is actually performing the hell out of the dance, rather than just hitting the right moves

Xander and Eli didn't really catch my eye, but that's not really a bad thing, since that means they blended in and matched with the group. Xander in particular seems a lot more comfortable and aware of the camera

So yeah, they all improved their dancing to varying degrees as individuals, but definitely improved as a group

I will say though, they all do seem mildly embarrassed, but koodos for committing to the song the entire way

There's another Inkigayo stage from later that month, and it's mostly the same, just another outfit

They still have the tags on these clothes too lol

Kibum sounds better in this one though, as in I can actually hear him

And lol Kevin and Soohyun freed from their perms

Also the camera guy here loved Kevin so much that Dongho was ignored for his second line

I think my biggest problem with these stages, besides you know the material they have to work with, is that they're still taking it too seriously

You can tell they're performing with a lot of sincerity, which is good and why it's so endearing, but this is the kind of concept that needs to be treated like campy fun

Be too serious about it, and it becomes ridiculous, which is what I personally feel happened here

And yes, you can be 100% sincere but also embrace the camp

5.25/10 the material is so bad it can never be great, but they're so sincere and serious about this, I don't even hate it that much

Talk To Me (Audio) | YouTube Music 258k | Spotify 307k

Something about this song just gives me the most visceral nostalgia, and I have no idea why

I Like You is Soohyun and Kevin yelling at each other, but Talk To Me is literally them actively trying to drown the other one out, and I think that's so emblematic of how they present themselves

It's got the vibes of NH threatening to kick off the loser of the shouting match in terms of how loud they are

I'm not quite sure how much of their singing this song shows off, but it definitely highlights their volume, I'll give it that

Entering the familiar realm of placing the raps in the middle so the song can finish strong with singing lol

If you wanna have a fun time, as in you wanna end up in the hospital and get your stomach pumped, take a shot every time they say "baby"

It feels like a proto-Quintessential UKISS™ song, but with a heavy dose of early installment weirdness. We're missing some of their famous misery from being cheated on and wanting the girl back

Another standard boy group love song, but lyrically a bit closer to weepy power ballad than cutesy pop, which makes the ultra aggressive singing even funnier

For real I feel like Soohyun and Kevin are yelling "TALK TO ME DAMMIT"

Anyway, Kibum gets an incredible 3 lines, Dongho a stunning 0, and Kevin and Soohyun fighting to dominate the airtime

6.75/10 I definitely enjoy this a lot more than I Like You and Not Young, as in I could see myself putting this on some huge playlist where it might get played once a week, but I also don't really like it either? It doesn't have the same quirky and stupid charm that Not Young and I Like You have, and isn't as...comfortable(?) to listen to as Give It To Me. I might have strange tastes, but I'm not fond of being yelled at through music

Talk To Me (Stages) | Highest viewed 90k Music Core

Dumb clothes, dumb song, dumb choreo

There's a couple of Inkigayo stages officially uploaded, but the MuCore one is in HD, plus I think the mics were pretty good

One comment said this is Soohyun's song with a Kevin feature, and I think that's so true

Also not one commenter saying they think all 3 vocalists are good and someone replying that there's only 2

Okay, so I don't hate these outfits I honestly have no opinion on them

They're better than whatever they wore for I Like You, and at least the only things that you can laugh at are the bright yellow accents and Eli's stupid sunglasses

Why is he wearing sunglasses? I always thought that his eyes were one of his best features and what people really liked about him

Glad the perms are gone, and we're just rocking bowl cut, buzz cut, and standard 2009 idol hair

Also, now that Kevin's hair is less distracting, is this the last time we see his chubby cheeks at their peak? I swear he literally loses baby fat every comeback after this until like 2013

I just...really love Soohyun look at him he's so happy here, living his best life, and ignoring his #1 haters (NH upper management)

I don't understand this part of the choreo, but do you think Eli ever wanted to actually kick Soohyun and Kevin? Probably no to Soohyun because everyone worships him, but maybe yes to Kevin, and it's probably deserved

I mean, I'm pretty sure play fighting is how they show their affection anyway it's like their longest running gag next to Soohyun wanting to marry every single fan

Why's he calling me a loser while singing "let me love you" this is genuinely making me lose my shit it's so funny

All in all, I don't hate the choreo for this either, it's just kinda dumb in some places, and honestly, I think everything about this song and stage just needs to be tweaked a little bit to actually be good

I wish there were more wide shots during the dance so I could see the footwork, but it doesn't seem particularly complex, and like I Like You, is mostly made difficult by the constant travelling and need for spatial awareness

I do like the parts where they move in a line, I think it looks cool from the high shot, and I also like the frantic scampering during the chorus

Listen, I have a really deep appreciation for how difficult it is to shuffle backwards as a group while doing arm choreo, it's harder than you think

And again, like I Like You, there's even more improvements here with nobody catching my eye in a bad way, and they're all really committed to the choreo, like there's not even a sense of mild embarrassment or uncertainty

Oh, and this is definitely sung live too

Kevin, always the stable singer, not much to say there

Soohyun is throwing his whole body into every note like NH is pointing a gun at him from the stage wings

They're both so stable, so loud, and singing pretty high up there while dancing, very impressive (but that's their standard anyway)

Kibum sounds better here than in the previous stages, getting louder, and sounding more stable, so that's good for him

Eli and Xander are still...rapping. Again, don't know enough to comment on it, but it is nice their voices are clear

Dongho was there, and he looks more baby than ever, and he was committed to the choreo

7.5/10 I'm only ranking this lower than Give It To Me because I think that had better outfits and I like the song more. No this is not an objective ranking

Yeah, this is such a strange part of their career. It both feels kinda important since it's their first comeback after debut, but also super irrelevant since this era is almost never brought up. I don't even think they had a song from this album on the setlist for their 15th anniversary concert. I know they did Not Young for it, plus they'd already done it back in 2016 for their 5th JP anniversary.

Which is a great segue into my fun fact for this post which is that they've only brought up this era again very recently in 2020 when Soohyun was IG Live king, and Kevin decided he was no longer ashamed of UKISS and joined in a bunch of times. They're just out there, having a good ol' time, reminiscing over old songs when Kevin brings up Talk To Me, sings it while doing the hand choreo, then immediately gets booted from the live.

