#thinking of talented mr ripley here as well

[saltburn-bi]

something i didnt notice my first watch: the reason oliver goes to peep through the bathroom door at all is because he hears felix Moan

felix, who is sharing the bathroom with oliver. who either knows or doesn't care that the door is cracked.

the tub is still draining when theyre both in there brushing their teeth, which also means that felix did that Knowing oliver would need to go in there/ theyve also already seen each other naked, like in the field, so it's also not that far-fetched that felix was EXPECTING oliver to come in while he was in the bath to brush his teeth, at which point felix would have been 'caught' and would have been like oh nooo i guess u should... join me....

like over and over and over felix shows oliver he likes him, hes into him, and over and over and over oliver just Doesnt Get It and misses his chance

[legallybrunettedotcom]

hi! can I ask you for crime movie recommendations, or just a list of your personal favorites? I've been getting super into crime fiction recently (books and movies), and I'm making a watchlist of movies I want to check out next. heist movies, gangster films, thrillers, anything involving criminals is interesting to me, and I'd really love to hear about your faves! have a nice day <3

hiii, Estelle! oh I love a good crime movie! I grew up on gangster and mob movies tbh so there's some obvious choices like the godfather and goodfellas. continuing with Scorsese, I love casino. I think it's somewhat underrated Scorsese, idk i just don't see it mentioned that often, but it's super fun. the departed as well, people talked shit about it, but it's great. then mean streets, serpico, taxi driver, dog day afternoon, heat, collateral, thief, chinatown. pretty much every Tarantino ever, obviously reservoir dogs and pulp fiction, jackie brown is my favourite and the sort of song of the movie is across 110th street from the movie of the same name, so I'd def recommend that one, it's an underrated flick. heist movie-wise, ocean's eleven kind of the king here. then set it off, bound, inside man, widows, the italian job (the original), topkapi and rififi are underrated ones, the asphalt jungle, the friends of eddie coyle, the taking of pelham 123, the thomas crown affair (the remake), dead presidents, out of sight, point break, the driver, hustlers, a fish called wanda is sooo funny. sexy beast is such a great and intense movie.

if you'd enjoy something criminal and psychosexual, I'd recommend two 60s movies the housemaid and who killed teddy bear? the cook, the thief, the wife and her lover is an insane sexy one. blue velvet fits here as well. Guy Ritchie made the same movie like 4 times tbh, but I love snatch and lock, stock and two smoking barrels, I think the man from uncle is also a fun one. Brian De Palma is good at corny and sleazy and I kinda love his scarface. body double is silly but I love a good voyeuristic movie. along those lines you obviously have rear window and peeping tom, and then to continue with Hitchcock, I love rope, psycho, and think dial m for murder is quite overlooked. natural born killers, true romance and the doom generation for something stupid and bloody. mandatory Fincher recs like se7en and zodiac. I love the usual suspects, it has that twist at the end that for me personally works even upon rewatches. another underrated movie is joy house with beautiful Jane Fonda and Alain Delon in his prime. faster pussycat kill kill is just pure fun and sleaze and gorgeous ladies. I love lady snowblood and scorpion with Meiko Kaji but I know you've seen those. tokyo drifter is a stylish one as well. some obvi french new wave recs like breathless and pierrot le fou. I'd say there's nothing quite like the atmospheric the night of the hunter. I love drive too, it's all style and the only substance is blood. uncut gems and good time are quite good too. out of something extra new, I enjoyed love lies bleeding more than I expected. seven psychopaths and in bruges for something cynical and silly. then fargo, no country for old men, the big lebowski. filth and trainspotting for something utterly dirty and disgusting. not to forget Hannibal Lecter, we can't not mention the silence of the lambs and manhunter. also badlands, dirty harry, carlito's way, eastern promises, the third man, the big sleep, double indemnity, gun crazy, bonnie and clyde, foxy brown, american psycho, the talented mr ripley, prisoners. something more along crime drama strange days, fallen angels, the city of the rising sun and made in hong kong.

[vxctorx]

The Talented Mr. Ripley Sentence Starters

feel free to change the pronouns

"If I could just go back. If I could rub everything out… starting with myself."

"To my ear, jazz is just noise. Just an insolent noise."

"I can tell you, the _______ name opens a lot of doors."

"I have so much luggage, and you’re so, um, streamlined. It’s, you know, humiliating."

"We’re partners in disguise."

"Hello. Uh, well, I knew you…so I suppose you must have known me."

"I’ve been looking all over for you. Where’ve you been hiding?"

"Did you suddenly forget where I lived?"

"I’m despicable, but I love you."

"Everybody should have one talent. What’s yours?"

"Nobody should have more than one talent."

"It’s too much! You’re making all the hairs on my neck stand up."

"I’m never going back."

"To actually hire somebody to come all the way here to drag me back home– Got to be a little insane, hasn’t he?"

"Call him, if you can find a telephone that works, and tell him wild horses wouldn’t drag me back to him."

"Boats are female. Everyone knows you can’t call a boat after a man."

"I can’t write and I can’t spell. It’s the privilege of a first-class education."

"Now that you’re a double agent and we’re gonna string my dad along, what if we were to buy a car with your expense money?"

"You’re breaking my ribs!"

"I love the fact that you brought Shakespeare with you but no clothes."

"Anyway, just wear some of my stuff. Wear anything you want. Most of it’s ancient."

"Without the glasses, you’re not even ugly. I don’t need them because I never read."

"It means we’ve never shared a bath, and I’m cold. Can I get in?"

"Stop telling me what an incredible time you’re having."

"He wants me to reassure him that you’re going to be home by Thanksgiving."

"You’ve got to get a new jacket. Really. You must be sick of wearing the same clothes."

"I love how responsible you are. My dad should make you chief accountant or something. Or when I take over, which is never, I will."

"Oh, God, don’t you want to fuck every woman you see just once?"

"Would you get undressed in your own room?"

"I was just fooling around. Don’t say anything. I was just fooling around."

"You, uh, stay at _______’s house, you eat _______’s food, you wear his clothes, and his father picks up the tab."

"The thing with _______ ... It’s like the sun shines on you, and it’s glorious. And then he forgets you and it’s very, very cold."

"When you have his attention, you feel like you’re the only person in the world. That’s why everybody loves him."

"How can it take an hour to find an ambulance?!"

"I don’t know why people say this country is civilized. It isn’t. It’s fucking primitive!"

"You don’t have to clean up! Really!"

"You’ve been so good to me. You’re the brother I never had. I’m the brother you never had. I would do anything for you."

"She came to me for help. She needed money. I didn’t help her."

"I’m not going to say anything, to the police or anybody. It’s a secret between us, and I’ll keep it."

"You could hardly expect this to go on forever."

"You said it yourself. It’s my dad’s money you’re spending."

"I’m suddenly quite happy to be going back."

"Do you even like jazz, or was that for my benefit?"

"I’ve gotten to like everything about the way you live. It’s one big love affair."

"I figured-Now, just for argument’s sake, say I got a place. Or say we split the rent on a house."

"Yesterday, you’re ogling girls on the terrace. Today you’re getting married?! That’s absurd!"

"You love me. You’re not marrying me."

"I don’t love you."

"To be honest, I’m a little relieved you’re going. I think we’ve seen enough of each other for a while."

"You can be a leech! You know that! And it’s boring. You can be quite boring!"

"The funny thing is, I’m not pretending to be somebody else, and you are. I’ve been absolutely honest with you about my feelings, But you-"

"First of all, I know there’s something. That evening, when we played chess, for instance, it was obvious."

