#top 250 films

[estellaestella]

DUNE:PART TWO ranks #19 by IMDb ranking (which is based on complicated maths) of the Top 250 movies of all time!!! The movie is #16 when the list is sorted by IMDb rating (different math!), and it's #1 by popularity at the moment. Also, since the list is always "live" these rankings are probably going to change. But WOW, what a cool achievement!

[gothicprep]

netflix's business model is soooo bad. clownishly bad. we'd be here all day if i unpacked all of this, so i'll just focus on one thing for now:

if you look at the box office top 10 at any given time, it's generally dominated by IP films. even the non-IP films, the biggest one this year has been oppenheimer, and that's a christopher nolan movie. a lot of people know what a christopher nolan movie is and want to go see that already. so even something that's not an IP film per se is still partaking in stuff that is known, which makes it functionally very similar.

but the way that you get successful IP is that you market it, and you get people talking about it. netflix doesn't have successful IP because they don't do marketing, and they don't get people talking. and there's sort of a chicken and egg problem here, which is that without the marketing, they're not gonna have the cultural cachet, and without the cultural cachet, they're not going to have IP because their stuff is forgettable.

they also, i think, explicitly design their movies and tv shows to be kind of forgettable. their whole model, if you go back a couple of years, has been "we want to feed every niche". and what that means is that they can't develop a coherent brand identity in the way that hbo or a24 or vertigo comics developed a coherent brand identity. what does a netflix movie or series feel like? you can't describe it. sometimes it's the sandman, or sometimes it's house of cards, sometimes it's some sort of kids show or reality show, sometimes it's is it cake. the only thing that ties those together is that netflix owns all of them. that's it. there's nothing else.

on a broader level, it's feeding its subscribers things that are intentionally disposable and is designed as a commodity, both in the way that they market it and the way that they roll them out so that they have no cultural lift and traction. this creates a problem for stars because the only way you can get paid big money by netflix is if you are already a big brand, which means you need to be already associated with something that's big and marketed and has a cultural footprint before you get to netflix. will smith gets a giant paycheck for bright, adam sandler gets a giant paycheck for doing his movies, but somebody who isn't a household name can't build one on netflix. which is going to create big problems for them when it comes to talent, because they aren't making anything that people will watch 100 times and be talking about 20 years later.

there are some exceptions here, of course. the stranger things kids have managed to build name recognition from being on the show. or the oscar bait stuff that they put out at the end of the year, like roma or marriage story, doesn't feel anywhere near as commodified. but in the grand scheme of how much stuff they produce, cases like those are drops in the bucket.

[bratbby333]

choso kamo — the boy next door

synopsis you were completely oblivious to his inner turmoil. but choso liked it that way. cw nsfw, stalking, somnophilia, voyeurism, overstimulation, dirty talk, cream pie wc 4.1k

author note i received three separate requests for pervy!choso, dom!choso, and boynextdoor!choso so i decided to combine them into one story to celebrate hitting 250 followers! eeek i love y'all so much, i hope this scratches the right itch in y'alls brains ♡ proofread and edited up by my favorite person in the known cosmos: @remlionheart *+:｡.｡ thank you for pushing me to finish this

Choso was a constant fixture in your life. For as long as you could remember, it was always you and him. His house neighbored yours and your families had become close over the past fifteen years. Your childhoods were intertwined, filled with joint pool parties, barbecues, and movie nights. The two of you even shared a babysitter when your parents would go out on double dates. You carpooled to school, played in the cul-de-sac until the streetlamps came on, snuck through each other's windows when your parents thought you were sleeping; inseparable. You guys even ended up at the same university after graduating high school. You were finally home for the summer and you couldn’t wait to spend time with your best friend, uninterrupted by the hecticness of college.

A brisk knock resonated through your home, the door answered by your mother. 

“Hey! It’s so nice to see you again,” Choso grinned, nodding gently as he stepped into your foyer. You perked up at the sound of his voice echoing through your house. It was difficult to see one another as much as you had wanted this semester; you both explored different hobbies and found separate friend groups while in college, but you always made sure to find the time. You hadn’t seen him in a few weeks, though; the stress of final exams kept the two of you apart. It had been far too long.

“How have you been, honey? How was your semester?” your mother chirped as she engulfed him in a quick embrace. The two of them shared genial words as they caught up with one another. They continued to chat before being interrupted by the heavy sounds of your excited feet thumping down the staircase. He turned to greet you, only to be entrapped in a bearhug, the momentum pushed his body into the wall behind him.

“Choso! Missed you so much,” you squealed, voice muffled as you buried your face into his chest. You breathed him in, the familiar scent of his cologne dancing through your nose. His cheek found the top of your head as his warm hands rubbed gentle circles into your back, rocking you side to side. Your mother smiled with adoration at the two of you. He squeezed you tight before he pulled away, peering down at you. You noticed a light dusting of pink that surfaced on his skin as you looked up at him, but chalked it up to the sweltered heat of summertime.

“I missed you too, sweetheart,” he replied before returning his gaze to your mother while still holding on to you. ”Exams were tough but I’m happy that it’s finally over,” he added.

His attention fell back to you as his hands rubbed against your arms, “But, I’m all yours for the summer!”

*ੈ ✩‧₊˚

You sat next to him on the floor, backs pressed against the foot of your bed. The two of you shared a pizza as a silly rom-com played on your TV. You took turns catching up on each other’s lives while the film faded into background noise. You felt renewed in his presence, the youthful glow of his features reminded you of how he was when he was younger. But your chest began to ache as you thought about how the time you spent with one another would become harder and harder to come by. The conversation lulled a bit, and you willed yourself to voice your concerns to Choso.

“Sometimes I wish we could go back to how things were,” you blurted, hands fidgeting with the pizza box. Choso quirked his eyebrow at the statement. You met his gaze, smiling softly, bringing your knees to your chest. You sighed deeply. Being away from him hurt more than you thought it would, and you never recognized how much you needed him until you saw less of him.