Actually, that whole IG live is great. Kevin's being extra nice to Soohyun, while Soohyun oscillates between playful banter and passive aggressive jabs because it's his IG live so he's the supreme ruler. There's one part where they're talking about their favourite releases, and Soohyun obviously goes Standing Still, while Kevin says Stop Girl, and Soo goes "I didn't really like that comeback :P". Also, not Soohyun bringing up that he stole a line from Kevin in Cinderella because he couldn't pronounce it properly, and still can't lol.

The hard part is over, the emotional labour is done, and we're finally entering into the beginning of their golden era of relevancy - Conti UKISS, and the beloathed ManManHaNi + Kiseop's official entry into the cinematic universe with the worst line distribution. It's only up from here, baby!

Ngl I'm actually sweating looking at all their stuff post-2010 there's so much music to cover, so many music videos to do + ones I've never even watched because they haven't been uploaded by avex and I don't have the DVD. Their JP albums are gonna be so long

#ukiss #uwukiss #i'm gonna miss constantly cringing but my back is gonna thank me

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georgiapeach30513 · 1 year ago

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Chris and Emily were fire in Pain Hustlers. Like, that one you know wat scene - no spoilers. They really played off each other well - I was sincerely thrown off and impressed by the emotion C was emitting. Like you expect it from Liza/Emily because she’s emotive as hell even with her Botox (lol) but I wasn’t expecting his character’s voice to shake and hold back tears like. He’s so vile but showing so much vulnerability - it was unexpected for me.

They have good chemistry and I think both deserved better. Chris wasn’t given enough to do - if the script/story was a little stronger this film would have turned real heads. Honestly.

I’m annoyed at any of the critics who claim CE wasn’t doing much and only praising Emily. Because a bunch of the big critics only called out Emily for her performance I honestly was expecting him to have phoned it in. Not true at all.

Catherine O’Hara also needed to be given more to do. She’s awesome as the mom - just the minor lines she had she was great. Andy Garcia was a weirdo to the max. The cast did well with the material they were given.

Ppl - don’t just read rotten tomatoes or what critics say. If you’re curious about the film, give it a shot. hope David Yates continues to strive out of his Harry Potter comfort zone and goes more in.

And yes, you were right. Ppl are going to be surprised by Chris/Pete in this. Emily is my girl so I knew she would kill it but her accent was very distracting I’m almost wondering if maybe because David Yates is British he didn’t notice it was off in parts lol

(It’s such a shame a big portion of his fandom has fallen apart due to things. This could have been a character that banded the masses together.)

I think your review is very concise and point out so much that I did. I have very little to add because you said everything that I feel. And yes, I know I’m biased. But I do think the critics were a bit harsh on the performances. The script was jumpy and didn’t have heart. The directing and editing was so flashy.

I do want to note on Emily’s accent…I don’t know what it is about a southern accent, but people rarely get it right. The Devil All The Time is one of those instances where I see so many southern accents, but they are so close to the real thing.

#pain hustlers

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shootingxstardust · 8 months ago

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Jurassic Dead (2017) Review

Jurassic Dead

So this movie was one that I bought on a whim. I was at a used CD and DVD place with my dad, and bought this while on vacation. I spent $4.00 and I regret nothing.

A couple nights ago, I watched this movie with @shxxtteredfantasy. This movie.. It was entertaining to say the least. And yes as the polls said, I am going full spoilers with this review because I am pretty sure none of you will watch this.

So the film begins with this professor dude. He's getting this secret green formula that brings dead thing back to life. The guy who gives him said formula is threatening to kill him. The professor guy injects a dinosaur and the dinosaur kills everyone at the scene, but the professor guy.

Skip to one year later, the professor guy is teaching his class about reanimation, and injects a dead cat, with the green formula. This scene bothered me because he said "You need a lot for it to work" HE USED LESS WHEN BRINGING BACK A FRICKEN DINOSAUR... Also where's the dinosaur during this?? Who knows... Well because of this professor being Frankenstein levels of insane, he gets fired, vows to get his revenge, and then gets hit by a truck...

Some time later we meet two groups of characters

the Black ops in which we have Duque (who looks like Duke Nukem... and yes they reference this), Stick, the only person of color in the film and one of the few who survive, some asshole guy with a bandana, and a badass token lady character who... I don't think had one line of dialogue.. At least none that I can remember... oh and one guy that dies in the very begining

The second group we have a stereotypical blonde.. (like so stereotypically stupid I'm surprised she didn't need to be reminded to breathe, by the characters.), a stereotypical jock...( who has a gun for some reason... and brings up the 2nd amendment for some reason when he's asked why he as one...), a nerdy girl playing Game Boy, and a nerdy guy doing weed.

After a meteor causes all the electricity in the area to stop. (phones, cars, gameboy, etc) the gang of high schoolers find themselves in a weird science facility. The same facility that the black ops people are investigating. The facility soon fills with green smoke, one of the black ops guys who had separated from his crew, breathes in the smoke and becomes zombie.

The high schoolers and the Black ops team soon run into each other, and the douche in the bandana (whom a couple scenes ago pointed a gun at them while they were driving, confiscated the nerd girl's and guy's weed.

A TV then comes on. It turns out the professor guy who got hit with a truck is not dead. He is wearing a cloak because he is evil, and a gas mask.. and he sounds like grocery store Darth Vader. He then announces his very evil plan to turn off all the electricity in every major city, and then turn everyone into Zombies. He then of course, announces that no one in the facility is going to survive and releases his dinosaur to kill him.

Duque walks right over to the dinosaur and decks him in the face. The dinosaur is then presumed dead and they walk away. However, of course, the dinosaur is not dead! Now it wants revenge on Duque and the crew!

The groups have now split up for some reason.. It's the jock guy with the bandana guy. The Bandana guy gives the jock some beanie weenies, and then starts smoking weed and talking about chemtrails and other conspiracy theories, but their time of smoking weed and enjoying beanie weenies is cut short as the dinosaur grabs the jock guy. Instead of doing anything to help, Bandana guy books it,

Bandana guy regroups with the rest of the crew. However, the Jock guy is dead, but not completely. he is now a zombie. He arrives at the scene and says to the blonde (his girlfriend) "I love you." The blonde then runs over to hug him, despite him being a zombie. Duque however is on the scene and shoots him before he can bite/ kill her, but not before getting bit himself. The blonde is hysterical, crying about her boyfriend being murdered, despite him being a zombie, and while Stick is trying to convince her that she needs to get going.. The Blonde stupidly does not leave, and then gets eaten by the dinosaur that has shown up yet again.