"Oh, sure. No, no! It’s too dangerous for you to take on. Oh, no, no. We’re brothers! "

"You follow your cock around like a-And now you’re getting married! No, I’m bewildered. Forgive me."

"Who are you? Some third-class mooch? Who are you? Who are you to say anything to me! Who are you to tell me anything!"

"Actually, I really, really do not want to be on this boat with you. I can’t move without you moving."

"I’m gonna kill you! Kill you! You’re dead!"

"There’s a side to him when our heads are on the pillow, I know no one else sees, that’s so tender."

"The truth is that if you’ve had money your entire life, either you despise it, or you’re only truly comfortable around other people who have it and despise it."

"I look at you and I see her face. And I can’t- No matter what I’m feeling towards you–"

"But will you meet me tomorrow? Just to say goodbye properly, you know, in the daylight, so it’s not just this. You should always save pain for daylight."

"Last time you didn’t know your ass from your elbow. Now you’re giving me directions. That’s not fair. You probably do know your ass from your elbow."

"I won’t count on you anymore. Whatever it is you’ve done or haven’t done, you’ve broken my heart. That’s one thing I know you’re guilty of."

"You’re much more like the son my father wanted."

"I realize you can change the people, change the scenery, but you can’t change your own rotten self."

"I’m haunted by everything I’ve done and can’t undo."

"I’m delighted, contrary to rumor, that you’re still in one piece."

"By the way, officially there are no Italian homosexuals. Makes Michelangelo and Leonardo very inconvenient."

"Well, whatever you do, however terrible, however hurtful, it all makes sense, doesn’t it, in your head. You never meet anybody who thinks they’re a bad person."

"Don’t you just take the past and put it in a room in the basement, and lock the door and never go in there? And then you meet someone special, and all you want to do is toss them the key. Say “Open up. Step inside.” But you can’t. Because it’s dark, and there are demons."

"I keep wanting to do that. Fling the door open. Just let the light in, clean everything out."

What a waste of lives and opportunities. I’d pay that fellow $ 100 right now to shut up!"

"You know, people always say that you can’t choose your parents, but you can’t choose your children."

"I loved you. You may as well know. I loved you. Maybe it’s grotesque of me to say this now, so just write it on a piece of paper or something, and put it in your wallet for a rainy day."

"When you see where you live from a distance, it’s like a dream, isn’t it?"

"You know, seeing you again, I–I’ve thought about you, so much."

"I’m gonna be stuck in the basement, aren’t I? That’s my... Terrible…and alone…and dark. And I’ve lied…about who I am…and where I am. Now no one will ever find me."

"I always thought it would be better to be a fake somebody, than a real nobody."

"You’re not a nobody. That’s the last thing you are."

[cinematicnomad]

tagged by @phdmama to list seven comfort movies! a lot of my comfort movies are what i like to call competency porn. which is basically movies about professionals doing their jobs well, so! here's the list

APOLLO 13—is there anything better than the scene when one of the guys in houston walks into the room and is like "we gotta figure out how to make this fit into this using nothing but that"

SPOTLIGHT—peak competency porn, honest, hard working journalists using their skills to report on the story of sexual abuse in the catholic church and it actually making an impact. wild! i have rewatched this FAR too many times for it to be healthy probably lol

AIR FORCE ONE—ok this one is silly, but really is there anything better than watching hot president harrison ford beat up a bunch of terrorists on a plane and then face off against gary oldman using a russian accent? bc honestly, i can't think of any

A FEW GOOD MEN—i just love a good courtroom drama where people shout their confessions on the stand in front of everyone. also this has tom cruise at his peak, so really?? who can complain.

SHATTERED GLASS—this is a random deep cut that i first watched early in the pandemic? but it's just. it's got everything i love. based on a true story, young hayden christensen playing a con artist journalist, and then just...an even, steady story as other journalists pick apart his lies and his life falls apart. like?? i love it. i've rewatched it A LOT.

MONA LISA SMILE—a movie that is objectively not as good as the one it's trying to ape (dead poets society) and YET it's the one i get in the mood to rewatch all the time. like this is white feminism at its peak but it is, truly, a guilty pleasure.

ALMOST FAMOUS—if you'll notice from this list, another thing i clearly like is recent period dramas and this is a great one to just get into the early 70s music scene and have some fun. also philip seymour hoffman is PHENOMENAL in this.

THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY—this is a bonus eighth film that i am adding to this list bc i only just watched it for the v first time in december and i've already rewatched it twice since. i can see it becoming a comfort move for me. in this case, the competency porn would be tom's competency at conning and murdering lol

tagging @crazyassmurdererwall, @tattooedsiren, @woodchoc-magnum, @valleydean, @machtaholic, @tripleaxeldiaz, @tawaifeddiediaz, @catdadeddie, @buttercupbuck, and anyone else who wants to do this

[denimbex1986]

'It’s one of those odd April days in Los Angeles, the type that locals know well: Hours after noon, the sun still seems ambivalent about whether it wants to make itself known. An outsider wouldn’t think it possible for the gleaming capital of show business to feel so grayed out. But if you grew up on an island where colorless skies are the norm, it might feel familiar.

“It’s like, Will I? Won’t I?” the Irish actor Andrew Scott quips as he settles into his chair on the rooftop of the Edition Hotel in West Hollywood. He’s been in town promoting his Netflix series “Ripley,” which launched a few weeks ago, and the foreboding weather seems apt. On that limited series, the Italian vistas seem as unsettled as its antihero’s soul. The show’s vibe is “almost like L.A., what we’re looking at here now,” Scott says, as I begin to regret not bringing a jacket to our alfresco lunch. “It’s cloudy. I come from a place where the sky is normally like this.”

Scott’s “Ripley,” an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel about a grifter whose 1950s Euro-trip comes with a body count, is morally cloudy, too, and glamorously gloomy besides. Unlike the 1999 film “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” which placed an uptight Tom Ripley (then played by peak-heartthrob-era Matt Damon) amid the rustic charm of Italy and drew its charge from the contrast, this year’s version is a blunter object. Speedo-clad Damon romped through the Italy of your dreams; the baggily attired Scott staggers through a nightmare.

Written and directed by Steven Zaillian and likely to place Scott in contention for a limited-series lead-acting Emmy, it’s mesmerizing but cool to the touch, using Oscar winner Robert Elswit’s stark black-and-white cinematography to depict a landscape as forbidding as its central character. That may account for why the series got off to a slow start on Netflix’s weekly viewership charts. But “Ripley” has also attracted the kind of positive notices that suggest a potential long tail, especially as Emmy season looms.

The series was a crucial test for Scott, who, at 47, has proven himself a shape-shifter. The out gay actor, who in 2019 stole scenes as the “Hot Priest” on the second season of “Fleabag,” and who had an awards-season run for his lovelorn role in last year’s “All of Us Strangers,” knows how to win hearts. Even playing the villainous Moriarty opposite Benedict Cumberbatch’s Holmes on the 2010s BBC “Sherlock,” Scott became known for his loopy, outsized line readings. So what would it feel like to play a tamped-down sociopath?

But Scott didn’t see Ripley that way. “I found an enormous amount to like,” he says. “There’s something about that character that, I think, a lot of people see themselves in. And I think it’s to do with being an outsider.” Tom Ripley, plainly gifted, lacks the social connections of the wealthy American expats he meets (played here by Johnny Flynn and Dakota Fanning as layabouts and occasional boors). His flashes of rage — forcing him, later, to methodically dispose of multiple corpses — exist for Scott as a sort of frustrated creative impulse. “He probably is more of an artistic sort, but he doesn’t feel he’s got the class to call himself that.”

