#this movie already has so many theories and fantasies that may have absolutely nothing to do with the real thing lol

[defectivegembrain]

But what if in the Community movie Troy starts making fourth wall breaking comments even more than Abed because he saw some shit when he got captured. He's actually been outside the fourth wall.

[vyeoh]

this is your chance: wax poetic about an Empires or DSMP character of your choice to a fan who is new to both. Explain why I should love them. I need guidance in this new and meme-populated land.

okok this is a lot of pressure haha. Spoilers for EmpiresSMP and DreamSMP below, obviously. I wrote a lot so prepare yourself, anon

I watch a lot of empires POVs but the ones I most anticipate every week are Scott and Sausage.

c!Scott (I'll call him Smajor for the sake of simplicity) starts off the series chilling, not really getting involved with the rest of the server, and staying aggressively neutral. After all, he's an elf. He has lived far longer than most of the other rulers already, and will most likely outlive them for many years. So, the best thing is to stick to his mountains and not get invested in the dealings of mortal affairs, maybe sometimes causing problems on purpose and dipping because what's life without a little spice right.

But then, this demon comes to the server, Xornoth. He's going around causing havoc and wants to send the world into an eternal winter, but he doesn't bother the kingdom of Rivendell much so Smajor stays tentatively cautious but ultimately unbothered. But then, the puzzle pieces start falling together. The first thing that the audience noticed was was Xornoth sounded like Smajor, but we mostly thought that this was just due to cc!Scott voicing both of them and there was nothing more to it. However, then, the people the demon starts possessing start chanting in elvish. The demon hates mortals, and the elves are conveniently one of the two confirmed not fully mortal races in Empires.

This culminates when Smajor stumbles across a cave that contains the backstory of the patron god of Rivendell, Aeor. Basically, there's two opposing forces, Aeor and Exor, and both have a champion. In a previous life, those champions were two brothers, where Aeor eventually prevailed and banished Exor. In this life though, the champions are - you guessed it - Smajor, and the demon Xornoth.

So now Smajor is like. Well fuck. It's my literal god-given destiny to be responsible for defeating this demon who is technically my brother, and if I fail the server gets plunged into an eternal winter. And I have no fucking clue what is happening because I've just been here on this mountain actively trying to stay out of the issues outside my kingdom. We watch him panic and teeter on the verge of spiraling for an entire episode, and when the followers of Xornoth go to the End to kill the dragon, releasing Xornoth's full powers, he fails to stop him. Smajor is a character who was used to being the smart one, the prepared one, the one who has the least deaths on the server. But he's also a character who runs away from his problems and ignores them. Before and during the dragon fight, we hear the desperation in his voice, as he's thrown into a situation he is wholly unprepared for, and it's bigger than him going to the Cod Empire to kill their king, or assisting in other people's plans to kill the codfather. He can't run from this. cc!Scott plays this scene so well as well, as I've said before, one of the best parts of Scott's acting is how he's never super dramatic, but he's so effective in the little things like inflection to make you feel, viscerally, the panic and dread.

So after the dragon fight, Smajor realizes, I can't do this on my own. I've tried and failed. So he gets allies. We watch him, someone who has so strongly been an isolationist, learn the benefits of allies and watch him learn to trust others and watch him learn how to get that trust in return.

My favorite thing about Smajor's characterization is that he's an incompetent protagonist, but not in the way of the "plucky young adventurer". He's capable skill-wise, and fairly jaded and very pessimistic. However, his issue is that up until recently, he did not care about the rest of the server at all, and by the time he learned to, it was way too late.

Also, in 3rd Life, cc!Scott and cc!Jimmy were canonically married and they reference it sometimes in Empires. Like, Scott goes over to the Cod Empire every so often both in and out of character to kill and/or flirt with Jimmy, the ruler of the Cod Empire, which may develop as a secondary plot into the future who knows. So ty Scott for giving the gays what they want o7

Now onto Sausage: his is a story of Icarus, his hubris and ambition being his downfall. He's one of the two followers of Xornoth, who promised him endless power in exchange for his servitude. He started the series being eccentric, but not outright unhinged, but slowly gets more and more extreme as the series progresses, as he gets brought more and more to Xornoth's side.

One of the best parts of Sausage's character, in my opinion, is how his gradual corruption affects the people around him. Initially, he got into a conflict with the Cod Empire and was allied with two other people in the Witherrose alliance. They were allies, but also close friends. The fandom liked to joke that the three had sibling energy, and I'm pretty sure the ccs played to that even more lol.

It was painful to watch the other two members, Gem and fWhip, watch Sausage get corrupted right in front of them, and see them desperately clinging on to this old idea of Sausage in their head because if they faced the truth, it would mean that their friend was gone. Eventually, they do finally cut him out of the alliance, leading him to fully commit to the side of the demon. Sausage felt very clearly betrayed by this, and declared the remaining two Witherrose alliance members to be enemies.

He gets more and more possessed, and we even see the other Empires, his enemies even, slowly realize that something is very wrong with the ruler of Mythland. He starts doing more and more evil things, like killing people more, making sacrifices to the demon, and eventually helping to kill the dragon to free Xornoth. So things are good for Sausage, for a bit. He won, and is more powerful than ever. Then he finds out: he's going to die. Xornoth's possession is slowly killing his soul, and eventually, his body going to be fully taken over and he himself is going to be trapped in the spirit realm. So how do you react to this? Over the next few episodes, we watch Sausage struggle between "the demon is literally killing me" and "the demon has given me so much, and I love it", all while Xornoth takes over more and more of him. We hear him exclaim that "don't worry!! I'm still about 15% there!" while trying to downplay every time Xornoth completely takes over his body. We watch him willingly oppose anyone who is trying to end the thing that is killing him.

My favorite thing about Sausage is that he is undoubtedly evil and proud of it, but he's also undoubtedly human. If you like to watch evil characters go absolutely feral, he's the guy for you. He makes the deal with Xornoth in the beginning, knowing and fully embracing the evilness of the demon, but at the same time he knows what he's doing is detrimental to both himself and everyone around him, but he's gotten in way too deep at this point, and to be fair the demon has held up its end fo the bargain, right?