The crew have two missions now, to stop the villain's evil plot, and get out alive, but.. when ya gotta go, ya gotta go. The nerd girl went quickly, not wanting to take her time while there's zombies on the loose, however, the nerd boy criticizes her on her bathroom hygiene. He then goes to the bathroom, presumably number 2, because he's taking forever... However, Duque isn't doing so hot... While in the stall, he becomes a zombie..

The bandana guy is also using the bathroom, and says that he's suffering from a case of the bubble guys. He then does some more weed... As he's doing his business, Zombie Duque opens the stall and starts strangling bandana man. The nerd guy during all of this... just stays in the stall, instead of doing the logical thing of leaving. Bandana man tries to get his gun out, but accidentally shoots the nerd guy right in the head.

Okay okay what next

Assassin lady kills the now zombie bandana man, the nerd girl somehow knows code and hacks into the system, but the system has a safeguard and now the facility is about to blow up.

The professor realizes he has to leave, but then the dinosaur shows up and eats him.

The remaining crew find a military vehicle equipped with a turret, they kill Zombie Duque and the dinosaur with it. They then escape the facility by somehow crashing the military vehicle through the wall and escaping, but it's too late, the villain won, and all the characters are zombies... but sentient... and they adopted the dinosaurs head as their pet.. They then drive off into the desert sunset.... The end..

This movie was a nonsensical mess, but... I love these type of movies. I was never bored. All in all I give it 6.5/10

#Out of Blue Flames {OOC}#review

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fibula-rasa · 2 years ago

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Lost, but Not Forgotten: Look Your Best (1923)

[alternate title: The Bitterness of Sweets]

Direction: Rupert Hughes

Scenario: Rupert Hughes

Camera: Norbert Brodin

Choreography: Ruth St. Denis

Studio: Goldwyn

Performers: Colleen Moore, Antonio Moreno, Earl Metcalfe, Martha Mattox, William Orlamond, Orpha Alba, Francis McDonald, Eleanor Boardman (in a bit role)

Premiere: 18 February 1923, Temple Theatre, Detroit, MI

Status: presumed entirely lost

CW: Dieting / Weight Loss

Synopsis (synthesized from magazine summaries of the plot):

On the streets of New York’s Little Italy, Perla Quaranta* (Moore) dances to the music of her father’s (Orlamond) barrel organ. Unfortunately, Perla’s mother (Alba) has a tendency to grab whatever is at hand for use as a projectile in the midst of arguments with Perla’s father. After one particularly raucous fight, her parents are arrested and sentenced to 30 days. Fortunately for Perla, the owner of a dance troupe, Carlo Bruni (Moreno) scouted her dancing on the streets and hires her to replace a recently fired dancer. The previous girl in Bruni’s “Butterfly Act” was let go after gaining too much weight to do the wirework demanded by the routine. Perla’s privation-induced petiteness is desirable for the role.

Bruni’s struggle with his weight has also apparently gotten in the way of his own work as a dancer. Perla takes well to the role and is a success in the act, which features a number of chorus girls dressed as butterflies flitting across the stage by wire. The stagehand, Krug (Metcalfe), takes a liking to Perla and takes her out regularly as the troupe goes on tour. The now gainfully-employed and avidly-courted Perla has access to all the sweets her heart desires and, in a repeat of her predecessor’s difficulties, she begins to put on pounds. Krug makes an advance on Perla, which she rebuffs. In his bitterness, Krug files Perla’s wires, assuming Bruni will blame the broken wires on her weight and fire her. During the next performance, Perla plummets to the stage and is injured.

Bruni suspects Krug of tampering with the wires, and thrashes him. Bruni is arrested and also given 30 days. While Perla recovers in the hospital, another suitor appears in the form of a baker, Cabotto (McDonald), who buoys her spirits by describing all the different delectations he serves. Meanwhile, behind bars, Bruni envisions a new ballet for the troupe with Perla in a starring role.

When Bruni is freed and Perla is recovered, they reunite and commit to dieting and to each other, via marriage. The new act depicts Perla as a white peacock killed by the hunter, played by Bruni, and mourned by an array of forest nymphs.

(At some point before the final dance number, Perla is reunited with her parents, but, from the synopses, I’m not sure of the order of events.)

* or Quaranti or Moroni based on various reviews

As a side note that I cover more in the annotations below: this plot doesn’t make much sense without a heavy dose of satire, right? The reviews didn’t leave me with a clear idea on whether the film lampoons diet culture or not and, unfortunately for us, unless somebody (maybe some sharp Michigander) makes a lucky discovery, we can’t find out for ourselves!

Transcribed sources & annotations below:

Motion Picture News, April 1922

Ruth St. Denis to Supervise Dance Scenes

The noted dancer, Ruth St. Denis, has been engaged by Goldwyn to supervise the dance scenes in Rupert Hughes’ new comedy, “The Bitterness of Sweets,” which he is himself directing.

The beautiful peacock ballet in this film will form the climax of the picture. The featured players, Colleen Moore and Antonio Moreno, are both busy practicing for this dance. Active work on the photography for “The Bitterness of Sweets” will soon be begun by Mr. Hughes. In the cast are William Orlamond, Orpha Alba, Earl Metcalfe and Martha Mattox.

—

Note: “The Bitterness of Sweets” was the working title of “Look Your Best.”

I hadn’t heard of Ruth St. Denis before now, but seeing what an important role she had in the creation of Modern Dance in America—and that she was a teacher of both Martha Graham and Louise Brooks—it’s an insult to injury that this film appears to be lost. I’m not even sure how many films St. Denis worked on! Many of the reviews below cite the dance numbers as a true highlight of the film too.

Exhibitor’s Herald, 8 April 1922

Rupert Hughes Personally Directs Filming of Story

Rupert Hughes’ new Goldwyn photoplay “The Bitterness of Sweets,” is a story of Italian-Americans, instead of the Irish-Americans that he has depicted so frequently in the past. The author has assumed the directorial reins in the making of his own picture.