There’s something about Ripley, in other words, that’s tortured — a trait Scott can conjure with ease. On “Fleabag,” his unnamed Catholic clergyman struggled through a crisis of faith-versus-lust that was both funny and painful. In “All of Us Strangers,” his conflicted gay writer goes on a dreamlike journey to re-encounter his late parents, forgiving both them and himself for past miscommunications while falling in love with a character played by Paul Mescal.

“Fleabag” cut against, and “All of Us Strangers” leaned into, Scott’s rare status as a gay leading man. “And not afraid to talk about it and be open about it!” marvels Andrew Haigh, his “All of Us Strangers” director. There’s little Scott isn’t open about: In a wide-ranging conversation, he volleys back his answers with the relentless self-examination — and the fleeting tearfulness — of a person who’s spent time in his feelings.

It can be hard not to conflate the characters he’s played with the sense that Scott is Hollywood’s new prince of heartache. In fact, he has a direct line to the queen of such matters. “Taylor’s new album is sensational! I texted her yesterday to say how amazing it is,” Scott says about “The Tortured Poets Department,” which came out three days before our conversation. Taylor Swift, he says, is a friend, and he beams with vicarious pride about her 31-track magnum opus: “I think she is just a force of nature, just an extraordinary human, and this album is really, really amazing.” His favorite song on it, for the record, is “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” a ballad that begins with quiet heartbreak and builds toward a dramatic excoriation.

But Scott is perhaps being modest. Some believe that he is as much to credit for the title of the album as the men Swift sings about. Consider the explosion online after a 2022 Variety Actors on Actors conversation between Mescal and Joe Alwyn (who was dating Swift at the time, and is thought to have inspired a few songs on the album) in which they discussed their membership in a group chat called “Tortured Man Club.” Scott, they said, had initiated the chat.

“Let me tell you what that is!” Scott says. Just before Alwyn was to appear in the TV adaptation of novelist Sally Rooney’s “Conversations With Friends,” Scott — Alwyn’s co-star in the 2022 film “Catherine Called Birdy” — set him up with Mescal, of “Normal People,” another series based on Rooney’s work. “So they were about to play these tortured characters, and I had played a tortured character in ‘Fleabag.’ It wasn’t about our own characteristics!” The chat quickly died on the vine, he says. “I think there were three texts, like, ‘Hey, guys.’ You know those groups that you set up, and they just collapse.”

Short-lived or not, the existence of the chat had taken on a second life ever since the announcement of “The Tortured Poets Department.” And the whole incident speaks to Scott’s easy way of connecting people.

“He’s a great guardian of actors, if you’re lucky enough that he admires you or has respect for you,” Mescal says. “He’s got an overseeing quality, in terms of understanding that good art and good actors are hard to come by.”

Mescal, 28, and Alwyn, 33, feel in a sense like peers of Scott’s. “Fleabag” Season 2, which brought Scott to a new echelon of fame, was just five years ago, and in conversation, he has a Peter Pan energy: raffish, barking laugh and eyes that seem to twinkle with each new disclosure. And yet Scott makes for a notably older Tom Ripley — a character written by Highsmith to be just past college age.

“It was just a beautiful film,” Scott says of Anthony Minghella’s 1999 adaptation. “The idea of approaching that again, one of my first questions was ‘OK, who wants to do a carbon copy?’” Scott gestures at what, in the dim light of the patio, appears to be his delicately lined face: “Jesus, look at my age!”

Scott’s take on the character reads as more experienced, and wearier. More tortured, over a longer timeline. Scott can relate. Our conversation is the final stop on a lengthy press tour, which came on the heels of promoting “All of Us Strangers” during Oscar season; he flies back home tomorrow. Before that was “Ripley”’s long road to the screen: After some 162 days of principal photography from summer 2021 to spring 2022, the series, which had been made by Showtime, bounced to Netflix amid a fire sale at the Paramount-owned cable network.

Following “Ripley,” “All of Us Strangers” and his solo show “Vanya” on London’s West End last fall, Scott is on a career high, and he’s become a red-carpet fixture as a fashionista. (His all-white tux-and-tee combo as a nominee at this year’s Golden Globes deflated the pomposity of the event, while looking dazzlingly fresh.) “It’s a way of having fun, being creative — going, OK, well, this is a bit of a laugh.” Scott stammers, but goes on: “My mother was a very stylish, creative person, and it’s something I’ve always been interested in. Why not just have a bit of fun while we’re here?”

Scott has brought up his mother a few times before I get the chance to offer my condolences. She died unexpectedly on March 7 — less than a month before “Ripley”’s premiere. “It came very suddenly to our family,” he says, “and it’s landed in the middle of all of this stuff. Her spirit is so alive in me in the immediate aftermath of her death.”

There are painfully mixed feelings at play: Scott is proud of the work he’s done (and duty-bound to promote it), while part of him is elsewhere. Talking about his mother is a way of keeping her close. She was an art teacher, “and her way of dealing with people was so kind, but she wasn’t very good at small talk,” Scott says. “She connected with people in a very particular way. What I was taught was the idea of being authentically yourself.”

Which extends to Scott’s self-presentation. In our meeting, he’s neon-bright, wearing a teal crewneck sweatshirt under a fuzzy cardigan the precise shade of cerulean that Miranda Priestly popularized. “People say that they look back at photographs and cringe,” he says. “Who cares? It’s about playfulness. It’s about going, How would I be if I wasn’t scared of criticism?”

“Ripley,” in its ambiguity, is a show unafraid to trigger debate. Among the choices Zaillian (best known for his Oscar-winning screenplay for “Schindler’s List”) made was a greater fealty to Highsmith’s text. Minghella’s film untangled her complications: Tom lusted after Dickie (played by Jude Law), and he had to destroy what he could not obtain. Here, though, Tom seems repulsed by Dickie, even as he admires his lifestyle and easy way of being. Tom doesn’t seem to fit into any identity at all, leaving some viewers to wonder whether he’s even gay in this version.

“Everything that I feel on that subject is in the show,” Zaillian says when asked to clarify Ripley’s sexual orientation. “I don’t like to do anything overtly; I think subtlety is best. It’s not that I’m trying to hide anything, but I think it’s all there.”

Scott is willing to go a bit further. “I didn’t want to diagnose him with anything in particular,” he says. “I don’t think he would be comfortable in a gay bar or a straight bar. I think his sexuality is elusive to him.” What he does to Dickie is an expression of frustrated heartsickness, perhaps. “I think he has a feeling of love for him. Sometimes it could be sexual. Sometimes it could be fraternal. And sometimes it could just be amicable.” What was a quarter century ago rendered as an outright homoerotic story here gets into levels of confusion that feel more challenging, more novelistic. “If she was alive today,” Scott says of Highsmith, “I’d love to ask her a bit more about that.”

Highsmith, whose own relationship with her lesbianism was complicated, likely wouldn’t recognize the world through which Scott strides. Indeed, he has previously expressed his dubiousness about language around sexuality — specifically, the term “openly gay,” which he derides. “It’s wonderful to be able to talk about sexuality in an open way,” Scott says. “But I do feel sometimes, other people — and by other people, I mean straight people — don’t have to explain or talk about their sexuality every time they go to work.”