Also, I would be damned if I don't talk about cc!Sausage's editing. Every one of his videos is like a movie. The way he does camera angles and uses music is so skillful- every lore scene feels like something out of a high fantasy action saga (think: LotR). Every big lore event I always wait in anticipation for Sausage's ep because his editing truly takes lore to another level.

I'm just generally very excited to see where this series goes. Empires is such a good mix of talented builders and good lore. Part of the reason why the series is so immersive for me, beyond any other lore smp, is that they have the settings to back it up. There is a certain charm to the DreamSMP's objectively terrible builds (with a few exceptions) but in Empires, the settings help sell the plot so much.

Another part of why I love EmpiresSMP is how much the ccs are involved with the fan community. I'm sure you've seen the memes about Scott being on tumblr, and Sausage regularly goes through the EmpiresSMP fanart tag on Twitter and likes art, even ones not related to Mythland. Most of the ccs, in fact, have brought up tumblr content on stream at some point or another. Like, several ccs have said that they read tumblr lore theories and hcs and stuff and sometimes take inspiration from them. Fun fact: Rivendell's church was inspired by my pinned drawing; confirmed by Scott Smajor himself. It's just such a good cycle of ccs and fans being excited about each other.

As for DreamSMP, I'm gonna be honest here, the only person I really am invested in in Technoblade. I started watching when he joined the server, and he's the only person whose lore I keep up to date with.

Techno's fun to watch because he's like the Deadpool of DreamSMP. Virtually unkillable, very skilled and scary, but consistently cracks jokes and breaks the 4th wall during plot. His POV is just fun. Like, he does wild plans and gives speeches and some of the stuff that happens to him should be called deus ex machine if it wasn't for the fact that Technoblade is the one who's doing it, and all the stuff is grounded in the fact that cc!Techno is just that good at the game.

However, the fact that he rarely takes anything seriously makes the few times Techno is 100% serious so much more impactful. His whole character has a basis in being perceived as inhuman and being treated as such, and therefore in return trying to hide his humanity. So, when he shows that humanity, whether that's fear, anger, or genuine love for his friends, it really makes you go "oh shit."

Techno's often said not to have character development, but I'd argue that while he remains steadfast in his moral code, he develops leaps and bounds as a person. Like, at the beginning, he's brought onto the server to help Wilbur and Tommy overthrow a government; them knowing he's 1) an anarchist and 2) very very powerful. His character was more of a plot device at that point and was treated as such in the canon. Wilbur and Tommy straight-up lie to him about their plans to establish another government after they overthrow the current one, while he was led on to believe that they were abolishing all governments in the area. But he isn't a plot device. He's a person, as much as he only shows the terrifying, blood god side of himself.

After the establishment of New Lmanburg (the new government its a long story), his friend Phil joins. And for the first time, we see him be fully human with someone and we see someone treat him like a human. Like, we saw glimpses before, with Wilbur and Tommy in Pogtopia, but Phil is the first person we noticeably see he trusts 100%. Then Doomsday happens, and Techno essentially retires to the tundra. During this time, we see Techno learn to be more human, first with Ranboo, then Niki when he establishes the Syndicate. In fact, the two of them, along with Phil, canonically throw him a birthday party, which is a far cry from his treatment in Pogtopia.

Techno's development is one of a god learning to be human, and I just think he <3

[punderfulowl]

Top 10 Anime (That I've Seen) in 2020

Well now, it has certainly been awhile. I'm currently sitting at eight months too late for posting this, but, y'know, something something life happens. More accurately, I already made this list, but wanted to try out what response I'd get from Reddit. Turns out, they're not as cool as you guys!

Anyways, as the title states, this is not a list of my favorite anime that came out during 2020, but instead my favorite anime that I just so happen to see during that year. While it's fun to have an end of the year retrospective, I find that having a list in this format not only adds variety, but also helps bring attention to anime that might have been lost in the shuffle in previous years (I also don't have enough time to stay caught up in seasonal releases).

Honorable mentions:

Aggretsuko S3, My Hero Academia S4, Today's Menu For the Emiya Family, Interspecies Reviewers (yes, really), and I Couldn't Become a Hero So I Reluctantly Decided to Get a Job

10. Maid-Sama (2010)

In hindsight, I find it a bit funny that I wanted to watch something wholesome to kick off 2020. Anyway, Maid-Sama is about a high school girl that is also a no nonsense Class President and she kind of has to be at a school where, until recently, was an all boys school. While she kills it in academics and is good at shutting down any shenanigans from the male student body, her financial situation isn't the greatest and has to balance a job at a maid cafe along with her school-related responsibilities. She does her best to hide her employment there to keep up appearances, but is one day found out by one of the boys who happens to be a big flirt and, yeah, hijinks ensue. While this anime doesn't have too many surprises, our main leads bounce off each other well enough to keep me entertained. Nothing I haven't seen already in other anime Rom-Coms, but I think it has more than earned its place at the start of this list.

9. Haganai NEXT (2013)

It's a personal rule of mine when making these lists that I don't include sequels of shows that were in previous lists. While I DID see the first season of Haganai a couple of years ago, it didn't quite make it into the top ten at that time. Because of that, it meets the criteria for this year's list. While I found the characters were just as charming here as I did during the first season, the development of their relationships really took off. It's a shame that it will most likely not get a third season, but I'm happy with what ride this show gave me. But hey! At least I can read the light novels/manga to continue the story! Wait, nevermind, the Haganai fans on Reddit are saying that's a bad idea.

8. Engaged to the Unidentified (2014)

Based off of a Four Panel joke manga, Engaged to the Unidentified tells the story of a girl in high school suddenly getting some life changing news. As it turns out, her grandfather made an arranged engagement with her and the son of a family he knew. Next thing she knows, the boy in question, as well as his little sister, moves into her family's house! While the boy is unassuming at first, there may be more to him and his family than he lets on. Plain and simple, this anime has charmed me. There's a decent amount of drama and mystery despite the source material and I applaud it! Even though this also doesn't have much new to offer, even to the point where I would compare this to Maid-Sama, what made me pick this at the 8th spot were the color choices and animation quality. Give this a shot if you can!