“I miss being a kid…I miss the way we were,” you continued, “Not a single care in the world. I feel like the older we get, the less we’ll see each other. I don’t want that, Cho,” you mumbled, reextending your legs. His heart thrummed at your earnest confession as he leaned forward and captured your hand in his.

“I’m not goin’ anywhere…I can promise you that, sweetheart,” he reassured, his thumb rubbing the back of your hand. 

The conversation quieted, his words of consolation seemed to ease your mind enough for you to fixate on the screen. He watched you through his peripherals as you giggled at the corniness of the movie. Choso tried his hardest to follow along, but there you were, sat before him in a thin tank top and skimpy pajama shorts. He sent a silent “thank you” to the heavens; the record-high heatwave that plagued your city gifted him such a magnificent sight.

He side-eyed you, his vision tracing along your body. He took another bite of his pizza as he drank you in; dinner and a show. His vision followed every dip and curve of your almost fully exposed legs. He was thankful that you felt comfortable enough around him to dress how you pleased, but his dark heart wished you were sitting in just a thong, or better yet, fully nude. His eyes meandered north, hovering over the peaks of cleavage that your shirt didn’t cover. He swallowed thickly, nearly choking on his food when another giggle erupted from you, your breasts bouncing as you laughed.

He smiled inwardly, your fear of losing him warmed his heart. He wasn’t going anywhere. How else would he be able to see you like this; all nostalgic for him, the desperate expression on your face sent waves of arousal through his veins. His desire to know how you’d look splayed out underneath him rocketed through his body as he envisioned your fucked out face when he feathered hot, wet kisses along your neck and plunged two thick fingers deep inside you…how pretty you’d look just for him. What sounds would you make when his throbbing cock was fully enveloped in your gushy walls? Would you whimper and whine? Would you cry out for him? Rake your nails down his torso with your eyes blown wide? He so badly craved the answers to his searing questions.

Your laughter panged through his chest, snapping him out of his trance. You were completely oblivious to his inner turmoil. But he liked it that way. You continued to sit so good for him, eyes casted toward the TV. If only you knew the innocent relationship you had manifested in that sweet little mind of yours was one-sided. For him, it was dirty–downright filthy and sinful. But you would never know that.

Blood rushed between his legs as he shifted on the floor. The movie had about twenty minutes left; he was trying to hold out until then. He was desperate for release, anxiously anticipating the thick load he would shoot out at the thought of you, though he would pretend that it was going inside of you, instead. Oh, how he wanted to breed you. How soft you’d look carrying his spawn. He shook his head as he cleared his throat, single handedly fighting off every demon known to man that was telling him to pounce on you. He couldn’t. It would ruin the close friendship that took years to curate. It would kick him off the pedestal you placed him so highly on, tarnish the clean-cut version of him in your parent’s mind. He battled with his own thoughts as he mindlessly stared at the TV. 

The end credits rolled and Choso stood abruptly.

“I’ll catch you tomorrow, okay? Gotta get some sleep,” he said, readjusting his pants. You looked up at him, confusion evident on your pretty face.

“I thought you were spending the night,” you pouted, before pushing yourself off the ground.

“I know…I’m sorry, sweetheart. But knowing us, we’d stay up all night watching TV and talking instead of actually sleeping,” he played off. The ache between his legs intensified at the thought of sharing a bed with you like you usually did when he slept over. But he can’t. Not tonight…not like this. Normally he was good about keeping his composure, but tonight was different. Your puppy dog eyes didn’t help, either. He so badly wanted to see those same eyes gaze up at him while his cock was shoved down your throat. His dick pulsated against the soft fabric of his shorts as he shadowed you toward your bedroom door, taking an internal note of how good your ass looked as your shorts rode up between your plush cheeks. He nearly lost it as you skipped down the stairs, your precious mounds bouncing in all the right places. You opened the front door for him, spreading your arms to hug him goodbye. He opted for a side hug, knowing damn well you would have been able to feel his hard on from the full-frontal contact. 

*ੈ ✩‧₊˚

You closed the door, pressing your back against it as you wondered what had gotten into Choso this evening. He was always up for a sleepover. You shoved your hurt down, embarrassed by your apparent clinginess. A shudder ran down your spine at the thought of your neediness pushing him away. Your warm body glided toward the fridge, throwing it open and basking in the cool air as you grabbed yourself a drink. You shook the shame from your mind as you shuffled back up the stairs. You peered out your window and into Choso's room; it was dark. He must’ve gone straight to bed. You opened the bay windows to your bedroom. The cool air danced through the panes, swirling around the confines of your dwelling. You inhaled deeply before stripping down, settling peacefully atop your sheets; it was far too warm to be under the covers.  

Choso surveyed you from the comforting shadows of his room. He did this frequently before the two of you had moved away, watching you get ready for bed with a firm grip on his shaft. 

“That’s it, pretty…take it all off f’me,” he muttered. His strokes sped up as he watched you undress, the moonlight that seeped into your room illuminated your heavenly body so perfectly. He huffed as he watched you retreat to your bed, his hand stilling around his cock. The thought of you wasn’t enough for him tonight. He needed you.

An hour or so passed before he ascended the tree that stood tall next to your window. His clammy hands gripped the railings that lined your small terrace as he heaved his body over, careful not to make a sound. He had done this many times before, whether his presence was expected or unbeknownst to you. He crept through the open window and entered your room, settling himself in the chair next to your bed. Your nude frame emanated the most ethereal energy, your bare chest rose and fell rhythmically, the soft gasps that fluttered from your parted lips sent blood straight to Choso’s groin. He palmed himself through his pants, leaning back a bit to shove them down his legs. His hand paced up and down his length agonizingly slow, before he stopped dead in his tracks as soft groans emerged from your throat.