Scott, thus far quick-witted and voluble, has begun to weigh his words carefully. “The idea that I’m being defiant by just being exactly who I am … Be open about it? Why wouldn’t you be open about it?” The distinction between disclosing one’s sexuality and not isn’t lost on Scott, and he doesn’t mind it — that’s what, to him, the word “out” is for. “But the word ‘openly,’ for me, just seems a little loaded.”

The actor’s newfound prominence as a gay leading man is both a turning point for our culture and a fact that might seem to lend him special access to certain characters. In his first conversation with Haigh about “All of Us Strangers,” “he understood so deeply what that character needed to be,” Haigh says. “You want someone to connect to the character on a personal level. And I don’t think Andrew is afraid of that. In fact, it excites him, and he wants to embrace how he can make it personal.”

And yet Scott resists the idea that the story is solely one for gay viewers: He remarks that just today, he received a note from a friend who watched with his wife, and was moved. “A lot of this stuff has really affected me in my own life growing up — God knows I didn’t have a lot of gay content,” Scott says. “We live in an identity-politics era. We’re separating each other more than we need to. This hysteria about your sexuality and how that is something that is only understandable to people who belong to the same tribe as you — it just doesn’t seem truthful.”

Part of Scott’s response might be a desire to sidestep misreadings of his intentions with “All of Us Strangers” and “Ripley.” In both projects, he plays a character who has experienced some version of same-sex attraction; in both, his character also seems miserable. “Sometimes I find it hard when you’re doing press,” he says, “because I feel so joyful and so emancipated. It seems like I always want to talk about the difficulties that I have with being gay, when actually, it’s the greatest joy of my life.”

His presence on the celebrity circuit, though, suggests that culture is still figuring out how to treat an out star at Scott’s level. At this year’s BAFTAs, a red-carpet reporter for the BBC asked Scott about Barry Keoghan’s genitalia as seen in the film “Saltburn,” implying that Scott and Keoghan (who is dating the pop star Sabrina Carpenter) had been intimate. Scott quickly walked away. “It was awkward,” he says. “It was a little bit weird. But I got an apology from the journalist. I think it was a series of unfortunate events. And I totally accepted his apology.”

Scott doesn’t dwell on the incident, saying, “I wouldn’t want him to suffer any more.” But the story resonates with a general sense that Scott’s work, or his public self, is held to a different standard. The understandable excitement around Scott booking massive jobs — and his experience of being the “first” or “only” in many professional settings — feels strange from the inside. “What is the best thing that we could do?” he asks me. “I don’t have the definite answer. Would it be unusual for us not to mention my sexuality at all?”

Well, yes — but we move on. The moment Scott’s experiencing is the culmination of an incremental build, after an initial leap of faith. He’d dropped out of Trinity College in Dublin (alma mater of Irish artists such as Oscar Wilde and, more recently, “Normal People”’s Rooney and Mescal) after six months to pursue theater. “Sometimes you shouldn’t have a safety net,” he says. “If you have a safety net, you’re going to be really, really safe.” Early screen roles included appearances in “Saving Private Ryan” and “Band of Brothers.” The parts gradually got bigger — his performance in the 2014 drama “Pride,” about the gay-rights crusade in Britain, is a fan favorite, and he was an appropriately sinister opponent for James Bond and MI6 in 2015’s “Spectre” before playing the lead in a 2017 London staging of “Hamlet.”

But it was “Fleabag” that lit his career aflame. Scott calls Phoebe Waller-Bridge “one of my main homies” and, to the extent that the Hot Priest phenomenon has followed him, says it’s all for the good. “It hasn’t prevented me from playing any other characters. And I just feel so proud of the process and the product.” Would he return to a hypothetical “Fleabag” Season 3, if Waller-Bridge asked him to? “Of course I would,” he says before unleashing one of those great Andrew Scott guffaws. “But she’s not going to!”

It’s hard to overstate the impact Hot Priest had, turning what had been in its first season a charming critics’ favorite into a world-devouring, Emmy-sweeping hit on the strength of Scott’s chemistry with Waller-Bridge. (Scott was not himself Emmy-nominated for “Fleabag,” but was the following year for an episode of “Black Mirror.”) Sad-eyed yet smiling, H.P. forges a deep understanding with Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag: They both know that they want to be together, and they both know that they cannot.

Which makes “Fleabag” an intriguing counterpoint to Ripley, a character who pushes his way past every limitation he cannot hack his way through. The monochrome look of the show turns Scott’s eyes into vampiric black pools of need; over eight episodes, we witness Ripley’s lower-class life and high-class ambitions, and his willingness to turn to violence to bridge the two. There’s an unholy gnarliness to Ripley that Scott sells well.

“Ripley” is a double risk, as Scott knew when he took on the role. The series updates — by more closely following Highsmith’s tricky, nasty novel — a film that’s widely beloved, and does so with a leading man whose reputation is for suffering sweetly. “I’m just concerned about how it would be perceived, how it would change things for me,” Scott says. He acknowledged that fear — then let it go.

“When I played James Moriarty, I was younger than people wanted the character to be. And they’d go, ‘I wanted the character to have a beard and wear a top hat, and this little fucker is now playing it like this, and I don’t want that!’ The biggest challenge for you is to put your dukes up and go, Sorry, but this is this.” Risk — in comparison to what Scott calls “cynical and unconfident” compromise — works.

His co-stars have noticed the chances he takes. “Technical brilliance is one thing. And then there’s this other part of Andrew that is incredibly raw in his performance,” Mescal says. “You could sit around and talk to actors about their lives all day — they love nothing more than talking about themselves. But Andrew lets an audience into the corners of themselves that we don’t talk about.”

Sam Yates, the director of Scott’s 2023 “Vanya” — which won an Olivier Award for best revival in April — describes the places Scott would go onstage as “trancelike.”

“How do you go through that without a level of someone else taking over?” Yates says, adding that Scott “is being led by a certain degree of technique, but by a huge degree by his aliveness to his own emotions. He would surprise himself constantly onstage.”

He seems to surprise himself in conversation, too, returning with frequency to a subject that’s evidently joyful to recall and painful to discuss. Previously this season, while being interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR’s “Fresh Air,” his voice got tight when she asked him, seemingly not knowing the answer, if his parents were both still alive. Now, though, his mother feels like the third person at our table under a gray L.A. sky.

“You keep your Irishness alive by telling the story,” he says. “Thinking about my mom recently and talking about her — it was really important to me, in the eulogy, to celebrate her.”

I remark that his mother — her artistic sensibility, her impatience with pleasantries — feels very present to me. He pauses, seems to shudder slightly. Like a sudden storm, tears are rolling down his cheeks, and he takes a moment to speak. When he finally does, his voice is steady.

“It’s a really funny thing, to be honest,” he says. “I can’t disappear the fact that this has happened in the midst of all this. The juxtaposition of these two extremes in my life where all these projects are coming out, and I’ve had to be much more public-facing than I usually am, at a time when I’m going through this extraordinary personal loss.”

He begins talking more rapidly, becoming more animated as he wills himself out of crying. “I’m not even sure if it’s the right thing to do, but you have to tell your own truth. My job is to understand what it’s like to be a human being, and I don’t like perpetuating the myth that we’re all perfect. That you have to be a movie star.”

Scott’s production company, he tells me, is called Both/And — he notes the slash in the middle. “I’ve always believed that things are always both something and something else. It could be the happiest day of your life, and you’re hungry. You’re at a funeral, and you have a laugh. There’s always something else.”

I can relate: I’m pleased to be connecting, but sorry that I upset him. And so I apologize.