7. Grimoire of Zero (2017)

It's a fantasy/adventure story starring a loli sorcerer and a huge, anthropomorphic white tiger man. I honestly can't say anything else. I won't be able to do it justice. That first sentence should intrigue you a lease a little bit. Read it, again. Please check it out. It's an underrated gem that no one is talking about.

6. ID: Invaded (2020)

Hey, here's something recent! Unfortunately, this is also not something I can say much about. There may not be too many deep characters and the secret bad guy isn't hard to figure out, but BOY is this anime cool! The best way to describe this series is that it's like the movie Inception, but instead of brain heists, it's brain murder mysteries.

5. Carole and Tuesday (2019)

A runaway rich girl has a fated meeting with an orphan and they decide to make music together...oh, this also takes place Mars. Joking aside, this show was something special with its music (a new song almost every episode no less), interesting setting (freaking Mars, dude), and endearing main cast. Shoot, the music itself would be top 3, maybe number 1, but what bogs it down is the show's second half. I can easily see myself watching this again someday, and maybe my opinion will lighten up, but for now, 5 is a dang good spot.

4. Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front - Babylonia (2019)

Part of me hesitates placing this high up on list due to this show being animated, fan service spectacle for Fate fans. However, that hesitation is overshadowed by the fact that I am a Fate fan myself and I can do whatever I want with this list. Even if you're not a Fate fan or play FGO, if you enjoy some solid fight animation, this is worth a look.

3. K-On S1 (2009)

I'll admit it, I might regret not watching the second season then putting the series on the list as a whole, but this how I've been doing these lists and I'm such a creature of habit. There's not much I can say about K-On that hasn't already been said. By itself it's an anime classic and one of Kyo-ani's biggest properties. It's a sweet and wholesome watch, but be sure to have some insulin within reach.

2. Princess Principal (2017)

Imagine you're working with a team of programmers trying to make a mobile game then all of a sudden someone asks to make a show out of it. You know, a show with different character motivations, plot, twist and turns and all that? Most might say that's just a shameless, shallow cash grab, but it turns out okay for Princess Principal. Sure, most might summarize this anime as, "cute girls doing espionage things," but with its cast, visuals, and interesting alternative timeline, it works! Apparently there's a new season or movie in the works and I am all for it!

1. Beastars (2019)

I was not expecting this to be number one, but with much deliberation (with myself obviously) this feels right. It tells a pretty unique story while showing itself to be the exception to the rule when it comes to 3D anime.....it being that it's actually good. While I acknowledge that shows like K-On are classics and deserves to be number one on many different lists, it didn't line up with my personal criteria like Beastars did. My biggest deciding factor is: Now that I've watched this, do I want more? It's true that while I'm excited to start K-On S2, Beastars intrigues me more and ever since season two was announced, I'm looking forward to that more.

Sorry again for this list being so late, but at least the silver lining is that the next end of the year list is about four months away (in theory)!

[xmanicpanicx]

Romanticized Things That Aren't Actually Romantic

1) The "shut up" kiss

It happens in more movies, TV shows, and novels than I can even count. One half of the couple (usually a woman or girl) will be talking, and the other person (usually a guy) will suddenly lay an ol’ sloppy one on her mouth. Often times, she’s rambling about her insecurities, so some people think it’s cute when he kisses her, symbolically laying her worries to rest. Don’t worry, hon! There’s nothing to be insecure about! He likes you! There are two big problems with this. The first is that when someone is speaking, you shouldn’t cut them off; best case scenario, it’s rude. Of course, people cut each other off all the time in conversation, so that’s different. But when a character interrupts another character’s speech to kiss them, they are essentially prioritizing their sexual desires over the other person’s need to express themselves. It’s an action that has an agenda. Everyone wants to be truly listened to when they speak. So if, for example, we have a female character babbling about her insecurities, the male character should hear her out, and then respond to what she says. There is plenty of romantic potential in words — even more than in kisses, in my opinion. His response could still be a kiss after she’s finished speaking (as long as it’s not a rattlesnake-strike type of kiss that doesn’t give her a choice). However, we still have another problem: the female character’s self-confidence shouldn’t be contingent upon the male character’s opinion of her. In other words, a kiss from a guy, no matter how much she loves him, will not and should not heal her negative perception of herself. Not healthy. Real people and characters should accept themselves on their own terms rather than on the approval of others.

Sometimes, the sudden kiss will come in the middle of a female character’s angry rant. The male character thinks she’s cute or sexy when she’s angry, which can be frustrating and patronizing for anyone who voices their anger because they want to be listened to and taken seriously. But regardless of why the character is talking, the other character should stop kissin’ and start listenin’.

2) Female double standards

Women and girls often feel really uncomfortable when men objectify them and make comments on their bodies, so they call these men out — and rightfully so. They also call male authors out for only describing women in terms of their bodies and giving them very little, if any, personality. Once again, rightfully so. Unfortunately, in real life and in literature, there is a double standard here. It’s one thing to write an erotic novel in which bodies of every gender are described in explicit detail and with an express purpose. But I’ve read novels without any sexual content that go into so much detail about guys’ looks. And these male characters are often not well-developed, either (think of the stereotypical jock with a hot bod and no brain). Authors — especially female authors, who are usually the ones perpetuating this — need to do better than this. If it's not okay to do that to girls, it's not okay to do that to guys, either. Also, what is up with that scene from The Notebook? The one where Rachel McAdams repeatedly slaps Ryan Gosling because he’s breaking up with her. How on Earth is that okay? The Notebook is widely considered to be a super-romantic movie, but there is nothing romantic about that scene, and it should be a deal-breaker for their relationship. If the tables were turned and Ryan Gosling slapped Rachel McAdams for breaking up with him, the entire plot of the movie would be different. It would be a thriller, a story about a woman trying to escape a scary ex. We would never root for the two of them to get back together.