“-oso,” was all that was audible. His blood ran cold as he leaned closer to your slumbered body, ears ringing in hopes to hear more. Was that–No…it couldn’t have been. You shifted a bit, another moan breaking through the silence of your room.

“Mmm…Choso,” you whimpered dreamily, one hand moving to rest just under your navel. His heart rate spiked. He watched as your hand traced lower, snaking its way to your precious cunt. You rubbed sleepy circles in your clit as your head lulled to the side, soft, sweet whimpers dancing from your parted lips. It was now or never. He pulled his shorts back up as he situated himself on the edge of the bed, rubbing his hand against your shoulder. 

You stirred a bit after a few gentle shakes of your body, your eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness of the room. Your body went rigid as your eyes focused on the outline of a person sitting before you, but the familiar smell of Choso met your nose and kept you from jumping out of your skin. You closed your eyes again, the hand that was playing with your wet cunt moved over your body to grab his hand, squeezing gently. Choso nearly broke down at the contact, the stickiness that he so badly needed graced his skin, numbing his brain. 

“Hey, Cho…y’scared me. Thought you weren’t sleeping over,” you murmured. Choso’s conscious worked overtime to keep his composure leveled as he exhaled deeply. 

“Seems like you needed me, though,” he chuckled. You hummed in response, your sleep-ridden mind not registering his comment. You began to doze off once again before panic rumbled through your body as you finally recollected the dream you were just immersed in. Then the realization hit. You shot upright, tearing your hand away from Choso as you grabbed for the covers, attempting to shield your naked body from him. You clicked on your bedside lamp, turning to Choso with your brows furrowed deeply. Your best friend just caught you in the middle of a wet dream. A dream about him. Embarrassment coupled with shame as you held the sheets tight against your body. You were thoroughly confused–what was he even doing here? How much did he hear? You wanted to protest, to plead your case, to interrogate him. A million questions buzzed around your brain, but his hand was quick to cover your mouth. 

“S’okay, sweetheart. It’s just me,” he soothed. He kicked his shoes off and kneeled beside you, hand still firm against your face. Your shoulders were tense, but you relaxed a bit at the baritone voice that fell from his lips.

“Did you have a nice dream?” His question seemed rhetorical. He felt your face flush underneath his palm as you nodded slowly. He removed his hand and you spoke up immediately.

“How’d you know I–”

“Was watching you sleep,” he shrugged. “I’ve wanted you for so long…figured it was a lost cause. But it seems the feelings are mutual, huh, sweetheart?” he cooed, his body loomed over yours as his palm brushed your face, cradling your cheek.

“You were tryin’ so hard to fight it…to pretend those dirty feelings for me didn’t exist…isn’t that right?” He mused. You glanced down at his crotch, the heavy bulge pressed firm against his thin shorts. You audibly gulped, your breath caught in your throat before meeting his eyes. You nodded at him again.

“Bet you dressed like that on purpose…such a tease,” he chastised, thumbing your cheek.

“Gotta make up for lost time, yeah?” He ripped the duvet off of you and moved so he was hovering over you, your body laid out underneath him, his arms placed on either side of your head. 

“Cho…I—we shouldn’t,” your voice wavered, suddenly unsure if you were trying to convince him or yourself. Your hands rested on his broad shoulders. “I don’t wanna lose you…don’t wanna ruin what we have,” you added, worry painted across your face, eyes fluttering back and forth between his. You were splayed out beneath him, fully nude, every dark secret of yours laid out in front of Choso. The hungry look in his eyes caused your arousal to drip onto the sheets beneath you. 

“Wanted this for years, pretty girl. I already told you I’m not goin’ anywhere,'' his head dipped down to lick a thick stripe down your neck. “You gonna let me take care of you now?” he questioned, lips pressed against your flesh, nipping at the sensitive skin. Your back arched immediately at the sensation. You moaned softly in response as you ran your hands up and down his toned back. 

“Tell me, pretty girl,” his fingers danced down your body, teasing the skin around your core. “Tell me you want me as much as I’ve wanted you,” he whispered in your ear. 

“W-want you…Cho. So bad…needed you for s-so long,” you begged, your brain fogged and voice airy while your hands clawed desperately at his back. He smirked at you as he sat back on his heels, tearing his clothes from his body. Your eyes dragged up and down the man you had grown up with. A part of you knew how you felt about him, knew how much you needed him. But you didn’t understand the full depth of that need until he was kneeled before you, perspiration glistening along his toned body as he repositioned, laying himself along the bed, his face settled right above your dripping cunt. The way he looked at you through his luscious, jet-black lashes set your pounding heart ablaze. 

You couldn’t fully comprehend what was happening. All you could feel were the sharp aches in your core as he teasingly ran his fingers through your slit. He smiled against your thigh as he plunged his fingers in immediately. You gasped at the intrusion before succumbing to the pleasure as the pads of his fingers massaged your sweet spot.

There was a sense of urgency behind his movements; the lack of time he gave you to adjust to the stretch, the way he was thrusting so fervently into you and how hungrily he bit at your flesh–it was overwhelming. He pumped into you, tirelessly working to coax an orgasm out of you. The first of many. He tilted his head down to watch his fingers disappear inside of you. He used his other hand to rub your sensitive clit, before quickly replacing it with his tongue. He wanted to drink you in for as long as he could, your juices satiating the hungriest part of him.  

His eyes blew wide, “Fuck–you’re so sweet, pretty girl,” he breathed, lapping at your core. He needed more, needed you to fall apart on all of him–his fingers, his mouth, his cock. You were going to take everything he gave you. You cried out for him, your hips spasming against the bed. He grinned before latching back on to your clit, sucking harshly, working into you like it was his life’s mission to please you. And in his mind, it was. He was set on releasing a decade’s worth of pent-up frustration on your pretty little body.

“F-fuck Cho–ah!–I’m gonna…” your voice trailed off as your pussy clenched down on his fingers. He groaned at the tightness, tongue still swirling around your sensitive bud. A shudder ran down your spine as your orgasm ripped through your body. He continued to pump into you, suckling harshly against your clit before swirling around your entrance to ensure he drank up every drop. 