“No, no, listen! I’m upset anyway!” he says, then lets loose another hearty laugh, loud and rich enough to crack the tension of the moment. In its gusto and its surprising timing, it does feel like a laugh at a funeral, but sometimes those are the kind one needs.

“Ripley” may represent the greatest challenge this versatile actor has experienced — he’s at the center of each of its eight episodes, and nothing happens without him.

“We would do what we could in our time off, but I know it was really taxing for him,” Fanning, Scott’s co-star, says. “We found a lot of common ground, because we’ve both done this for the majority of our lives. We approach work in a very similar way — there’s a time and place to be serious, and there’s a time you need to tell some stupid joke. And we did that too.”

The presence of co-stars was a balm, but Ripley, necessarily, is alone a great deal. “Spending a lot of time with a character who is solitary when I was feeling solitary myself was quite tough,” Scott says. “I love that about my job — that you can go into a particular world — but it was very different from what gives me joy. It’s the sheer stamina that was needed: It’s a lot of acting.”

The show’s two bravura set-pieces involve the disposal of bodies. “It was important to me that this character was not a professional killer,” Zaillian says. “And so we have to see him think each one through. And Andrew can bring us into his thoughts and feelings.”

Scott, compact of frame, lugged his fellow actors (rather than dummies) as much as was feasible: “I remember doing a long take, seven or eight minutes, me just trying to lift something up, and Steve just let the camera go as I struggled, and didn’t cut.”

He doesn’t linger on this aspect of the shoot. Easily able to access heartache and joy, he tends to stop short when specifics about the work come up. “It goes into a sort of PR-speak,” he says, “where you have to tell people how much suffering you’ve been through.” He draws an analogy of a host throwing a dinner party: “If you spend the whole night saying, ‘Well, I couldn’t find any organic chicken, and the vacuum wasn’t working’ — they’re like, ‘Just give me my fucking dinner!’”

“He’s aware that his work isn’t for him,” Mescal says. “You’re providing a service to an audience. Nobody really gives a fuck about your process, and if they do, they’re boring.”

Elsewhere in our conversation, Scott edges up to describing his method for finding Ripley: “I’m always really interested in the vulnerability of people. What’s the thing they’re unconfident about? What are they hiding? It was hard to access that.” What he found, in the end, was less “a biographical sort of solution,” he says, than an absence — of the ease it takes to get through life. “Not everybody is charming and capable and socially adept and sexy. You have to advocate for people who don’t have it easy. That’s what made me have some degree of affection for him.”

Affection, even on a dark project, is what it’s all about. “He’s a big advocate for play,” Mescal says. “He takes the work very seriously, but he wears it lightly. And that allowed our chemistry to be pretty playful and organic.”

On “All of Us Strangers,” the pair, already acquainted, bonded deeply. “It developed into a genuine love between them, and you can still see that now,” Haigh says. “I felt like I’d been a dating agent, and I brought these two people together.”

The film, shot quickly after “Ripley”’s protracted production, helped Scott emerge and reset after playing Tom. “Sometimes a change can be as good as a rest,” he says. “Although, I have to say, I do need a rest now.”

I have one last question before I let Scott go. He’d said he wondered how “Ripley,” with its grand ambition and with Scott at the center of the story, might change things for him. What kind of change would he want?

It turns out the real question is what kind of change doesn’t he want. “You want to keep your life,” he says. “I like my life. I don’t want people to become the enemy. Because I like people.”

He lets out a sigh. “I’m glad to be wrapping up the promotion aspect of it, because it’s been quite a big journey, and obviously, I need to go and be with the people I love.” He smiles, and his eyes turn down slightly. “So it’s just time for me to exit stage left for a little while.”

I turn my tape recorders off; Scott has given me enough. But he waits a second, his gaze once again as eager as during the formal part of our interview: What had I meant when I used the word “obversely”? (I’d said that the Hot Priest persona seemed like a gift, but — obversely! — potentially limiting as well.) He usually uses the word “conversely” to describe what he thought I meant.

We both look up definitions on our phones, and conclude that the two words mean the same thing: two feelings coursing at once, in seeming opposition to one another. Like the lovability and loathsomeness dueling within Ripley; like happiness and sorrow in a single charged moment. Both/and, or something like that. Words are funny things! And isn’t it amazing, Scott muses, that we can use language to communicate what we’re feeling. What an invention. What a gift. He grins. And if there’s another feeling behind it, both the smile and something else, the sun is suddenly shining too brightly for me to see.'

[an-aura-about-you]

tackling the foreword now, possibly more if I think I'm up for it:

-well, we're dropping the g slur on the first page of this foreword. I knew it was in here but that's certainly less than ideal.

-it's mentioned here that the author is Jewish, and the information I have indicates that this is going to be used later to confirm the main character is Jewish. that's just sloppy writing if this is true. but I'm putting it here in case it IS the only time anyone is mentioned to be Jewish before the love interest asks the main character about it.

-"We met in quite an unprecedented way." They met via the internet because they had a common fandom. *takes a look at all of my friends on here, some of whom I've met in person, that I share a fandom with*

-so far the person writing the foreword has talked more about the book SHE wrote instead of the one I'm about to read.

-the foreword is five pages long and doesn't start talking about the creation of the book I'm reading or what it means to her until page four.

-she doesn't start talking about what happens in the book until the second paragraph on page five and she gets some fairly noticeable information wrong in the very first sentence she writes about the book. (she says the main character is from Nashville. this is not true. the main character is from a small town that is CLOSE to Nashville. I don't even know if you could call it a suburb because it's got a population of like less than 300.)

-she says she enjoyed this book more than others in the same genre, but as far as I know she writes in the same genre. granted, I'm primarily thinking of this as a romance book along the lines of fluffy coffee shop au fic and not as any sort of magical adventure. if the person writing the foreword thinks it's the latter, then maybe she likes this book more because it doesn't cleave to the conventions of the genre she thinks it's in.

-"I tend to be a bit snobbish about books." funny, that, because I don't and will gleefully wallow in the trash if it's to my liking. but I can still recognize trash when I see it.

-we get a page with four quotes on it before we kick off on the book proper. now, I'm cool with using multiple quotes in a book to set the stage? in fact, one of my favorite books, The Disaster Artist, uses a LOT of quotes. most of the chapter titles are quotes from The Room since a good portion of the book is about making that movie. in addition to that, every other chapter has a movie quote alternating between Sunset Boulevard and The Talented Mr. Ripley. but this works because Greg's story resembles Sunset Boulevard and he and Tommy going to see The Talented Mr. Ripley was a turning point that led to Tommy writing his script for The Room. it also helps that the placement is at the start of each chapter and not dumped all at once at the start of the book.

-I also get the feeling that I should just. keep my copy of The Disaster Artist on hand. the more I think about it, the more Lani Sarem resembles Tommy Wiseau when it comes to their art and how they perceive themselves.

-oh yeah I should probably mention that each chapter of the book is named after one of the tarot cards in the Major Arcana. not for any good reason, though the placement of the Fool and the World make enough sense. if you want to read something that's actually worth reading with an author who writes well and knows how to use tarot cards in naming chapters, go read the fanfic Persephone's Gambit by Diva from Musical Hell. it is a Phantom of the Opera fic in which Christine offers a different choice to Erik's ultimatum and how that plays out.

-I went to do a quick count of how long it takes from page 1 to get to when the main character's name is finally said for the first time because that is pretty infamous. we, the readers, don't learn our main character's name until we get to the middle of page 7. girl, you are not Daphne du Maurier nor do you have her reason for not divulging the main character's name a la Rebecca.