3) Overly-metaphorical sex scenes

Cheese, cheese, and more cheese. Would you like some crust and tomato sauce with all that cheese? So many novels shy away from the anatomical details and favor metaphors for how the sex makes the characters (or just the narrating character) feel. In theory, there is nothing wrong with this, but I personally tend to roll my eyes more often than not at the actual execution. The narrator will say something too dramatic, like “our bodies became one and the universe opened up before me.” Or “and then we were flying, soaring with and through one another.” Or something else that is just… not sexy. As far as being poetic, there isn’t anything special about those phrases, either. There is nothing wrong with describing sex as it really is. I realize that novels featuring sex that are aimed at young adults probably cannot describe things too explicitly, but there’s no need to replace dirty details with flowery language. Go for whatever sincerity you can in the situation. There are plenty of different emotions to mine and sensual details leading up to the actual sex that read more thrillingly than the sex scene itself. 

4)  Instalove

It's simply not as much fun to see characters fall for each other right away. And how could they possibly fall for each other right away, anyhow? Is it all about looks? If so, both characters are instantly less likable because they're shallow. And that's not real love, either. You need to actually know someone in order to feel a such a deep emotion for them.

It's also important to note that making the characters "love" each other at the outset of the story does not heighten the emotional stakes. It actually cheapens them. Because how can we take this so-called love seriously when we don't get to know, don't get to care about, the characters as individual people before they fall for each other?

Now, if we get to know each character and watch them get to know each other, and slowly fall for each other, that's much more rewarding.  It's character growth, and it's a whole process that we, as readers, get to experience vicariously though them.

This may just be a personal preference, but I think it's best to even avoid phrases like “my heartbeat skipped” or “my skin tingled when our hands brushed” in the beginning stages of the story. Even though the declarations of love and outright displays off affection may come later on, statements like these reveal instant attraction, which still isn't as rewarding as attraction that grows over time and through events.

5) Love interests being obsessed with each other

From approximately 2005-2015, YA literature saw a horde of books featuring teenage girls and boys who are everything to each other. I almost mean that literally. The first really popular book like this was Twilight, but it had a huge influence on everything in YA that came after, especially YA fantasy. How romantic, some people think, that hero lives for the heroine! And vice versa! Perfect! Meant to be! Everyone wishes they could have that one, true, perfect love! 

Listen. Go back to Britney Spears’s first album and play the song “Born to Make You Happy”: ”I don’t know how to live without your love, I was born to make you happy.” Solid 90s bubblegum pop, but with unhealthy lyrics. An unhealthy mentality. Most of us are familiar with that heady, all-consuming feeling of falling in love, how it feels like that’s the best and happiest part of life as it’s happening. There’s nothing wrong with portraying that. It’s relatable. The glorification of it beyond all else is the problem. The hero and heroine have scares throughout the story during which they almost lose each other, and that brings to light just how strongly they feel each other, to the extreme that nothing matters except each other. Then, of course, they ultimately end up together, happily ever after, never having to part again. But in real life, people break up, or sometimes even die. People have no choice but to be apart from the person they loved so much from then on. And it’s devastating, but it’s not the end, even if it sometimes feels like it. That’s why it’s so important for books to give some indicator that there are other things that matter besides (and dare I say even more than) the one person the hero/heroine is in love with. The characters have to have some sense of self-love or resilience. They have to have other people they care about, or at least values/principles and goals. They have to be an actual person, not just a vessel filled to the brim with love for just one other person. Romanticizing a co-dependent relationship can be hope-crushing message, especially for teenagers who haven’t had enough time to grow, to weather the storm of life and toughen up and become wiser and more self-aware and self-confident. 

7) The super dominant male love interest 

Okay, I’m not trying to kink-shame anyone because I know there are people who absolutely love this trope. I want to say it’s fine, as long as it remains in Tropeland. But even if women want to keep these love interests solely within their fantasies, I do worry about the message it sends to men, if it makes them think that they can be abusive douchebags because women are into that. I already know of far too many men who think that women are only into assholes. 

Personally, I’ll never understand the appeal of a man, fictional or otherwise, who dictates what a woman should wear, her food choices, where they go and what they do for dates ALL THE TIME. And jealousy! Sure, jealousy indicates that someone cares, and it’s a normal human emotion, but I’ll never understand the appeal of a guy who gets so jealous, he won’t allow his girlfriend any freedom. I’ll never understand how cruel, disparaging words could ever be on the same sexiness level as dirty talk. And I really, really will never understand how a man physically harming a woman could be considered sexy. It’s weak and cowardly, hurting someone who doesn’t stand a chance of fighting back because they’re nowhere near as strong.

I get the appeal of a guy who sees a woman as his equal and isn’t afraid to spar with her, challenge her, and maybe even be a little bit rough with her, knowing that she can handle it. I see the appeal of a confident man who isn’t afraid to tell a woman what he wants. When his presence becomes legitimately threatening and completely selfish, that’s when I personally see a problem. But hey, to each their own.

[filmista]

American Beauty (1999)

“This isn’t life, It’s just stuff. And it’s become more important to you than living. Well, honey, that’s just nuts.”

I’ve always wondered what exactly the “American Beauty” in American Beauty refers to. It obviously refers to one of the main characters, Angela the cheerleader, played by Mena Suvari. But once you look past that there’s not much beauty to be seen anywhere, and that I eventually found out is exactly the point of the film.

I looked up what it could refer to and I came across various explanations and theories, one of them that I particularly like, is that the American beauty is a certain type of rose (that really exists and appears throughout the film!) It’s a rose with an intense, beautiful vivid colour, but it has absolutely no smell, It’s only exterior beauty, with nothing on the inside, no heart, no soul and no content.

And that’s exactly what the film is about: Looking past normalcy, past the artificial and superficial and false in all aspects. But especially when it comes to beauty: the beauty of life, recognising authentic beauty in the world around us, in ourselves and in the people around us.

American beauty was one of the big hits of the 90’s, it won 5 oscars. It’s a film that many people could relate to and find themselves in and that many people loved for It’s humour. It was also the film debut of British director, Sam Mendes. 

In it he does precisely what the tagline reads: Look closer. In American beauty he gives us an average, apparent happy existence, which he uncovers layer by layer with a sharply tuned dose of cynicism, sarcasm and black humour, only to show that It’s not happy, It’s empty, artificial and sad.