He knew he should wait and give you time to recover. But the way your body twitched and writhed for him ripped away the sense of gentleness and morality that he usually had. It was all too much. He wanted to ruin you, to punish you for holding out on him for so long. He needed to be balls deep, needed to mold you around his cock–he had waited years for this. He sat up abruptly, wrapping your shaking legs around his waist as he lined himself up with your soaked entrance. Your chest heaved and your eyelids grew heavy while your body worked through the comedown. He pushed into you, fully sheathing himself inside your pulsating walls. Your eyes widened while your hands pushed against his abdomen. 

“Wait, Cho–”

“S’okay, sweet girl. I got you…focus on me,” he soothed, his pelvis flush against you as he took a hold of your wrists, pushing them over your head and pressing them against the headboard. He found an unrelenting tempo in you. You body spasmed and squirmed at his pace, jolting each time his thick cock brushed against your still sensitive g-spot. He was stuffed so deep inside of you, savoring the way your messy pussy sucked him in. He released your hands and leaned back, finding his bearings on your hip bones, pulling you toward him to meet his thrusts. Grunts rumbled from deep in his chest as he felt you clench around him. He looked down to watch himself disappear inside you, the squelching sounds and labored moans that filled the room made him choke.

“Nasty fuckin’ girl…you’re lovin’ this aren’t ya?” he teased. You couldn’t fathom a response. Your body had passed the point of overstimulation as his brutal pace pulled another earth-shattering orgasm from your wrecked body, painting his abdomen with your squirt. He dropped his head back, animalistic sounds flying past his lips as the warm spray splattered onto his skin. He pulled out of you before shoving right back in. You cried out, body trying to squirm out of grasp.

“C-can’t…s’too much,” you sobbed out. You meant it, it was too much. But the pleasure that clawed its way through your trembling frame was unreal; addictive, even. He simultaneously numbed your body and made you feel every sensation in the known universe. 

“Uh uh…almost done, pretty–stay right there,” he growled, “Just give me one more.” He wanted to live in this moment forever. Every stolen glance, dirty thought, and shameful ejaculation to the thought of you was nothing compared to the way your pretty little pussy clenched around him. He had ached over the mere thought of you for years and his body brimmed with arousal at his darkest dreams coming to fruition. And though he wanted to paint your sloppy walls with his thick seed, the wanton desire for you overpowered his need for release.

Your eyes rolled back in your skull as your shaking hands searched for any part of him to hold on to. You were a panting mess, fat tears running down your face. And it was all for him. He was drunk on the way your fucked out face lazily looked up at him as you fell apart on his cock. He made quick work of burning that image on the inside of his eyelids.

“Doin’ so good. Stay with me, sweetheart,” he grunted, his hips slamming into you. It was so sloppy now…so nasty. He fucked into you with feverish passion, and your body shook as the coils in your tummy crept up once again. 

“C’mon…just one more. Know you can do it,” he urged, his aching cock absolutely obliterating you. His fingertips gripped your flesh so tightly, he prayed it would bruise. He hoped his mark would be left on you, an aching reminder that you belonged to him. You always had. He fucked into you, his tip kissing your cervix so perfectly. You cried out, clenching down on him again, your third orgasm crashing through you in a blinding haze. 

“S-shit…so good. God–you’re fuckin’ milking me,” he growled out as he twitched inside, swears and praises cascaded from his parted lips as he chased his own release. It only took a few more thrusts before his hips stuttered against you and he finished deep inside, pumping you full of his cum. He remained sheathed within your walls, his palms running up and down your dazed out frame.

He leaned down, catching your lips in a needy, wet kiss. You were stunned into silence, your body cemented to the bed, convinced that you had lucidly dreamed this entire ordeal. You winced at the ache of Choso finally pulling out, missing the deep stretch of his cock as he leaned over to scour your drawers for a rag to clean you up. He feathered gentle kisses after each pass of the cloth. He laid by your side and you curled into him immediately, his arms snaking around your fragile body. 

“I can’t believe that just happened,” you whispered, breath shaking. He smiled before kissing the top of your head. “But I’m so happy it did,” you added, pressing yourself deeper into his side as his fingers brushed along your skin, soothing you toward a deep, satisfying slumber. Choso reveled in the dream-like trance he found himself in. His heart soared at his achievement that was years in the making, his body crossing the line that divided reality with heaven. He finally got you, and he was never, ever letting you go.

*ੈ ✩‧₊˚

author notes: thank you so so so much for 250 followers...i literally cannot believe it. if i could remove a piece of my heart and send it to y'all i would

my inbox is open and i'm always working thru my requests, feel free to send your suggestions here ☾

every like, comment, and reblog makes me sob uncontrollably...your support means the world to me xx

© bratbby333 on tumblr. all rights reserved. please do not distribute. 2024.

[countv0ncunt]

Stop telling me to watch good movies. I refuse.

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity 1996

"Virtual Insanity" is a song by British funk band Jamiroquai, released on 19 August 1996 as the second single from their third studio album, Travelling Without Moving. The song interpolates parts of Jocelyn Brown's 1984 post-disco hit "Somebody Else's Guy". "Virtual Insanity" was a number-one hit in Iceland and reached number three on the UK Singles Chart, as well as becoming a top-10 hit in Finland, Ireland, and Italy, the song also climbed to number 38 on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart upon the single's release in the US in 1997. The song also earned the band a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. Thematically, the lyrics are concerned with issues like overpopulation, human genetic enhancement, eugenics and ecological collapse. In the beginning of the song's album version, a sound that is sampled from the 1979 sci-fi horror film Alien appears. It is the sound sequence when the S.O.S. signal appears on the screens of the spaceship Nostromo at the start of the film. The music video for "Virtual Insanity" was directed by English filmmaker, director, and screenwriter Jonathan Glazer. At the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards it won 4 out of 10 nominations; Breakthrough Video, Video of the Year, Best Visual Effects and Best Cinematography. In 2006, it was voted 9th by MTV viewers in a poll on music videos that 'broke the rules'. In addition to heavy rotation on MTV and other music television networks, the video for "Virtual Insanity" has amassed more than 250 million views on YouTube as of August 2023 and has seen renewed attention on TikTok, gaining millions more views through various memes and remixes. It has been parodied, referenced, remixed or imitated in countless music videos, television shows, and internet memes. On a personal note, I love each and every one of you who tagged the poll as "#rearranging furniture" in your reblogs! 😂💖 "Virtual Insanity" received a total of 80,7% yes votes!