-the book straight up starts with, "I've always envied those with normal lives." no you don't. know how I know? because your name is Zade. the name you ask other people to call you is Zade. fun fact: one time when I was a kid, I told a kid at the swimming pool that my name was Amy because I didn't want to struggle with someone I didn't really know trying to say my somewhat unusual name. if you truly wanted to be normal, you would probably do something similar.

-"I won't cover everything that has been crazy or unusual in my life." I kind of wish you would because that would probably be more interesting to read.

-"Don't fight it. Destiny will always win." Ok thanks D. D. Drosselmeyer.

-our main character is blabbing on and on about things that truly aren't important, but I will talk about her thoughts on thunderstorms because hey, it's my blog, I'm allowed to be petty and nitpicky. I don't get why she's like, "The nighttime thunderstorms are more magical." That seems backwards. like, ok, I will temporarily allow the author to possess me and spend an unreasonable amount of time writing about why daytime thunderstorms are more magical to me. when it happens in an otherwise clear, sunny sky, it is the unexpected pleasure of a sunshower. but it's even more impressive to me when the clouds roll in and the world is under their dense, turbulent blanket, and the sky grows so dark that it is nighttime during the day only for the sudden sunbright shock of a lightning bolt to blind your senses. but then, I get the feeling my tastes are going to differ a LOT from our protagonist's.

-you see that thing I did where I pointlessly talked about thunderstorms for like 60 words? when our protagonist talked about thunderstorms, she did it for about 180 WORDS. this is what she's burning her precious chapter 0 on and she hasn't even introduced herself yet.

-oh right, it's chapter 0 because the Fool is 0. This is actually something I'm ok with.

-our protagonist's mother is the local fortune teller (and witch who can do legit fantasy magic, but that's not made absolutely clear yet) and she's talking about how people come from all over to see her. like, this COULD be worldbuilding because we don't know how many legit magic users there are in the world or how spread out they might be. but lemme tell ya, if they're going for a spread or to have their palm read or whatever, that's honestly not as weird in the south as she's trying to indicate. yes, there are the churchy sorts who think it's of the devil, but I've been on enough road trips down here where I've passed multiple fortune teller setups. I am not going all the way to Nashville to have her mom fuss over my broken marriage line when I've got perfectly competent locals who know their palmistry.

-she says when she was a kid, the other kids weren't allowed to be friends with her because of her family's beliefs, and I call bullshit on that. again, southerner here, and I've been to enough sleepovers that included a trip to church in the morning to know full well that at least one family would allow their kids to be friends with her for conversion purposes.

-by the way, our main character didn't actually do anything in the book until we got to page 5.

-so, our protagonist is leaving her family home, which she compares to the plantation Tara in Gone with the Wind. and earlier she said her family has owned land in Tennessee since the 1700s. while I get the feeling none of this will matter later, it still merits a fairly big Yikes from me.

-it's so weird when authors spend a lot of time talking about the brands their characters use. it feels like that scene in Wayne's World where they parody corporate sponsors. it's just distracting and makes me wonder if they paid you for the reference.

-gosh, the way she describes what normal people do to those who stand out is so clunky. it's not even worth repeating because it's honestly just painful. there must have been a better way to make that point.

-so wait a minute: Zade says her mother Dela can always tell when she's lying, but then she says she's not good at lying to her mother. the first part of it made it sound like her mother has some sort of power where she can magically sense when people are lying to her. why don't we establish that? it would be some much-needed world building.

-Zade is going to an audition, and Dela makes it clear she knows who the audition is with. I'm gonna just come out with the big twist now because I want to highlight how this book will not hold up upon a reread. Zade is going to audition for a magic show in Las Vegas that's headlined by Charles Spellman. but *Speed Racer announcer voice* unbeknownst to the readers, Charles Spellman is actually Zade's long-estranged father! but here's the thing: WHY don't we know? the book is told from Zade's first person pov and it's clear from the way she and Dela are talking that Zade has some awareness of who Spellman is. this is going to shoot the book in the foot later for a bunch of different reasons, and I can offer two ways to fix it: either write the book in third person limited so we're not in Zade's head or make it so Zade doesn't know Spellman's her father until the very end. (though there would be some other issues with the story if that second option had been taken.)

-"My anger erupted, if she hadn't been my mother I probably would have punched her." much like the taste we get of Zade's love interest Mac from the blurb on the back of the book, Zade is also a violent person. this is only going to get worse as the story goes on.

-also right after that they hug and make up. it seriously goes from 100 to 0 like that.

-I don't care that you got permission to print the song lyrics. that is not what I am here to read.

and that's how we end the very first chapter of this garbage heap. it's amazing how much I could just kind of skim over because so much nothing happens.

[13eyond13]

Who are your top 5 fav characters from all media (can be manga, anime, movies, books, games, etc)?

omg another good question, but also one I find very difficult to answer!

Uh. Would it be incredibly lame of me to have several top 5 favourites all from Death Note 😆 I feel as though it's maybe just because I've spent an ungodly amount of time discussing and enthusing over them with other people in the fandom, and this is really the only fandom I've ever been involved in, but...

L Lawliet - my #1 fave since forever!!!

Light Yagami - it's like he's also my #1 fave due to the fact that I think he's so well-written, entertaining, layered, and fascinating to analyze. I can never quite stop trying to figure him out. But he took me a lot longer to fully warm up to and appreciate than L did

Tom Ripley (in The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith) - particularly/only in the first novel that he stars in. He's got such a soft-spoken and gently polite, keenly observant POV that I find really comforting and enjoyable to hang out with in spite of how much creepy and sinister shit is actually going on underneath the surface and behind the scenes with him 😅 Clearly I have a bit of a type in fictional faves??

Beyond Birthday (in the Another Note novel by Nisio Isin)- I just felt too bad at the thought of not including B here, I simply can't betray my stupid son like that. He's the only fictional character that has ever really inspired me to hop right into his head and attempt to take the reins through writing fanfics, after all. I definitely urge anyone in the fandom who hasn't read the LABB novel yet to read it if you want to know what a colourful character B is... fanon B often just doesn't quite reach the true heights of absurdity and awkwardness that the original B does

Those MIGHT be the only ones I ACTUALLY consider my top faves right now at the moment? I have had other ones in the past, but currently that's the only list that actually sprang to mind.

HOWEVER I'll give you a bonus fictional character that I found incredibly interesting to get to know recently:

5. Mary Katherine Blackwood (from We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson) - Merricat is the epitome of a unique and odd first person POV to inhabit. Her unreliable narrating and her childish worldview and her dark little habits and obsessive rituals makes for a pretty fascinating and disturbing read!

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

I can understand the argument that someone's background influences their views on politics/social issues, everything and how that transpires in the art they're making, but only using that frame of analysis is reductive. More often working class directors get the recognition for their working class stories, whilst anything above it that gets into privileged teritory will most likely be criticized. Especially in this era in cinema and economic/political climate in which "eat the rich" is now a theme/meme in pop culture.

But I do stand on my opinion that it can be reductive sometimes. I could never look at Visconti's work only thinking that a rich count made all those films. When the entire argument is based on that it might ignore not only elements that are actually working in the film, but also other legitimate frames of criticizing the piece if it lacks in other areas.

I think this applies to Saltburn as well. I've seen the classism critique everywhere. And on one hand it does apply. Yes, the director is this posh woman and it might be argued that the film is a posh perspective on what's the middle class fantasy. Which apparently is one in which pretending to be working class and having parents with addiction might garantee you a spot in a circle of rich friends (and then you can exert all your destructive fantasies on them). At the same time, it's not like the upper class gets unscathed from all this. Yes, they're fun and amusing to watch, but I wasn't laughing with them, but at them. They were portrayed as being ridiculous and utterly sad in their inability of showing emotion, seen here as the typical upper class behavior.