He explores the balance between material wealth and spiritual wealth and wellbeing, happiness, true happiness of both the mind and the body. In latin there’s  a phrase for it “ Mens sana in corpore sano“: A healthy mind in a healthy body.

The combination of the two seems like an impossible to reach, fantasy like ideal. So It’s characters hide that they haven’t reached that balance, that they’re not happy through self deception, medication and their eternally green lawns. He shows that you can be utterly unhappy, while in the eyes of others you have absolutely everything, that you can be a prisoner in your own house and mind.

American beauty famously starts with Spacey’s character, Lester Burnham masturbating under the shower, through a voiceover he informs us that It’s the all time high of his day, after that it can only go downhill. Anyone making such a statement, is clearly not a happy individual.

Lester Burnham, is at first sight, you’re average middle aged American he does nothing ordinary, he’s never done anything out of the ordinary and he probably won’t ever do anything out of the ordinary or even extraordinary.

He lives in an average suburban neighbourhood, in one of those neighbourhood where in movie land each house and each family is eerily similar... he has a relatively nice house, but It’s not even particularly beautiful, he has a decent job and a family.

The only thing missing seems to be the golden retriever or the labrador to complete the look of the average, happy family. The thing is that he has  seemingly everything but he has at the same time nothing, he’s not happy, he doesn’t have meaningful human contact his own family are strangers to him and he excels at nothing and nothing sets him apart. 

Lester Burnham is actually tired of everything: of his life, of the predictability of daily routine, of his neighbourhood, of his street, of his car, of his work, of himself, and possibly even his country but most of all of his wife, he doesn’t recognise her as the woman she once was, she has become vain, mean, and utterly superficial.

She’s now all about keeping up appearances, you’re not happy, but make sure you offer the world a big, bright smile, to make them think you are. Because there is in her eyes nothing worse than not keeping up a public image of perfection, she’s the epitome of the person that lives to work, who has let her job completely define her, and who has no enjoyable life of her own, she’s forgotten how to live for herself. 

Lester’s daughter Jane is a cheerleader, who has a game coming up. Lester and his wife go, once there Lester falls head over heels in love with the blonde cheerleader, who is the focal point of all the cheerleaders, (or what you’d call the head cheerleader, I don’t know if there’s a term for that) and Jane’s best friend.

Apart from a crush he develops a beast of a midlifecrisis. He quits his job, and he goes back to flipping hamburgers, which he did back when he was a teenager.

And still had to time to go out or in his own words to go out and get laid, It’s clear he wants to go back to that time when has was a happy teen with little responsibilities.

He starts working on his physique to lose that excessive tummy fat and so that obviously over time Angela, the beautiful cheerleader will be able to admire his muscles.

He buys the car he’s always wanted, smokes joints like there’s no tomorrow and he pulls out his old Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan records, in a nostalgic mood, he’s as young as he feels, which is about 17.

The redeeming quality in Lester, despite all his despicable selfish, behaviour is that Angela impulsed him to take a long hard look at himself, he doesn’t like what he sees so he decides to do something about it.

That determination is admirable, but there’s also something very tragical about it, he falls in love with a girl who says that there’s nothing worse than being ordinary, but meanwhile she’s about as plastic and fake as one can possibly be, but Lester thinks he’s finally found true beauty that’s sad.

Meanwhile his daughter Jane, feeling like she doesn’t fit in, is considering plastic surgery to become a girl she’s not, but a girl that she thinks everyone will want, while she already has an unusual sort of beauty, that may not be respond to the stereotypical American standart, but that’s beautiful nonetheless.

But eventually she finds someone who likes her for who she is and who tells her that she’s beautiful, she becomes the truly happy person in the family, by becoming completely herself, embracing herself.

The film hints that she’s the only true American Beauty in the film, precisely because she’s authentic and has integrity and won’t give in to becoming someone she’s not, no matter what anyone may think.

Meanwhile Lester’s wife falls for the charms and the chest hair of the real estate king, only to realise there’s no happiness there either. And at the neighbour’s, the father bullies his gay son.

Underneath all the sadness, and the sheer depressiveness of the film, it inspires, because it tells you that happiness isn’t completely impossible but you have to work on it, it can be achieved for instance by trying to be honest with yourself, to care less about appearances and overcoming what people may think.

The acting in American beauty is truly one of the things, along with the cinematography that elevates it, so much is about interpersonal relationships, dialogues and small, seemingly insignificant gestures between people.

American beauty aside from being a film with a stunning visual beauty, is a film that has as It’s crucial ingredient, observing, watching people go about their daily life, watching them interact and talk.

So It’s of crucial importance that the acting works, that it feels natural, unforced authentic. And it works in American Beauty, you’re treated to that elegant completely unforced, genuine feeling acting.

The whole cast has excellent chemistry and works well with each other, they seem to be on the same wavelength and anticipate each other almost, that’s good coordination between the actors and their director.

The acting in American beauty feels in a sense bit, like a camera was  just installed in a living room, and the actors are in reality just ordinary people, that were never told that they are being observed.

And because American beauty is essentially above all else, a character study, a portrait of a profoundly dysfunctional family, that gritty, raw realism in the acting is what makes it work.

The whole cast is enjoyable and each actor adds and brings their own unique, unmissable energy to the film, that makes it into a whole.

But It's arguably Spacey who steals the show. The best thing about his Lester is that he's unambiguous, he's not black and white. He's s man that's at first glance easy to hate but after a while he is not easy to hate, he's not likeable either, but you feel somewhat sorry for him.

But not completely either, because the way his life is, is not entirely the fault of himself or the world around him but a combination of both, both share the blame.

Spacey brings all this realistically and the result is a seemingly gigantic, pathetic loser who's really just a naive, deeply flawed man who tries hard to gain back his happiness but who really needed help, once he reaches his so called happiness, he thinks It's the real deal and doesn't realise It's fake.

In a way it makes him more likeable and braver than his wife, who realises that her perfect, illusory world is fake but who instead of trying to do something about it, change something, to try to really live and not fill up the emptiness with material things, she passively accepts that's the way things are and with it her own unhappiness.

But she's not even allowed something as fundamental as the right to be unhappy, to be sad, she won't allow it to herself, no one can know she and her life are not perfect.