Colleen Moore is playing the role of an Italian dancer with a craving for sweets, which tend to make her too fat for the dancing art. Antonio Moreno has been signed to Goldwyn to play opposite Miss Moore in this comedy-drama.

Moving Picture World, 13 May 1922

SINCE Rupert Hughes has taken to directing his own pictures at the Goldwyn studios in Culver City he has been swamped by visitors. They like to hear him spouting epigrams through his megaphone. Colleen Moore, who is now being directed by him in “The Bitterness of Sweets,“ already has jotted down the following bits:

You can’t use imitation silk before the motion picture camera. The lens is even quicker to detect imitation emotion.

Horace said: “He who would make others weep, must first have wept himself.” Every motion picture director should have that on his wall.

Ever since I was six years old people have been prophesying that I was going to kill myself with overwork. All the prophets are now dead.

We could make some very fine motion pictures if we didn’t have to bother with cameras and lights.

The censors are going to stop crime by censoring the films. Why don’t they put an end to diseases by burning the medical books which describe them?

When an actor loses control of himself he loses control of his audience.

—

Note: the timeline for the production to release of this movie is really something. They commenced filming somewhere around the end of April/early May 1922, but it wasn’t released until late February of 1923.

Motion Picture Magazine, June 1922

On the Camera Coast

[excerpt]

Things are stirring down at Goldwyn’s once more, with Rupert Hughes at work on his own story, “The Bitterness of Sweets,” Colleen Moore. Colleen made such an impression in two of the Hughes pictures that she will be retained as the featured player in all of his productions into which she can possibly be fitted.

—

Note: This doesn’t appear to have come to fruition?

Motion Picture Magazine, September 1922

…There were long waits between the scenes of the new Rupert Hughes production “The Bitterness of Sweets,” but Colleen Moore didn’t mind them. She provided musical relaxation…

Exhibitor’s Trade Review, October 1922

Colleen Moore Sets New Record

Will Be Featured by Five Different Distributing Companies Within Space of Two Months

A record unique in the annals of the motion picture business is being set this fall by Colleen Moore, beautiful and talented young star. Exhibitors who stand by one or another distributing company and who have therefore not had the opportunity to play any of these pictures in which Miss Moore has been featured will note with interest that no less than five distributing companies will offer productions in which she is featured during the coming fall months.

First National will shortly present “Slippy McGee,” the Oliver Morosco production of Marie Conway Oemler’s well known story, in which Miss Moore plays the leading feminine role.

Goldwyn will soon release two pictures in which Miss Moore will be featured. The first will be Rupert Hughes’ production of “The Bitterness of Sweets,” which was personally directed by the author. Tony Moreno plays opposite Miss Moore in this production. The second Goldwyn feature will be “Broken Chains,” the widely advertised $10,000 prize story which was transferred to the screen under the capable direction of Allen Holubar.

Hodkinson has already delivered to its exchanges the prints of “Affinities,” a picturization of the Mary Roberts Rhinehart story of the same name. This is a Ward Lascelle production in which Miss Moore is starred.

Universal announces that Miss Moore will soon be seen in the featured feminine role in “Forsaking All Others,” a drama which has just been completed under the direction of Emile Chautard. It will be released as a Jewel special.

Rounding out the quintet, Vitagraph is now nearing completion of a picturization of the famous old stage success “The Ninety and Nine,” with Miss Moore in the featured role and directed by Dave Smith. This production will also be a special release.

—

Note: Slippy McGee (premiered June 1923, status unknown) , Broken Chains (premiered December 1922, extant), Affinities (premiered October 1922, status unknown), Forsaking All Others (premiered December 1922, status unknown), The Ninety and Nine (premiered December 1922, only 10 minutes of the film survive (available on Undercrank Productions’ Accidentally Preserved Vol. 4))

This item implies that LYB was intended for release in the fall/winter of 1922, though an exact date isn’t given.

Moving Picture World, October 1922

Moreno Signs to Act for Paramount

Antonio Moreno has signed with Paramount. This announcement was made during the past week in Hollywood where the popular “Tony” already has started work as leading man with Gloria Swanson in Sam Wood’s new production, “My American Wife,” which Monte M. Katterjohn has adapted from an original screen story by Hector Turnbull.

Moreno is admittedly one of the handsomest and most able actors on the screen. Recently he has been featured by Goldwyn and will soon be seen in two of that company’s new productions, “The Bitterness of Sweets,” a Rupert Hughes production, and “Passions of the Sea.”

The new Paramount picture in which Moreno will play opposite Miss Swanson is described as intensely romantic, the locale being Argentina. Moreno’s role is that of a handsome young aristocrat and politician, descendant of one of the old Spanish conquistadores, who falls in love with a beautiful American girl from Kentucky (Miss Swanson) whose horse out-races the valued track champion of the Latin nobleman.

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Note: My American Wife (premiered February 1923, status unknown), Passions of the Sea (premiered in February 1923 as Lost and Found on a South Sea Island, extant)

Motion Picture News, February 1923

Pre-release Reviews of Features

“Look Your Best ”

Goldwyn—Six Reels

(Reviewed by Charles Larkin)

TO EAT, to grow fat, to spoil one’s career. To starve, to keep thin, to become a great artiste. That is the choice given Perla Quaranta, a little Italian girl portrayed by Colleen Moore, who is one day noticed dancing in the streets by Carlo Bruni, manager of a small theatrical troupe, and who is given the place of the chorus lady who has fallen to the temptation of too many sweets, with the result that the perfect 36 has developed into an imperfect 40 or so. Perla is a success in the act but as she goes from town to town, accepting invitations from Krug, a stage hand, to dine, she also begins to take on weight. Krug, maddened at her coldness, when he makes advances, weakens the wire that holds Perla aloft in a butterfly stunt and she falls to the stage. Krug thought he could tell the folks Perla’s avoirdupois was to blame. Bruni, however, knocks Krug for a goal and gets thirty days for his gallantry. However, thirty days pass soon in some jails, and Bruni is soon out and starting a new ballet with Perla.