[samprestonbigbadabruce]

Letterboxd Film Progress List

The beginning of a new year, here are my current figures on the main Lists on Letterboxd. The one I’m probably most disappointed with is the Top 260 Women Directed, that’s an area I definitely need to improve in.

The easiest ones to probably complete would be the Oscar Best Picture Winners, and AFI 100 Years, 100 Movies. The reason for this is that they are the two least likely to change (at most, you get a new Best Picture Winner this year) and will impact the other lists as well (hopefully).

There are some other lists not included, such as Official Top 250 Narrative Feature Films, where I have watched 97 films (38%), Letterboxd’s Top 250 International Films where I’ve seen only 20 (8%), Letterboxd’s Top 250 Sci-Fi Movies, of which I have seen 113 (45%), and finally Rolling Stone’s 101 Best Horror Movies of which I’ve seen 70 (69%).

I’m undertaking several challenges on Letterboxd this year, which should also impact the other lists, but the biggest films I’ve not seen yet that are on the most lists are the ones below:

The 400 Blows

All About Eve

Amadeus

Annie Hall

Ben-Hur

The Bridge On The River Kwai

City of God

Come and See

Do The Right Thing

Double Indemnity

Gone With The Wind

The Grapes of Wrath

Ikiru

Metropolis

Network

North By Northwest

Once Upon A Time In The West

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

Persona

Sunset Boulevard

To Be Or Not To Be

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Vertigo

Wild Strawberries

It shall be interesting to see how my figures compare this time next year...

[anyataylorjoys]

TOP 10 most obsessively rewatched horror films as of October 12th, 2023 according to Letterboxd:

1. Scream (1996) dir. Wes Craven 2. Halloween (1978) dir. John Carpenter 3. JAWS (1975) dir. Steven Spielberg 4. Scream V (2022) dir. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett 5. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) dir. Jim Sharman 6. Midsommar (2019) dir. Ari Aster 7. The Thing (1982) dir. John Carpenter 8. The Shining (1980) dir. Stanley Kubrick 9. IT (2017) dir. Andy Muschietti 10. Hereditary (2018) dir. Ari Aster (view 250 film lineup)

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

Hello, all!

As you may know, the request inbox has been closed for several months now due to the massive amount of submissions I received at the start of this blog. The good news is that all of the submissions have officially been queued! This means that the askbox can finally be opened again, which will happen sometime before July 4th. I will make a post announcing when it's open again, though please be aware that there will be changes to the submission rules. Additionally, it will likely not be open for as long as it was previously to avoid having such a long queue of requests again.

This also means that this blog can go back to posting movies from "top 250 movies" lists as it was doing prior to the temporary switch to requests-only posting. Starting in July, the first poll of the day (posted at 12PM EST) will be a movie taken from Letterboxd's Official Top 250 Narrative Feature Films list (as we have already completed the IMDB top 250 list.) The other four daily polls will be requested films.

Hopefully this sounds good to everyone! I'm excited to start receiving requests again and I hope you're all excited to start submitting again in July.

[pedrohub]

Pedro Pascal Leads IMDb’s Top 10 Stars Of 2023

The Last of Us and The Mandalorian star Pedro Pascal leads IMDb’s list of the Top 10 Stars of 2023, the website announced today. Also making the cut are such talent across TV and film as Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Margot Robbie, Jenna Ortega and Carla Gugino. The Top 10 list is bookended by Oppenheimer’s Cillian Murphy. Scroll through the gallery below to discover the full list.

The year-end lists are determined using data from IMDbPro MOVIEmeter and STARmeter rankings, which are based on the page views of the more than 250 million monthly visitors to IMDb.

Throughout the year, Pascal spent four weeks in the No. 1 spot on the STARmeter chart and an additional nine weeks elsewhere in the Top 10, IMDb said. His upcoming projects include Gladiator 2 and Drive-Away Dolls. Pascal’s co-stars Bella Ramsey (No. 5, for their role as Ellie in The Last of Us) and Katee Sackhoff (No. 8, for her portrayal of Bo-Katan Kryze in The Mandalorian) are also IMDb Top Stars of 2023.

IMDb’s Top 10 Stars ( x )

Pedro Pascal

2023's Top Series on IMDb ( x )

The Last of Us

Star Wars: Ahsoka

Succession

Black Mirror

Star Wars: The Mandalorian

[8flix]

Before you go. Any comments on byler? 🎤

Ah, yes. The byler predicament. Allow me to muddy the waters even more.

But first, a disclaimer: to be clear, I have no conclusive/confirmed information about season 5. What I know are inferences made from previous leaks, combined with what we now know as fact.

A little more on that before I get to Byler:

The leak came from outside of Netflix; a third-party private company that offers closed captioning services (as confirmed by Forbes, then eventually Netflix). The leaked videos of Heartstopper Se3 and Arcane Se2 are low resolution (640x266 / 640x480) encodes of unlocked edits (ie: edits that are subject to change at the network's discretion), and devoid of VFX. If you're a fan of either show, don't waste your time because it will only spoil the finished product.

That being said, I doubt that there is any video of ST5 episodes 1 through 3, as purported by the so-called "hacker" (I use that in "quotes" because any schlub with an email address could have accessed the server without restriction -- the login app had no restrictions to the inhouse videos).