Perhaps a more legitimate criticism coming from me (and others) would be that all explained above would have come across more clearly if the execution would have been done right. I do believe there's some issues with the script. The over explaining of motive through a monologue and going back in time was not necessary and it's more like a gimmick, an easy way to close all the narrative ends. It's not technically a bad idea, but perhaps it is too cliche at this point.

I believe Oliver needed a bit more work in terms of motivation and how that comes across. I felt as if there's more to know. Not in a way that justifies his action, but what is underneath there? This is where I'm reminded of some comparisons to The Talented Mr. Ripley, Teorema or Brideshead Revisited. The stranger who comes in and disrupts the status quo. Who changes the lives of those he "befriends", either for personal gain, for them to get out of their "comfort zone" or both. The methods of infiltration are subtle, but most importantly, the way in which they are portrayed in film or written are what makes them so powerful. Emerald Fennell is no Evelyn Waugh, that's obvious. So I think that mostly here lies that criticism on my part. That at times, the story is told too simplistically, it doesn't go too deep into the relationship between characters (especially Oliver and Felix) and there's a superficiality that comes with a focus on aestheticism.

At the same time, this exact latter criticism can actually be its forte. It's what makes it fun. It's the wanted shock value of a few scenes that definitely makes the audience gasp (particularly those in the young adult range nowadays used to comic book adaptions and other Hollywood garbage). It looks beautiful and it makes us nostalgic of summers in the late 2000s which don't look that bad through rose-tinted glasses. It's how we look at ridiculous behavior and also love watching those people bask in the sun and wear dinner jackets while playing tennis. It's the music! I loved the music and the sparkly kitschy clothes us millenials used to think it were the height of fashion.

The film wants to be outrageous, to make people talk, to bring valid criticism while also looking really good. If its problem is that it has too much style over lack of substance, at least they nailed the style.

My watching experience was a really fun one. It doesn't take away from noticing its shortcomings and that also doesn't make me want to only see its fault and not also the elements that work. Saltburn is somewhere in the middle and I do think we need these types of films as well and it's not hard for it to find its appropriate audience.

[livvyofthelake]

well i gather that i’m not supposed to say that people who liked saltburn should kill themselves so instead i think i’ll just say i don’t respect you people. and while we’re here i decided we need to cut out the comparisons to the talented mr ripley. one of those stories is good and we can leave it at that and i don’t care to see them compared beyond that. ok. i have the buddha nature btw

[jacketrepresents]

i have been Tagged by @dare-g - thanks :D

last song i listened to: nick cave’s performance of a rainy night in soho at shane macgowan’s funeral

last movie i watched: the talented mr. ripley - what a picture! for some reason i didn’t think i would like it at first, on some level i am suspicious of matt damon even though by now i’ve really liked him in a few things. and i was totally wrong, very cool movie. in a way…. we are all the talented mr. ripley #godbless

currently watching: six feet under with my mom, we always have some network tv show we’re working on, usually one she wants to revisit that i’ve never seen before. this one isn’t really my thing but that’s life. frances conroy slays though & my late uncle plays a homophobic deacon in a couple episodes, i always love seeing him pop up in things :)

other things i’ve watched this year: oh god, so much. as far as tv goes, my favorites have been peep show, veep, succession season 4 (the prior two are both succession writers’ projects as well lol) and a rewatch of (most of) search party. vis à vis movies… oh man. i’ll do an end of year list soon (the year is ending soon????) because there have been so many i’ve absolutely loved

currently reading: well. not much. :/ though for some reason the past few years i’ve found that i’m able to focus on reading better when i’m away from this house (who knows what’s going on there) so hopefully i can get a book or two in when i’m dog sitting in a couple weeks, fingers crossed!

currently listening to: i have been in screamales mode since the breakup a couple days ago

currently working on: a final paper about nēhiyawēwin, the Plains Cree language, which has been very interesting to learn about

current obsession: an end to western hegemony within our lifetime

i never know whether to tag or not to tag with these things so feel free to do it or not!!! but here goes @wickedbitchin @digital-bitch @dinosaurbitingyoubitingyou @unrealityofhere @gaspard-de-la-nuit @polarorangedry @lesbianjonimitchell @lamplightjuniper @multisockdrifting @indominusalex

[drumlincountry]

20 and 25 as well x

Hellloooo here I am with a much belated end of year book ask response!

20. What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

mmmmm I don't think I read any books from 2022 this year? It just is not my way.I'm not a new things enjoyer.

In terms of books I was hyped for based on other ppl's recommendations I will say MOST were a bit of a let down (e.g. Eleanor Oiliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman, Seán O'Casey's plays, any of the like 5 Sarah Gaily books I read, The lamb will slaughter the lion – Margaret Killjoy).

But SOME were really good (Superman Smashes the Klan, The Talented Mr. Ripley – Patricia Highsmith (recommended by ✨you✨ ofc), Dark Matter – Michelle Paver (2010), and Murderbot, my good friend Murderbot. )

24. What reading goals do you have for next year?

Same reading goals we have every year, pinky: 2 books a month! I inevitably read more than this but I am a firm believer in aiming low and exceeding expecations. 24 books a year has been my goal since like. 2015.

I have a lot of books I would like to finish which I have been in the middle of for a while (braiding sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and Small Farm Future by Chris Smaje are the most hard done by of this club).

I also have vague good intentions like: read more political theory, read more nonfiction about How Stuff Gets Made, read more queer stuff, read more contemporary irish stuff. HOWEVER. these are not things I am working particularly hard on so I'm not gonna count them as goals.

[youssefguedira]

For the ask game, which film is the most visually beautiful?

i don't have a straight answer but here are some ones i think are especially pretty off the top of my head:

one of the first things i noticed about la chimera is how beautiful sunlight looks in that film some of the shots in there are breathtaking (they jump between like 3 different film types and i LOVE how it looks)

talented mr ripley is the same for this!! it's the shooting on physical film in italy effect

martin eden is one of the prettiest movies ive ever seen, i love how soft it is and how colorful it looks (also the 16mm film effect)

all of us strangers i just wrote a whole analysis of its opening shot alone which is enough to earn it a spot here but i love how that film uses color and visual shorthand (see: adam's pajamas) and the way the dream sequences look. where's that quote about being reliant on the director of photography to show loneliness because it's what made me really understand how important cinematography is in communicating that i think

another point on cinematography + communication i love how past lives looks both with its shots of kind of mundane items (set design also doing a lot) as well as how it places you the viewer in the point of view of an outsider looking in on this dynamic. adore that film need to rewatch

i am such a huge fan of 1 shot in challengers it makes me cheer every time i get to that bit

for animation the boy and the heron and really any ghibli is stunning. spiderverse an obvious answer. also really love luca

not to bring up the eight mountains everywhere but that movie makes the mountains and nature look so so beautiful. something something peter bradshaw quote about time moving at a different pace but i love how the camera lingers and lets you follow like. the sunrise. really meditative really wonderful effect. beautiful movie

i'll stop now before i get too carried away but just know i love movies and i love when they're pretty

[themovieblogonline]