And so it goes. It isn’t much of a picture and there is a fight between Perla’s mother and father which takes up much footage and could be eliminated much to the improvement of the story. In fact, the dropping of these two characters throughout would not be missed in the least. To see a boisterous hurdy gurdy grinder jump from jail into a theatre box in a dress suit is not being done these days. There is a very artistic ballet scene toward the end of this picture.

This is not the best thing Rupert Hughes has written and adapted for the screen. Neither is it his best directed picture. Of course, one can’t expect any company to continue releasing masterpieces all the time. We can’t have a “Christian” every day. There have got to be some program pictures once in a while. This is one. It will serve its purpose and is suitable for second-class downtown houses, and there may be many who may find much humor in its fat and thin theme—especially those who are fighting either evil.

The Cast

Perla Quaranta…Colleen Moore

Carlo Bruni…Antonio Moreno

Pietro…William Orlamond

Nella…Orpha Alba

Krug…Earl Metcalfe

Mrs. Blitz…Martha Mattox

Alberto Cabotto…Francis McDonald

By Rupert Hughes. Directed by Rupert Hughes. Scenario by Rupert Hughes. Photographed by Norbert Brodin.

The Story—Deals with the horror in which some folks hold plain good old fat. A chorus girl having attained this terrible state, is fired and Perla, a daughter of Little Italy, is given her place in Bruni’s “Butterfly Act.” Perla made good and went on the road with the show. She also went out to dine with one Krug and began to put on flesh. Krug, a disappointed suitor, filed one of the wires which held Perla aloft in the butterfly stuff. During the act she crashed to the stage. Bruni beats up Krug and gets 30 days. Emerging from jail he starts a new ballet, engages Perla and the two rise to fame.

Classification—One of Rupert Hughes’ problem plays—the problem of keeping thin.

Production Highlights—Colleen Moore’s characterization of the role of the little Italian girl. The crashing of Perla to the stage floor as a result of the villain weakening the wire which holds her.

Exploitation Angles—The title. The eat and grow thin or fat as you will theme offers a chance to tie up with the health department, Y. W. C. A. women’s walking clubs, etc.

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Note: “Deals with the horror in which some folks hold plain good old fat.” There’s only so much I can assume about the movie’s treatment of weight gain and dieting, as it is lost, but from all the synopses I read, I gotta say as a plot device it doesn’t seem to make much sense? Like, obviously in the performing arts, the expectation to stay at one precise size is stricter than in other fields, but it seems like there is no real logic at play here? I’m glad this reviewer points out that it comes off as Rupert Hughes just hating fat people. Another reviewer mentions a noteworthy lack of satire in the film, and, from the details in the synopses, it seems like this plot would only really make sense if it were a satire or critique on diet culture.

Exhibitor’s Trade Review, February 1923

Look Your Best

Goldwyn Photoplay in six parts. Author and Director, Rupert Hughes. Cameraman, Norbert Brodin. Running time, seventy minutes.

CAST AND SYNOPSIS

Perla Quaranta, Colleen Moore; Carlo Bruni, Antonio Moreno; Pietro, Wm. Orlamond; Nella, Orpha Alba; Krug, Earl Metcalfe; Mrs. Blitz, Martha Mattox; Alberto Cabotto, Francis McDonald.

Perla Quaranta, an Italian girl, dances in the streets to the music of her father’s barrel organ. Her grace attracts Carlo Bruni, manager of a small theatrical troupe. He hires her to take the place of a dancer who has grown too fat through overindulgence in food. Perla makes good, but the temptation of plenty of pies, cakes and other pastry is too much for her, besides the fact that Bruni is also given to overeating, through which his figure suffers and his dancing powers are impaired. Perla begins to take on weight like her predecessor. A stage hand named Krug plays court to her but is repulsed. In revenge he tampers with a wire which upholds Perla while doing a butterfly act. The wire breaks and she is injured. Bruni suspects Krug and thrashes him. Bruni gets thirty days in jail for assault. Meanwhile Perla, during her convalescence, is almost won by a baker who describes the tempting pastries he makes. But Bruni serves his sentence, returns and he and Perla resolve to diet steadily and win fame as dancers. They do so and are married into the bargain.

Stout patrons who find it difficult to resist the lure of fattening foods may benefit by the moral pointed by this picture—that salvation is only to be found by exercise of will power and faithful dieting. And they, as well as those of slenderer build, will probably be amused by many of the farcical situations which result when hero and heroine yield to the temptation of rich victuals, suffer accordingly, but eventually conquer the hunger fiend and attain fame and marital happiness. Yet, “Look Your Best” cannot be listed as quite up to the high quality mark of Goldwyn productions. Its humor is a bit forced at times, the plot of exceedingly thin texture, and Mr. Rupert Hughes, who is responsible for both story and direction, did not improve matters by stretching out the film to its present length. The “diet and grow thin” theme is funny in spots but likely to weary the average spectator when spread beyond the five reel limit.

Points of Appeal.—The love interest is fairly well sustained. The revenge of Krug, the disappointed suitor, when he tampers with the wire on which Perla is performing and brings her crashing to the ground, provides a distinct thrill and the beating administered to him by Bruni is another realistic bit of work which balances the picture’s comedy trend. The ballet scene in the final reel is elaborately staged and very effective.

Cast.—Colleen Moore is bewitchingly pretty in the role of the Italian heroine and her performance is notable for its dash and ginger. Antonio Moreno furnishes an excellent character sketch of the redoubtable Carlo Bruni, who wins a desperate battle against encroaching fat and a wife whom he also initiates into the trick of waxing slender. Earl Metcalfe scores as the designing villain, Krug and the support is adequate.

Photography, Lighting, Direction.—Exteriors and interiors are well filmed, there are some artistic long shots and the lighting throughout is satisfactory. The continuity is even and tolerably fast action prevails.

Motion Picture Magazine, March 1923

Comments on Numerous Productions

LOOK YOUR BEST — GOLDWYN

Rupert Hughes gets off on a different tack in this, his latest expression. He makes a plea to be on the look-out for adipose tissue as a destroyer of beauty. And he argues his point thru a weirdly melodramatic story of a chorus girl who develops obesity and is discharged as a result. A slender girl is taken on and proves a sensation. Comes then a bit of Italian jealousy when a disappointed lover files the wires in the ballet number, causing the little “butterfly” to crash to the stage. Mr. Hughes’s satiric vein is missing here. In fact you wouldn’t recognize his style here at all. It’s breath-taking, now and then, but many of the scenes are clumsily executed and the characters are not deftly drawn. Colleen Moore succeeds in being genuine, as usual, in her portrayal of the ballet girl. And Tony Moreno is a satisfactory lover—of the hot Italian school.