So Spacey's character is a loser, but one you can at least feel somewhat sorry for, because he tries so desperately, to find beauty, joy and happiness that it becomes laughable, but at least he tries.

The best thing about Spacey in American beauty is seemingly his apparent lack in expression, he has a blank, expressionless, glazy look about him, as if he's staring into space, he's simply not there.

This expressionless look is then paired with a monotonous, utterly depressing voice. But slowly Lester transforms and some emotion even if It's not positive, seeps in, he's somewhat alive. And Spacey captures this very subtly.

American beauty has very precise and smart direction. Some people have called it too stylish and pretentious and unrealistic. But I don't think so, It's stylish because beauty or so called beauty, plays an important role in the film.

It's all about looking closer, about looking under the surface of things. So the film in a sense poses things as beautiful, when they aren't in the hopes that the audience can scratch the surface and see what's really up.

As far as it being unrealistic, I personally only noticed the unrealistic part, in certain parts of the film like the dialogues or thoughts the characters have, some of these have been exaggerated to make them stand out more.

American beauty is a black comedy, so at times it purposely exaggerates the misery of It's characters, so that they become funny in their misery.

And this is not really meant to make us laugh at them, but really to reflect the sometimes sheer absurdity of life and It's norms.

The pacing and timing of the film is excellent, everything is precisely calculated and each scene arrives at the perfect time, the moment that they'll have the most potent emotional blow.

This is especially the case with the comedic sequences, which are usually quite fast paced. And then there's also sequences, in which a character daydreams or fantasises, these are filmed in slow motion, usually with somewhat exaggerated colours and lightning to really reflect that's It' not taking place in reality.

The film navigates effortlessly between these different sequences, the timing and pacing adapts to the tone and mood of a scene and so the whole film is one coherent, entertaining, emotionally affecting, hard hitting whole that invites you to think.

For a movie debut American Beauty is a breathtaking work. The script by Alan Ball (the creator of Six Feet Under and True Blood) has a seemingly infinite number of subtleties and small moments - of course you have Wes Bentley’s wonderful monologue as the eccentric, lonely neighbour ( "Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world that I get the feeling that I can’t handle it").

But more than that it's fantastic how we get scenes, such as Lester sitting in his car singing along with a song, completely unaware, of himself or the way Lester is stoned at a party, while his wife is becoming drunk, It’s as if we’re directly invited to invade their lives while, they unaware of themselves are making utterly embarrassing themselves.

When it comes to the scenario, American Beauty is not only a very subtle, complex piece of work, but extremely funny. Statements like "could you please pass me the fucking asparagus” or "Smile, you're at Smiley's" moments that are witty.

Because they don’t stand alone as a joke, but quite naturally arise from the plot and the characters. These aren’t characters in a comedy that will do the most impossible, ridiculous stuff to make us laugh. They are just very witty and funny in all their misery, though they don’t realise this themselves...

Sam Mendes worked with the already deceased cinematographer Conrad L. Hall who knew how to set a story in a small canvas (suburban life), yet also give it a completely, special unique look.

For instance, there’s a motif, a sort of mosaic that returns throughout the film in which Angela is associated with rose petals when Lester fantasises about her:

While Carolyn (the wife) is regularly linked with a mature rose. The suggestion then is that Carolyn is who Angela could be in a few years, or that Lester sees Angela as a younger version of his wife, as she was before she was corrupted by greed and superficiality.

American Beauty  turned out a very beautiful film, in the literal sense of the word - shots such as Wes Bentley and Thora Birch walking through a barren avenue where hearses drive past, a plastic bag floating through the air.

Or the imaginary dance that Mena Suvari does for Kevin Spacey’s character when he sees her for the first time, are truly scenes to feast your eyes on. And what is best: especially on a first vision they don’t draw attention to themselves they are only there to support the story, they’re a device in the narration.

American Beauty is one of the best films of the 90’s- a mature, adult, moving, intelligent, astute and very witty study of a family that is falling apart, plus It’s after all this time still internationally relevant.

It’s not just about the American suburban nightmare or as some people say the crumbling of the American dream, or questioning if it really exists at all or ever existed, perhaps all that is in there. But it ultimately it has the beautiful message that the world can a very nice and truly beautiful place to be in, if we only wish and resolve to make it so ourselves.

“Both my wife and daughter think I'm this gigantic loser and they're right, I have lost something. I'm not exactly sure what it is but I know I didn't always feel this... sedated. But you know what? It's never too late to get it back.”

[yourfullyhardbouquet-blog]