So, aside from the fact that Netflix will aggressively pursue civil and criminal charges against the source (if they ever find the person) -- a threat that any legit hacker would certainly ignore (unauthorized access to a computer network is already a federal crime, regardless of whether or not something was "taken" and/or released publicly) -- I think there won't be any video of ST5 leaked because it doesn't exist.

A legit hacker would have released it already, defying both Netflix and the FBI, and in such away that would make tracking them down impossible. What is there to lose? Nothing for a legit "hacker." And let's be honest: this wasn't a "hack" of top-secret government documents. And the "hack" will not cause long-term financial damage to a publicly traded company like Netflix. In an election year, the Feds have more important cyber criminals to go after than a scriptkiddy looking for notoriety in the Fortnight Discord app.

Realistically, it's doubtful more than a cease-and-desist letter from Netflix to that Twitter influencer dude, and perhaps firing the IT guy who forgot to flick the privacy toggle on the login app at the closed-captioning company, will come to fruition. And like I said, a legit hacker has zero fucks to give, so threats of a civil lawsuit or prison time would mean nothing to them because their OPSEC would be 100%.

Also, it's my belief that no videos of ST5 will come out because of how TV series are made. Principal photography of ST5 is around 12 months (December 2023 - December 2024). That's a 5-day work week, 16-hours per day. Not including holidays, reshoots, and unforeseen delays, about 48 - 50 weeks in total -- so, about 250 - 300 days of shooting (a movie is often 30 - 120 shooting days). Post production -- which includes editing, music, VFX rendering, ADR, etc. -- will take at least 6 months. For a $200 million series like ST5, 4 - 6 weeks of per-episode-editing is not unheard of. Stranger Things is arguably a Netflix legacy. It's not only going to be protected, but perfected.

Season 5 is being released in two-parts. Part 2 will likely still be in post-production when Part 1 is released. To give you an idea of how close producers come to hard deadlines for series: I watched (legit) screeners of Locke & Key Se2 -- the final two episodes -- before they were complete -- 2 weeks before the world premiere. It's that close.

ST5 shoots chronologically, with some exceptions. Meaning, they film in order of episode. (Movies, on the other hand, film according to scene and schedule -- scenes that take place in the same location, but spread throughout the movie and take place on different days, are shot consecutively). The leak happened in late June (apparently), which would mean that episodes 1 through 3 would have been shot and edited by May. That's not realistic. Like, at all. If I were a betting man, I'd say that episode 1 is still being edited as I write this. There is still 4 months of principal photography remaining.

My expectation is to see trailer #1 during the Super Bowl in February. And October 31, 2025 as a release date for Part 1.

My expectation is a December release for Part 2.

Hardcore hype and teasing for 10 months.

This is my guess; based on personal experience with shows and movies that are not Netflix properties.

Okay, so, Byler...

If you believe the 2022 "definitely not leaked Se4 scripts" are definitely real... then Will is "fully resigned to knowing that he’s just ripped off the Band-Aid." #Byler, as we know it, will never come to be and #Mileven is endgame.

Or, if you believe the "definitely not leaked Se4 scripts" are definitely cap, then Byler is, in fact, the real endgame.

Given the circumstances, I am obviously the former. And, as much as I hate to say it, Will and Mike will never be a couple. 99% confident about that one.

Whichever side you take, in the words of Dr. Emmet Brown, "You're not thinking fourth dimensionally." (hint)

Will Will find love? No. There are bigger plans for Will. Conversely, there are plans for El that go way beyond teenage love. Again, if you believe the fake scripts to be real, then it will become apparent in ST5 that Will and El share a unique connection. My inference is that they are related. If not in the current timeline, then in the alternate timeline and reality (that will be revealed in Se5). "Young versions" of "Will, El, Mike, and the others," have already been cast to appear in Se5. But, IMAO, they're not the "young versions," but the alternate timeline/reality versions. Back to the Future, and Terminator are huge influences. As is the JJ Abrams movie "Super 8" (watch the movie, there are so many similarities with it, and Stranger Things).

I'll also add that there were scenes filmed in 2020/2021 that were meant to be included in season 5. I think -- if memory serves -- it's in or at a church and touches on the theme of "occult murders". So, I wouldn't be surprised if Eddie Munson makes an appearance.

In my professional opinion as a writer (excluding what I may or may not know about ST5): regardless of what scripts you've read -- official, unofficial, fake, real -- the series endgame has already been revealed on screen. I'll explain:

In general terms, for any television series with a definitive finale, and a pre-determined ending, writers follow a blueprint: specific plot points that must revealed along the way so that the story makes sense to viewers -- even to those with conflicting opinions.

If the writing is done correctly, then (for example) when something is revealed in episode 25, viewers will experience a lightbulb moment: "Oh yeah, I remember the references during episodes 2, 5, and 15."

So, using the Byler vs Mileven plotlines, it's plausible that either outcome is still possible. That's the brilliance of Stranger Things' writers' room (I say that sincerely).

Clues have been dropping since episode 101. Spoken dialogue, secondary dialogue, music selection (read the lyrics), character names, specific dates, shooting locations, pop culture references, carefully choreographed shots and scenes, numbers, dates, background props... Everything contains a piece of a puzzle that reinforces what is already known, and reveal what will soon become obvious.

Seriously, I don't know the ending of ST. And honestly, in my experience, it's more likely than not that only the Duffers and a small handful of Netflix/21 Laps execs know the real ending. For a series as big as Stranger Things (with an estimated season 5 budget surpassing $200 million), don't be surprised if more than one ending is filmed. Certainly, more than one has been written. It's not uncommon to leak misleading (but highly plausible) information on purpose. Netflix marketing peeps are top in their field, and outside-the-box thinkers.

What I do know is that the endgame -- be it canonical or other -- will completely blow you away and go down in history as Netflix's most watched finale.