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Note: Interesting point here that there is a lack of “Hughes’ satiric vein.” I haven’t seen much of his work as of yet, so I don’t know what sort of satire would be typical of Hughes’ work. However the plot details laid out across various reviews and synopses don’t just strain credibility they tear it to shreds, UNLESS the whole thing was a satire on diet culture, but as far as I can tell, it’s just straight-up fatphobia. A shame, for sure, because this sort of story told as a lampooning of diet culture honestly sounds pretty darn entertaining.

Motion Picture Magazine, March 1923

Rupert Hughes went out to the Palm Springs on the edge of the desert to make the opening scenes of the film version of his novel “Souls for Sale.” It suddenly began to rain in the way rain comes down in the desert and the company was stuck there in idleness for a week. Claire Windsor, Richard Dix, Frank Mayo, Lew Cody and other well known actors will be in the cast. It has always been supposed that Maj. Hughes drew the heroine of his story to a certain extent from Claire Windsor, altho, of course, with liberal modifications. It almost went without saying that she would have the part when the story was screened.

The name of Maj, Hughes’ story, “The Bitterness of Sweets,” has been changed to “Look Your Best.” This was the picture in which Colleen Moore appeared as a dancer.

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Note: Considering the extended timeline between the production and release of Look Your Best, the production of Souls for Sale (premiered March 1923, extant) commenced directly after LYB wrapped. So, Hughes’ second and third feature for Goldwyn premiered within a month of each other, with Souls for Sale being a larger production and more heavily marketed. I’m wondering if holding off on the release of Look Your Best was due to a lack of faith in the final product and a desire not to prematurely tarnish the rep of a writer/director that Goldwyn had just signed on for a lot of pictures? That is, releasing it close to Souls for Sale seems like a smart call because Souls for Sale’s quality and higher box-office potential would likely minimize any doubts about Hughes’ abilities that might arise if his second film for Goldwyn was as underwhelming as reviewers and exhibitors portray it. Alternatively or additionally, maybe the studio deemed LYB a “programmer” after production wrapped and was simply waiting for a better time on their release schedule.

The Film Daily, 30 March 1923

Putting It Over

Here is how a brother exhibitor put his show over. Send along your ideas. Let the other fellow know how you cleaned up.

Fashion Pageant Staged

Toledo—Eddie Carrier, Goldwynner put over “Look Your Best” at the Pantheon exploitation campaign.

The outstanding feature was the presentation of a fashion pageant, which was staged in co-operation with the Thompson Hudson Co. department store. A number of manikins were brought to Toledo by Carrier. A runway was constructed out into the audience along which the beauties promenaded adorned with the seasons latest fads and fancies. The runway had special illumination and the spectacle was said the most elaborate ever staged.

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Note: There are a number of news items about exploitation schemes for the film that tie in with other local businesses, but, humorously, the tie-ins are with department stores and have to do with fashion and cosmetics, when that seemingly has nothing to do with a movie about vaudeville performers and dieting!

Camera, 30 March 1923

THE SILENT TREND

Composite of Views, Previews, and Reviews of Motion Pictures.

“Look Your Best” and we did. The result: we saw a pretty fine Rupert Hughes photoplay, quite typical of that author’s best work for the screen. Many critics complain that this one is not up to the usual Hughes standard. It may not be, but, just the same, it is highly amusing and away above the average of other films of its class. The cast is especially attractive, Colleen Moore and Antonio Moreno dividing high honors with Earl Metcalf and Martha Mattox contributing excellent characterizations. The direction is undoubtedly devoid of any of the brilliance of finesse and could be improved upon easily, but the main idea of the story is registered successfully enough to make anyone remember it with pleasure. And, that’s a commendable lot for a motion picture to accomplish.

Motion Picture News, April 1923

Elaborate Style Show Put Over with “Look Your Best”

Toledo, Ohio.—The management of the Pantheon theatre, in conjunction with Goldwynner Eddie Carrier, put on an elaborate exploitation campaign on “Look Your Best,” the outstanding feature of which was a fashion pageant staged in co-operation with the Thompson-Hudson Company, a leading department store.

A bevy of beautiful mannequins was assembled, and a runway was built far out into the audience, on which they promenaded with the latest fashion creations. Special lighting and scenic effects were used and a musical score was provided for the occasion. The department store co-operated with a double-page ad, seven full window displays and 2,500 letters to its customers.

Moving Picture World, April 1923

“Look Your Best”

Rupert Hughes Has Created a Clever Comedy Drama Satire on Dieting

Reviewed by Beatrice Barrett

A clever commingling of comedy, pathos and drama, with a thrill thrown in now and then and a subtle satire on dieting running all through is “Look Your Best,” a Goldwyn release.

It is the sort of light entertainment picture lovers like when they are just out for a good time and relaxation.

With the much discussed question of dieting as a background there will be many in the audience who will appreciate heartily the efforts of the people to diet and forego all the pleasures of eating, and the many times they yield to temptation.

An appealing strain of pathos is introduced in Perla, the Italian girl whose life is almost all work and no food, and her childish pleasure in her first nice clothes. Colleen Moore does well this wistful role. There is always a fascination about life back of the curtain and there are many scenes here of the rehearsals and scenes in the dressing rooms that will attract.

Very beautiful are the scenes of the Butterfly Girls with great gauze wings executing their dance and then suspended on wires flying through the air. The stage sets and the dance which Antonio Moreno and Colleen Moore do at the end of the picture is also very artistic and gives an air of a big production to what at times seems to be simply a comedy.

Rupert Hughes worked up through many laughs to the big thrill of the cut wire and has handled very well these scenes with the girl flying through the air coming right toward the camera—and all the while the audience knows the wire is going to break—and it does and there is a fall that will give them a shudder.