Game Of Thrones Is The Most Pirated TV Show In The global world

If you have ever thought Game of Thrones played out as a huge, hours-long movie of an eight-season tv show instead, you'd be on the same page as showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Gone will be the days where visitors of the A Tune of Snow and Open fire books could sit down in silent contentment, lording it over themselves with secret understanding of how storylines would play out. Certainly nobody feels the dragons that have thrilled viewers of HBO's strike series exist in any real sense. I must confess I only read "Game of thrones" because if the television series, but I'm happy I did because I absolutely love the reserve series. I write these lines in the exhilarating couple of days and hours right before the seventh season of the illusion drama tv series "Game of Thrones" is defined to premiere on HBO on 16 July 2017 and (just what a horror) to conclude six weeks later on 27 August 2017. Prepared as a trilogy, only the first two books can be found right now ( The Name of the Blowing wind , The Smart Man's Dread ) so Amazon would have to have a George R.R. Martin-like gamble to invest in it. But it would still be worthwhile to start to see the regretful story of Kvothe find out. On Wednesday, news broke that Bryan Cogman, a experienced manufacturer of HBO's Game of Thrones, is currently working on the show's fifth prequel series, which George R R. Martin announced back in May All five projects are all super-secret, but there are many details fans ought to know to carry them over until we get more information. For more information about all seven periods of Game of Thrones, check out our Game of Thrones event guide page. A hit TV series might be popular enough and create enough income to sustain this - however the Game of Thrones suppliers haven't any way of completely guaranteeing that the TV series's ratings will be as high three seasons in the foreseeable future. Ned Stark was beheaded under Ruler Joffrey Baratheon's orders in Season 1, Episode 109. Consider Season Six: It started with the resurrection of Jon Snow (exactly as fans exhaustedly theorized online over the 10 a few months between periods) and finished with the reveal of the R+L=J Theory. HBO didn't make an online search to send out Game of Thrones” to subscribers across the world like Netflix and Amazon Video have done with their series Instead, the internet was important to the series' global growth because of the opportunities it offered fans to connect to one another. Rhaegar and Lyanna, then Arya and Jon still would have been cousins and this still would have been incest thus. Season six's improvement, in some ways, may stem from how the writers more and more just halted writing tale for personas who didn't own it, which explains why Littlefinger and Sam appeared in mere a small number of episodes. Hello, This Is Daenerys identifies some image macros that feature behind the scenes photos Game of Thrones stars Emilia Clarke and Kit Harrington in costume on the cellphones. In amount: What may be the most important adaptational decision created by Game of Thrones in season seven was providing Euron's dragon-stealing and Wall-toppling assignments to the night time King. The seventh season of Game of Thrones was nothing at all significantly less than epic. A Game of Thrones Catan: Brotherhood of the Watch has two forms of victory, though you can feel hollower than the other. HBO evangelists have proclaimed that the television series is the dominant narrative form for the 21st century already, as film had been for the twentieth, and the novel have been for the nineteenth 1 Whether or not this type of hyperbole is justified remains to be observed, however when the most frequently discussed question within a university's English books department is no more ‘what reserve do you recommend?' but ‘which series must i be viewing?', it seems apparent that something has changed certainly. The planned group of seven books is a bit more than halfway complete, with Book 5 on the real way come early july. Below we've the public battle of words, followed by an exclusive Q&A with Lost showrunner Damon Lindelof about Martin's responses (he was actually reading Game of Thrones when all this transpired!) and a glance back again at his emotions about the Lost ending. Meanwhile, Regarding to Variety, the Melody Of Snow And Fire publication series' writer George RR Martin is currently working with four sets of writers to build up shows each set in different Westeros time periods. Sceptical of the fantasy genre primarily, Benioff became a large fan of the books and invited his friend D.B. my latest blog post Weiss to develop the project with him for a display screen adaptation.

[stormdoors78476]

All The New Shows To Screen Or Skip In Spring And Summer 2017

There’s a reason networks often save their weakest fare for the time of year when more people are less likely to spend their evenings indoors.

Of course, that’s not always the case, since “Game of Thrones” is scheduled to make it’s much-awaited return this July. 

But when it comes to new shows, you can bet networks generally save the worst for last. In the coming months, viewers can look forward to some stellar series this spring (including ”The Handmaid’s Tale,” “American Gods,” “GLOW”), while they’re more or less better off embracing the warm weather and misplacing their remotes by the time summer hits. 

APRIL   “Girlboss,” April 21, Netflix 

With allegations that former Nasty Gal CEO Sophia Amoruso was accused of creating a “toxic” workplace, it’s easy to see why the lead character of Netflix’s “Girlboss” is so incredibly unlikeable. The question, however, is why would anyone want to spend a significant amount of time watching her?

“Girlboss” is loosely based on Amoruso’s memoir of the same name and tells the story of how she began her vintage clothing eBay shop, before it became what we now know as Nasty Gal.

The show stars Britt Robertson as 23-year-old Sophia, a college dropout who works menial jobs and yet can somehow afford a studio apartment in San Francisco circa 2006 ― and damn is it ever hard to watch. Sophia is petulant, whiny, and often just flat-out mean. What’s worse is that the series rarely gives you a reason to root for her. Characters don’t always have to be likable, but there has to be at least some reason to follow a person through their journey. With “Girlboss,” there’s nothing here.  

“Great News,” April 25, 9 p.m. ET, NBC

”Great News,” the new workplace comedy from executive producer Tina Fey, can’t be described as great or even good.

The show follows Katie (Briga Heelan), a wallflower of a producer at a cable news program called “The Breakdown,” and her overbearing mother (Andrea Martin), who manages to land a job as as the show’s intern. Hilarity ensues, right? Not so much.

The show’s jokes just repeatedly fall flat, though surprisingly it’s Nicole Richie as a super-hip if slightly vapid co-anchor who actually shines brightest.  

“Genius,” April 25, 9 p.m. ET, National Geographic 

What do you really know about Albert Einstein aside from the fact that he developed the theory of relativity? National Geographic is willing to wager that you know very little.

“Genius” is an anthology series from executive producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer about the lives of those deserving enough to be deemed as such, and Season 1 kicks off with none other than Mr. E = mc2 himself.  

Based on Walter Isaacson’s book Einstein: His Life and Universe, the show stars Johnny Flynn when Einstein was a student in Zurich the 1890s, and Geoffrey Rush, as his older counterpart against a backdrop of the rising anti-semitism in 1922 Berlin, Germany.

“The Handmaid’s Tale,” April 26, Hulu

Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” is by far the best new show debuting in the spring and summer season. Based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel, if you don’t already have a Hulu account, you’re going to want to sign up for one today.

Set in the not-too distant future where a fundamentalist Christian regime rules over the former United States, now known as the Republic of Gilead, women have been stripped of their rights and any sense of life as they once knew it. Elisabeth Moss stars as Offred, a woman who is forced to bear children for high-ranking men and their wives, after environmental problems cause widespread infertility issues. 

The series is a chilling reminder of how quickly the Republic of Gilead could become a reality. 

“Dear White People,” April 28, Netflix 

If you liked “Dear White People” the movie then you should probably watch it again, because the 2014 film from writer/director Justin Simien is far better than Netflix’s 10-episode series.  

That’s not to say the series adaptation is a failure by any means. The show is still a smart and sharp take on the complex issue of race relations, and is definitely worth checking out. 

The series picks up where the film left off in the aftermath of a racist blackface party, which has left a campus divided. Episodes are told and then retold through different student’s perspectives, which requires some commitment by the viewers since that format can feel awfully repetitive. 

 “American Gods,” April 30, 9 p.m. ET, Starz

“American Gods” is absolutely the weirdest and most mind-bending new offering this season. Starz’s visually-stunning new drama is based on British author Neil Gaiman’s 2001 fantasy novel of the same name and requires total suspension of disbelief. 