Or, it will be the biggest let down since The Sopranos ending -- the first one AND the do-over.

[unimportant-ramblings]

I'm so mad that End of Evangelion got kicked off the top 250 narrative film letterboxd list I need to log off

[mizldrizl]

What is where in Beyond Evil?

I always wondered where certain locations in the show actually are and how far each of them is apart from the others. Thankfully, the scriptbook has some addresses -- partially fictional, of course -- I can work with.

1. 문주시 (Munju-si) - 파주시 (Paju-si) (*si = city)

In one of the Blu-ray features, they mention that they filmed Dong Sik's neighborhood in Paju.

문산읍 (Munsan-eup) is part of 파주시 (Paju-si) (*eup = small town). It is easy to guess how they came up with the name "문주."

문산천 (Munsancheon River) = 문주천 (Munjucheon River)?

Trivia: The house used as Dong Sik's family house is actually in 용인시 (Yongin-si), which is about 100 km away from Paju. While filming the scene where Joo Won and Dong Sik are on their way to arrest Kang Jin Mook in Ep. 8, the actors momentarily thought they should take Joo Won's car because Manyang Supermarket is in Paju. They realized, soon after, that it is only a few minutes' walk from Dong Sik's house in the show.

2. Han Joo Won's apartment

The scriptbook says Joo Won's apartment is in 서울시 마포구 (Mapo-gu, Seoul-si) (*gu = district).

According to the Naver navigation service, it would take 35~50 minutes from Joo Won's place to Manyang by car. Mind you, I enter a city hall or its equivalent in "from" or "to" for the cities that are not familiar to me, and that's what I did here. Still, it would be safe to say that it takes about 45 minutes commuting for Joo Won, maybe an hour, tops, when the traffic is bad.

3. Han Ki Hwan's house

서울시 강남구 (Gangnam-gu, Seoul-si). The scriptbook says "청암동 (Cheongam-dong)" as well, which is clearly a little tweak from 청담동 (Cheongdam-dong) (*dong = town); it is in the northern part of 강남구. It takes about an hour from here to Joo Won's place by car, but thinking of Seoul's traffic, it might take a bit longer than that depending on the time of the day.

4. 서울경찰청 (Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency)

Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency is in 서울시 종로구 (Jongno-gu, Seoul-si). It takes 25~35 minutes from Joo Won's apartment, and 45~55 minutes from Han Ki Hwan's house by car. But again, it's Seoul, so you can never be sure.

5. 옥산군 (Oksan-gun) - 옥천군 (Okcheon-gun)

옥산군 (Oksan-gun) is where Chief Nam's lakehouse is (*gun = municipality). The actual location is called 옥천군 (Okcheon-gun). It would take 3~3.5 hours from Manyang by car.

6. 부산시 (Busan-si) & 울산시 (Ulsan-si)

In Ep. 8, Dong Sik says he and Chief Nam once arrested a culprit in Ulsan and went to Busan together to have pufferfish soup before going back to Seoul.

It takes 4.5~5 hours from Seoul to Ulsan, and another 1.5 hours from Ulsan to Busan by car. From Manyang to Busan, it would be about 5 hours by car. If you take a KTX train from Seoul Station to Busan Station, it takes about 2.5 hours.

7. 강원도 (Gangwon-do)

In the last episode, it is mentioned that Joo Won is working at a station in Gangwon-do (*do = province).

You can see that it is a fairly big province. As of November 2023, there are 17 police stations in Gangwon-do. Meaning, Joo Won can be anywhere 80~250 km from Manyang. Because I am a shameless JWDS shipper who hopes that Joo Won can go see Dong Sik both in Manyang and Oksan easily, I would like to imagine Joo Won is working at the station in 원주시 (Wonju-si), which would be about 2.5 hours from either Manyang or Oksan by car.

(*All estimated times are based on around 4 pm on a weekday. Of course, if one drives at dawn or in the middle of the night, it would take a much shorter amount of time.)

[someone-will-remember-us]

Adults-only website OnlyFans has made aspiring porn stars rich and celebrities richer. But a Reuters investigation found a darker side: More than 120 people have complained to U.S. police agencies that they were featured in the site’s sexually explicit content without their consent – including a woman who alleged a video of her rape was sold on OnlyFans. Laws often protect web giants while victims struggle for justice.

SAMMY remembers nearly every detail of the night in April 2022 when she says two men raped her.

The Miami apartment, stark and empty, where it happened. The loud music as she screamed and told them to stop. The fear and the pain, the overwhelming sense of powerlessness.

Sammy, recalling the night in an interview, also remembers seeing a phone perched on a dresser and thinking: Am I being filmed?

Two months later, on June 30, an edited recording of Sammy’s alleged assault was posted on OnlyFans, a website where people can create porn and charge for it. The video was marketed by one of her alleged assailants as “train” sex, jargon for multiple men having sex with one woman, according to screenshots obtained by Reuters.

“The full train video is here guys,” he said on OnlyFans. “Who wants it?”

OnlyFans is an adults-only website where anyone – celebrities, porn stars, cash-strapped moms and aspiring influencers – can sell sexually explicit videos of themselves. Top earners make millions of dollars a year. Created in 2016, OnlyFans now boasts almost 240 million users and has achieved mainstream fame. Beyoncé namechecked it in a song lyric. Rapper Iggy Azalea said it had brought her a small fortune.

But other people have reaped pain, not profit. They describe lives upended after sexually explicit content featuring them was posted and sold on OnlyFans without their consent. Some videos, like Sammy’s, involve alleged sexual assault. Law enforcement has struggled to monitor such nonconsensual pornography on the website, while victims often have limited legal recourse.

OnlyFans says it is building “the safest social media platform in the world.” But a Reuters investigation identified 128 cases in which women and men complained to U.S. law enforcement agencies that sexual content featuring them ended up on OnlyFans without their permission – and was often sold for profit – between January 2019 and November 2023.