The plot is a gossamer one, and simply a thread which lightly holds together the events of the story—but in a picture of this character you don’t expect much plot. The audience will be chuckling and enjoying each new incident as it comes along.

Cast

Perla Moroni…Colleen Moore

Carlo Bruni…Antonio Moreno

Pietri…William Orlamond

Nella…Orpha Alba

Krug…Earl Metcalf

Mrs. Blitz…Martha Maddox

Alberta Cobatto…Francis MacDonald

Written and directed by Rupert Hughes.

6 reels.

Story

Perla, a half starved Italian girl, is engaged by Bruni to be one of his butterfly dancers because she is so thin. Krug, the wireman, becomes infatuated with Perla. She begins to get fat, and when she tires of Krug’s attentions he files the wire on which she hangs as a butterfly so Bruni will think she is too fat for the part and discharge her. Bruni used to be a beautiful dancer but through love of food grew too fat and could no longer dance. He and Perla both start to diet. He composes a beautiful dance for them and they are a great success. The story ends with their wedding—and the two still dieting.

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Note: Now, this reviewer thinks the film is a satire of dieting?

Exhibitor’s Herald, 7 April 1923

COLLEEN MOORE IN

LOOK YOUR BEST

(GOLDWYN)

A cheerful little story of an Italian girl who becomes an actress and then has a hard time keeping her job because of overeating. An interesting picture of backstage life, and although not one of Rupert Hughes greatest plays, is quite satisfying. Author: Rupert Hughes; Continuity: Rupert Hughes; Director: Rupert Hughes. Length six reels.

There is just a little over an hour’s pleasant diversion in this latest Rupert Hughes-Goldwyn production. It is a quaint mixture of pathos, humor and drama. The humor borders on the slapstick, while the melodrama is the good old-fashioned “s-death” kind. However, there is the ever appealing Colleen Moore in it, as the interesting little toe dancer, and Antonio Moreno as a ballet master. Add to these William Orlamond, as Pietro; Orpha Alba, as Bella, his wife; Earl Matcalfe, as Krug, the villain; Martha Mattox, ad Mrs. Blitz; and Francis McDonald, as Cabotto, a suitor for Perla’s hand, and you have a cast capable of good things.

At the State-Lake theater, Chicago, where the picture followed the trained seals, it got a few laughs and held the attention of a vaudeville-loving audience. And you’ll certainly enjoy Colleen Moore more and more.

The story concerns Perla, a little New York girl of Italian parentage who goes into Bruni’s butterfly dance act in vaudeville and finds she must deny herself the sweets she loves in order to remain slender. The man who manipulates the wires, failing to win her love, plots to get her discharged for putting on too much flesh. He cuts the wire supporting her, but Bruni discovers his treachery and engages him in a fight, which lands both in jail, but on Bruni’s release Perla is waiting to reward him with her hand.

Screen Opinions, June 1923

“LOOK YOUR BEST”— [Class B] 65%

(Especially prepared for screen)

Story:—Romance of Little Italy, a Girl and a Theatrical Manager

VALUE

Photography—Very good—Norbert Brodin.

TYPE OF PICTURE—Entertaining.

Moral Standard—Average.

Story—Good—Comedy-drama—Family.

Stars—Good—Colleen Moore and Antonio Moreno.

Author—Good—Rupert Hughes.

Direction—Good—Rupert Hughes.

Adaptation—Good—Rupert Hughes.

Technique—Good.

Spiritual Influence—Neutral.

CAST

Perla Quaranti…Colleen Moore

Carlo Bruni…Antonio Moreno

Pietro…William Orlamond

Nella…Orpha Alba

Krug…Earl Metcalfe

Mrs. Blitz…Martha Mattox

Alberto Cabotto…Francis McDonald

June 1 to 15, 1923.

Producer—Goldwyn

Footage—6,000 ft.

Distributor—Goldwyn

Our Opinion

MORAL O’THE PICTURE—If You Would Look Well, Mind Your Diet.

Not Particularly Artistic, but Makes Good Entertainment—Stars Do Well

Scenes in Little Italy, in which an Italian organ grinder and his wife are forced to serve a thirty-day sentence in jail following a knife and china shower, are fraught with comedy, and so also is the initiation of Perla, the pretty daughter, into the stage technique of playing butterfly and being hoisted on a wire to flutter her butterfly wings. Colleen Moore is charming in the role of Perla, and one of the notably good performances of the picture is done by Orpha Alba, who plays the role of Nella Quaranti, Perla’s mother, who, between laughter and tears, chastises her husband, Pietro, with the first article that comes to hand, no matter what the substance is, and then makes parting at the jail “such sweet sorrow.” William Orlamond is the type for Pietro, and Antonio Moreno, as Bruni, whose theatrical grace was spoiled by too much eating, is also very good. Earl Metcalfe, as Krug, elected to serve as Perla’s wire hoister, in love with her and reproachful when he failed to obtain kisses in return for the food that made Perla “not as thin as she used to was,” is all that the role requires—he does well. Francis McDonald is the baker joy and jealous lover, and looks and acts the part. The picture contains some attractive stage scenes with the butterfly girls flitting rapidly past the camera, and there is also an elaborately staged classic dance, supposed to take place in the greenwood, in which Colleen Moore is dressed as a white peacock, which is slain by the hunter, Antonio Moreno, and mourned by the wood nymphs. This is really a very enjoyable feature.

STORY OF THE PLAY

Perla Quaranti, a street dancer, finds herself alone when her father and mother are sentenced to thirty days in jail for fighting. She is offered a position by Carlo Bruni, an Italian theatrical manager, whose specialty is a group of butterfly girls. Perla, filling the place of a girl who got too stout to hoist, grasps good fortune by the neck and eats herself stout also on the bounty of one Krug, a wirehoister. Krug plays her false when he realizes that she loves Bruni instead of himself, and takes revenge by cutting the wire so that during the whirl of butterflies Perla falls to the stage and is injured. The story closes happily with Perla and her parents reunited, and Bruni her prospective husband.

PROGRAM COPY—”Look Your Best”—Colleen Moore and Antonio Moreno

Perla Quaranti’s butterfly days ended with a bang when a jealous lover took revenge for lack of kisses. Don’t miss seeing Colleen Moore, Antonio Moreno and an excellent cast in “Look Your Best,” one of the funniest and most original of recent comedies.