A Simple Favor 2 Gets Fancy in Capri

Remember that twisty, hilarious movie "A Simple Favor" with Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively? Well, get ready for another round of murder, mayhem, and maybe some overpriced wedding cake, because a sequel is officially happening! Mark your calendars and get your fascinators ready, because things are about to get wild in Capri, Italy. Deadline spilled the tea two years ago that a sequel was brewing, but now it's officially official. Amazon MGM Studios is bringing the whole gang back together, including director Paul Feig and the original cast. That means we get to see Anna Kendrick reprise her role as the quirky Stephanie Smothers, and Blake Lively back as the seemingly perfect Emily Nelson. Henry Golding (hello, eye candy!), Andrew Rannells, Bashir Salahuddin, Joshua Satine, Ian Ho, and Kelly McCormack are also returning, so basically, it's gonna be a party. Lionsgate Crashes the Wedding Remember that crazy rich ex-husband from the first movie? Lionsgate is co-producing this sequel, so get ready for some serious high-society drama. The first movie made a killing at the box office, raking in a cool $97 million, so it's no surprise they're jumping back on board. Cameras are already rolling this spring, and the plan is to release the movie on Amazon Prime Video in a whopping 240 countries! This time around, Stephanie and Emily are ditching the suburbs and jetting off to the stunning island of Capri for Emily's extravagant wedding to a rich Italian businessman. Sounds fancy, right? Wrong! Because with these two, things never go according to plan. Expect murder, betrayal, and enough plot twists to make your head spin. Think "The Talented Mr. Ripley" meets "Wedding Crashers," with a dash of "Bridesmaids" thrown in for good measure. The Dream Team Behind the Scenes The script is being penned by Jessica Sharzer, who wrote the first movie, so you know the witty dialogue and killer twists will be on point. Oscar-nominated director Paul Feig is back in the driver's seat, so expect his signature blend of humor and suspense. Basically, this sequel has all the makings of a major hit. While we wait for the wedding bells (and inevitable drama) to ring out in Capri, here's what the cast has been up to: - Anna Kendrick: This multi-talented actress is making her directorial debut with the Netflix film "Woman of the Hour," while also starring in and producing the movie. - Blake Lively: She's starring in the film adaptation of the bestselling novel "It Ends With Us," and is also gearing up to make her feature directorial debut. - Henry Golding: This heartthrob is currently filming season two of Hulu's "Nine Perfect Strangers." - Basically, this cast is booked and busy, but they all cleared their schedules for a trip to Capri (and maybe a little on-screen murder). Mark Your Calendars, Drama Lovers! "A Simple Favor 2" is shaping up to be an epic follow-up to the first film. With its killer cast, hilarious script, and exotic location, this movie is a must-watch for fans of dark comedies and anyone who appreciates a good plot twist (or ten). Keep an eye out for more updates, and get ready to witness the return of Stephanie and Emily! (Source: Deadline) https://youtu.be/SUEFYZTFXkY Read the full article

[theharpermovieblog]

#HARPERSMOVIECOLLECTION

2024 MOVIE LIST

www.tumblr.com/theharpermovieblog

I watched Saltburn (2023)

I'm late to the party on this one, but all the better that the hype has died down a bit. But, if you are reading this, you may want to watch the movie first because I might spoil a bit for you.

A poor young man at Oxford befriends a rich student and soon becomes obsessive after being brought to the rich student's home.

A lot was said to me about this movie before viewing, all about how crazy it is. And, while there is definitely some crazy weird shit in here, it's certainly not the highlight of the movie.

"Saltburn" is a gorgeously shot and beautifully directed film, which sports a great cast, all of whom are giving great performances.From a technical standpoint, this is a delight to watch.

The writing is wonderful, the characters are deep enough to be interesting and the lead is a lovely and infatuating villain.

On top of all that, there are individual scenes here which are true bits of perfection. Especially the lunch scene after Oliver's birthday, and of course, that nude dance of triumph is possibly one of the best endings to a 21st century film. These scenes are not just technically well done, they are reminders of the heart of dark humor at the center of "Saltburn".

So many people compare this to "The Talented Mr. Ripley". While it does have similarities to that story, it's the comedy that really puts "Saltburn" in its own category. The film puts the audience in a place where we can revel in the villain's eventual success. Yes, the film has its darker, more disturbing moments, but these moments serve to create a sublimely deranged character who we do end up smiling with in the end. We might not agree with what Oliver has done, but there is a part of us thinking, with an excited smirk, "That cheeky bastard."

And, let's hear it for Barry Keoghan. In a film of great performances, he stands out (as he does in everything he's in.) You even have to wonder if "Saltburn" would work as well without him.

Is this a perfect film? No. Certainly, like a piece of cake, Saltburn is more sugar and fat than nutrition, but I'm not complaining. It's decadent and delicious and the conclusion is worth the interesting journey.

[denimbex1986]

'Tommy, how’s the posing?

Andrew Scott and Jude Law united for an unexpected Talented Mr. Ripley crossover on the 2024 Met Gala red (er, green and beige) carpet.

Law, who played Dickie Greenleaf in Anthony Minghella’s 1999 film adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, was photographed alongside Scott, who plays the titular Tom Ripley in Netflix’s new eight-episode series Ripley.

The duo posed alongside Donatella Versace at the event in New York City, which bore the theme "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion."

In the series helmed by Steven Zaillian, Scott plays the cunning protagonist who travels to Europe to befriend the wealthy Dickie Greenleaf (here played by Johnny Flynn), gradually building a strong relationship with him until their friendship takes a sudden turn. Matt Damon portrayed Tom in the 1999 film, which earned Law an Oscar nomination for his turn as Dickie.

Law previously spoke about watching the new series 25 years after the release of his iteration of Ripley. "Steve Zaillian's, in many ways, couldn't be further from Anthony's," he said. "It's very interesting to see what scenes and threads still come to the surface, even if they are very different stylistically and in their pacing."

"I'm enjoying it," Law continued. "How can one not? It's such great material. You're in great hands with wonderful actors, and it's such an interesting character. Both versions reflect the director in many ways. One is visual, colorful, and romantic. The other is quite forensic and more sinister. Film, to me, often reflects the person at the helm of the camera."

Law also stated that he hasn’t watched Minghella’s film in a long time. "it was funny how many of the scenes are similar and kicked up so many memories in my mind," he said. "And how well I knew it. I kept thinking, 'Oh God, I remember this.' Down to the name of Dickie's maid, Ermelinda. I always remember saying, 'Ermelinda, Ermelinda.' There was an emotional level, too, to revisiting those characters."...'

[americassteestore]

2022 Ugly Season’s Greetings Texas Tech Red Raiders Houston Texas Red Raiders Vs Rebels Christmas Sweater

2022 Ugly Season’s Greetings Texas Tech Red Raiders Houston Texas Red Raiders Vs Rebels Christmas Sweater

There’s an arc with her costumes, though, because Harper softens and becomes more feminine by the 2022 Ugly Season’s Greetings Texas Tech Red Raiders Houston Texas Red Raiders Vs Rebels Christmas Sweater Apart from…,I will love this end of the show. There are moments that nod to Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, and even The Talented Mr Ripley. There’s a sense of old-school glamour there. You get an idea of how her costumes are changing in the vineyard scene, because she and Daphne—who started off looking very different—are twinning a little bit. It was fun to have them sort of be buddies and draw a line between them, because at first, you think Harper and Ethan have a better relationship and later, you’re like, well, who’s to say Daphne and Cameron’s isn’t better?

Buy this shirt:  Click here to buy this 2022 Ugly Season’s Greetings Texas Tech Red Raiders Houston Texas Red Raiders Vs Rebels Christmas Sweater

Home:  https://americastee.com/