In this America, gods live among us mere mortals. There are two types of gods ― old and new. The old are the ones you’ve read about in myths and were brought to America by faithful immigrants centuries ago, while the new gods have gradually replaced the old ones and were born out of our modern obsession with media and technology.

As war brews between the gods, an ex-con named Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) finds himself caught between the two sides.  

MAY “Anne with an E,” May 12, Netflix 

Netflix’s “Anne with an E” is easily one of the most charming new shows. Yes, this is yet another adaptation of Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery’s beloved children’s novel Anne of Green Gables, but it’s far the best. 

Amybeth McNulty stars as Anne Shirley, the young orphan who never stops talking and comes to live on Prince Edward Island with elderly siblings Marilla (Geraldine James) and Matthew Cuthbert (R.H. Thomson).

While you may have read the book a 100 times as a child, Netflix has managed to reenergize the story for modern audiences without betraying its source material. If anything, “Anne” digs deeper at some of the darker elements that Montgomery glossed over in the novel, and is a thoroughly binge-able experience for all ages. 

“I Love Dick,” May 12, Amazon 

You may have already watched the pilot episode of Amazon’s new series “I Love Dick,” based on Chris Kraus’ 1997 novel.

The show stars Kathryn Hahn as a filmmaker in an unhappy marriage, who follows her husband (Griffin Dunne) to his writing residency in Marfa, Texas, and becomes completely infatuated with a professor named Dick (Kevin Bacon).

“I Love Dick” is the latest show from “Transparent” creator Jill Soloway and is an intentionally uncomfortable yet humorous examination of human sexuality and the female gaze. 

“Downward Dog,” May 17, 9:30 p.m. ET, ABC

From ABC comes “Downward Dog,” a sitcom about a dog named Martin and his owner Nan (Allison Tolman), a woman struggling to get ahead at work and make sense of her personal life. 

The show is told from Martin’s perspective’s via his internal monologue, voiced by Samm Hodges. The series is inoffensive enough if you can stand to listen to Martin, who is the male incarnation of a droning Valley-girl in canine form. 

 “Twin Peaks,” May 21, 9 p.m. ET, Showtime 

Showtime didn’t provide any screeners for “Twin Peaks,” which is returning as a limited series 24 years after David Lynch’s original version ended.

Because of this, we can only tell you what you probably already know: Lynch will direct the entire series and you can expect to see many familiar faces, including Kyle MacLachlan, who returns as FBI Agent Dale Cooper. 

JUNE “I’m Dying Up Here,” June 4, 10 p.m. ET, Showtime

Showtime’s new drama “I’m Dying Up Here” is a look at the lives of stand-up comics trying to make it in Los Angeles in the 1970s ―  and you’ll be tempted to heckle if you can muster the strength to make it through a full episode. 

Yet another show based on a book, the series is inspired by William Knoedelseder‘s 2009 nonfiction work I’m Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-up Comedy’s Golden Era and features an ensemble cast including Ari Graynor, Melissa Leo, Clark Duke, Michael Angarano and RJ Cyler.

“GLOW,” June 29, Netflix 

Even if you’d rather do just about anything else than watch professional wrestling, you really shouldn’t discount Netflix’s new original series “GLOW.”

Inspired by the real story of the 1980s women’s wrestling league “Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling,” “GLOW” is one of the most enjoyable shows to debut this season. 

Alison Brie stars as a struggling actress desperate to make it in Hollywood, giving one last shot at her dreams when she auditions for a series about female wrestlers. Featuring an outstanding and diverse cast, the series hilariously tackles issues of racism, stereotyping, sexism and sisterhood in the world of women’s wrestling. 

JULY “The Bold Type,” July 11, 9 p.m. ET, Freeform 

Freeform’s “The Bold Type” is inspired by Cosmopolitan and its editor-in-chief Joanna Coles, and it’s the perfect show for summertime viewing. 

Starring Katie Stevens, Aisha Dee and Meghann Fahy as three friends working at Scarlet Magazine, the show follows the young women as they navigate their careers and personal lives in New York City.

This show is exactly what you would expect from reading Cosmo ― not a bad way to curl up on the couch with a glass of wine. 

“Midnight, Texas,” July 25, 10 p.m. ET, NBC

The remote town of “Midnight, Texas” seems to be the supernatural center of the United States with witches, ghosts, assassins, angels, psychics and other creatures calling it home. But there is entirely too much going on. 

Based on the trilogy series of the same name by author Charlaine Harris, “Midnight Texas” follows Manfred (François Arnaud), a psychic who can communicate with the dead, as he arrives in Midnight and befriends fellow outsiders like himself. 

AUGUST “The Sinner,” Aug. 2, 10 p.m. ET, USA

USA’s “The Sinner” is a different kind of thrilling mystery that finds Jessica Biel starring in a TV series for the first time since her days playing Mary Camden on “7th Heaven.”

Biel plays Cora, a young mother who commits an unspeakable act of violence against a stranger at the beach. There’s no question that she did it. The only question is why. Bill Pullman also stars as a detective obsessed with uncovering Cora’s motives.

As the series delves into Cora’s past and pieces together what happened that day at the beach, chances are you’ll be just as obsessed. 

“Weekend Update,” Aug. 10, 9 p.m. ET, NBC

“Saturday Night Live” is on hiatus this summer, but Colin Jost and Michael Che will fill the void with “Weekend Update” ― a 30-minute, primetime version of the long-running segment. With “SNL” seeing some of its highest rating in years, Jost and Che will keep things going in August and make sure you’re on top of all the news that can be satirized. So basically everything.

“Marlon,” Aug. 16, 9 p.m. ET, NBC 

Marlon Wayans stars in what’s supposed to be an update on the classic family sitcom, but this isn’t anything we haven’t seen before. 

“Marlon” is loosely based on Wayans’ real life as he plays a wise-cracking, over- protective yet immature father to two precocious kids (Amir O’Neil and Notlim Taylor). He also appears to share a too-close relationship with his ex-wife (Essence Atkins). 

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2p0vDgE