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Note: This is the only review that adds detail about Perla’s parents. Another reviewer complained that the bits with her parents were wholly superfluous. Other reviewers barely mention that they are even in the film!

Moving Picture World, 9 June 1923

Sells First Showing on the Type Argument

The Temple Theatre, Detroit, does not believe in too much splash, even for a world premier, and gets along very nicely with 100 by 3 for Look Your Best, using two cuts and six lines of snappy stuff about the nature of the play to back up the illustrations. Apparently these illustrations are from the plan book, and they have no strong illustrative value, but the upper one suggests the stage story, which this is, and the lower the growing weight of Colleen Moore, which is the essence of the plot. The selling value lies chiefly in the talk, and here this talk is a quiet little chat about the play with no particular stress, just an intimate tip-off on the nature of the play which is more convincing than a many-adjectived oration could possibly be. It is so good that it might have been put into larger type, even at the cost of one of the cuts. And make a note now that Look Your Best is going to make a wonderful peg for hook-up pages and style shows. Combine the two of them by starting early enough to get your plans all properly laid. There are a lot of similar co-operative angles, but these will be the best bets. -P. T. A.-

Poster blurb: Every day in every way she gets stouter and stouter—tempting food was her great weakness. Her job in the chorus was at stake but still she could not tear herself away fascinating fats—until the theatrical career of her partner was threatened and then, she made the grand sacrifice.

FUNNY? IT’S A SCREAM!

— Note: photo of the interior of the now demolished Temple Theatre, a popular vaudeville venue.

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Exhibitor’s Trade Review, July 1923

SLOGAN BASIS OF MERCHANT TIE-UP

Madison, Wis.—A merchant tie-up on a “Look Your Best” Week was put across by Dr. Wm. E. Beecroft, manager of the Parkway Theatre, and Goldwynner W.D. Nealand, in connection with the screening of “Look Your Best.” Art Kniseley, advertising manager of the Burdick & Murray Department Store, went in heavily with the theatre management on this “Look Your Best” week.

He gave the picture a splendid window display, using the slogan “Look Your Best” as a sales aid for their clothing, millinery, hosiery and toilet articles. In addition to the window display, Mr. Kniseley ran a sixty-eight inch advertisement in both the State Journal and the Capitol Times, tieing up with “Look Your Best.”

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Moving Picture World, September 1923

Consensus of Published Reviews

Look Your Best

(Colleen Moore—Goldwyn—6 reels)

M. P. W.—A clever commingling of comedy, pathos and drama, with a thrill thrown in now and then and a subtle satire on dieting.

E. H.—Is a cheerful little story of backstage life. It was written and directed by Rupert Hughes, and although not his greatest play, will be found highly diverting as an hour’s entertainment.

N.—It will serve its purpose and is suitable for second-class downtown houses.

T. R.—The “diet and grow thin” theme is funny in spots but likely to weary the average spectator.

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Picture Play Magazine, October 1923

Keeping Nature’s Gifts

[excerpt]

Colleen Moore’s diet depends upon whether she is putting on flesh for a picture or taking it off. She lived practically on lemon-juice for two weeks, losing ten pounds at the start of “Look Your Best.” For the last scenes she had to regain her avoirdupois, so she went to bed for a week, drank milk-two or three quarts a day and ate cakes and everything.

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Note: I hate this.

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Exhibitor’s Herald, 24 November 1923

Goldwyn Cosmopolitan

Look Your Best, with Colleen Moore. —A very good picture that failed to score at all at the box office. I have played ten of these pictures, losing money on eight, breaking even on one, so I really will be glad when they are over with. The advertising matter is my greatest drawback, for I’m a little fellow and can’t afford an artist to make my lobby and have to use their stock stuff, which is bum considering the attractions they represent. Pretty enough, but do not run true with the films. Seven reels.—Hugh G. Martin, American theatre, Columbus, Ga.—General patronage.

Look Your Best, with Colleen Moore and Antonio Moreno.—Two dandy stars wasted in this. Rupert Hughes was unable to convince an audience of movie fans what he was driving at. Lacked interest all the way. Not worth bothering about.—Ben L. Morris, Temple theatre, Bellaire, Ohio.—General patronage.

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Moving Picture World, December 1923

LOOK YOUR BEST. (6 reels). Star, Colleen Moore. A very ordinary picture that I played on a Saturday night and put in a strong line of fillers and in that way escaped censure. You can play this, but be careful of your accompanying selections and buy it right. Usual advertising brought good attendance. Draw health seekers and tourists. Dave Seymour, Pontiac Theatre Beautiful, Saranac Lake, New York.

LOOK YOUR BEST. (6 reels). Star cast. Nice little comedy-drama. Very light in construction. Seemed to please. Had fair attendance. Draw all classes in town of 1,000. Admission 15-25. Jack Kaplan, Rivoli Theatre (378 seats), South Fallsburg, New York.

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Best Moving Pictures, 1922-1923

LOOK YOUR BEST. Produced and distributed by Goldwyn. Six reels. Released February 18, 1923. Cast: Colleen Moore and Antonio Moreno. Director, Rupert Hughes. Story of a chorus girl who tried to keep thin.

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The Educational Screen, February 1924

THE THEATRICAL FIELD

LOOK YOUR BEST (Goldwyn)

Colleen Moore and Antonio Moreno demonstrate the tragic fact that life is very bitter to the lover of sweets when his job depends on his remaining thin. Fair entertainment, making no demands on either actors or audience.

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Motion Picture Magazine, November 1924

Every Little Bit Helps—to Stardom

By HARRY CARR

[excerpt]

Eleanor Boardman came to the old Goldwyn lot and jumped at once into the top line by a tiny scene in Rupert Hughes’ The Bitterness of Sweets, in which she fainted in a theater box.

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Note: Given what I noted earlier about the release dates of LYB and Souls for Sale, finding out that a bit role in LYB (here referred to by its working title) led to Eleanor Boardman’s starring role in the latter film is fascinating. Boardman likely filmed her single scene in LYB months before production started on Souls for Sale, which she is the star of. But, because the release of LYB was delayed, Boardman had a bit role and a starring role on screens within a month of each other!

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