Under public records laws, Reuters sought documents on cases involving OnlyFans from more than 250 of the largest law enforcement agencies in the United States – the platform’s biggest market. Fifty-six of them produced records in which people complained of explicit, nonconsensual posts on OnlyFans. Reuters also interviewed police officers, prosecutors, legal experts and nine people who said their sexual images appeared without their consent.

Most of the 128 police complaints were lodged by women against men who were former sex partners. They often said the content was produced consensually but was posted without their permission – or even their knowledge. In about 40% of the complaints, the videos also appeared on other popular social media sites, usually as snippets to promote lengthier and more explicit material for sale on OnlyFans.

The cases highlight how technology has transformed modern relationships and the porn industry. Today, anyone with a cellphone and an internet connection can make and distribute sexual videos and images. Filming and sharing these is now an accepted part of many intimate encounters – so long as it’s a lovers’ secret. Posting those videos online, however, can feel like a major betrayal. It can also be illegal.

Some women said their unwanted appearance on OnlyFans had nearly destroyed their lives.

“A whole company has made money off of my biggest trauma,” said Sammy, 21, in her first public comments on the case. She requested that her full name be withheld.

In Texas, a woman described being forced to install a home security system after being harassed by stalkers who saw an OnlyFans video of her that went viral. A Nebraska woman said she struggled to go out in public, terrified that people might recognize her from a sex video her ex-boyfriend was selling on OnlyFans for $15. An Illinois woman said she learned that naked images of herself were circulating from her teenage daughter, who saw them online.

In response to a detailed account of Reuters’ findings, an OnlyFans spokesperson said that “in the few examples where bad actors have misused our platform,” OnlyFans “removed the content swiftly, banned the user and actively supported investigations and prosecutions.”

The spokesperson said OnlyFans had reviewed the cases of Sammy and others described in this report and found that those accounts were deleted either by OnlyFans moderators or the creators themselves. Those deletions sometimes occurred a year or longer after women complained to police, a Reuters review of police records and account information from OnlyFans found.

The spokesperson didn’t elaborate on the cases but said OnlyFans tightened its consent verification procedures in late 2022. The company requires “proof of identification and consent from all individuals featured in any explicit content uploaded to our platform, and we moderate all uploaded content,” she said.

She declined to respond to questions about how explicit content of non-consenting adults could have ended up on the site when OnlyFans says it moderates everything.

Combining social media glamor and the business of sex, OnlyFans casts itself as a new breed of adult website. Most big porn sites offer content for free and make money mainly from advertising. At OnlyFans, revenue is generated by its 3.2 million creators, most of them amateurs. They sell content to their subscribers, or “fans,” usually for a monthly fee of between $4.99 and $50. One-off sales of videos and images through the site’s direct-messaging function can be even more lucrative.

The terms are attractive for OnlyFans creators: They keep 80% of their fans’ payments. For OnlyFans, which takes the rest, it’s a goldmine. According to the most recent filing by its British parent company, Fenix International, OnlyFans’ pre-tax profit in 2022 reached $525 million – almost a hundred-fold increase in just three years. Revenue expanded at least twenty-fold to more than $1 billion.

OnlyFans doesn’t know how many of its creators are making “adult content,” the spokesperson has said. The platform says it also features sports, music and other non-explicit material.

Beyond the United States, OnlyFans has also seen explosive growth – along with allegations of abuse against celebrities and other content creators.

In Australia, a Queensland man faces trial after being accused of filming himself raping his unconscious girlfriend in 2021 and uploading the video to OnlyFans, according to court records. The man hasn’t entered a plea, a court official said. In Thailand, a married couple was arrested in October on suspicion of drugging and raping four women and a 17-year-old girl, then selling videos of the acts on OnlyFans, Thai police said. The couple hasn’t entered a plea but denied the rape charges, police said.

In Romania, former kickboxer Andrew Tate is awaiting trial on rape and sex-trafficking charges connected to running an operation that allegedly forced women to create porn for OnlyFans, said Romanian prosecutors. Tate denies the charges.

In Britain, Stephen Bear, a former reality show contestant, was sentenced in March 2022 to 21 months in jail after posting a sex video of his ex-girlfriend on OnlyFans without her permission. Bear, who denied all charges, was released in January after serving half his sentence. He didn’t respond to a request for comment. Reuters documented another 17 cases in Britain in which people had complained to UK authorities of nonconsensual porn appearing on OnlyFans, according to public records obtained from the country’s police forces.

Despite the attention generated by high-profile cases, law enforcement officials say the sheer size of OnlyFans and the paywalls surrounding its individual creators have made it nearly impossible to monitor systematically. OnlyFans is largely a black box to outsiders, much less accessible than social media sites like Instagram, X and Facebook.

The paywall “absolutely, unequivocally adds a barrier,” said Joseph Scaramucci, a deputy sheriff in Texas who formerly worked on a U.S. Department of Homeland Security anti-human trafficking task force. Some law enforcement agencies won’t subscribe to OnlyFans accounts due to budgetary constraints, he said.

There are other reasons perpetrators of nonconsensual porn aren’t held to account, Reuters found. Some people were reluctant to press charges against former lovers. Police often lack expertise in gathering technical evidence of cyber-crimes or view the cases as low-priority misdemeanors. Women can be hesitant to share explicit images with male police and prosecutors.

No federal law specifically criminalizes nonconsensual porn. It has been prosecuted under federal anti-trafficking statutes in at least three cases – none of which involved OnlyFans. Complaints typically are handled by local authorities enforcing a patchwork of state laws, and they usually focus on individuals who post abusive content, not on the sites that host it.

OnlyFans CEO Keily Blair has said that “100 percent” of content is reviewed by human moderators aided by artificial intelligence. But the cases documented by Reuters, including the video of Sammy’s alleged rape, point to significant gaps in this system.

“The victim is clearly saying no” in the video, said Todd Falzone, a lawyer for Sammy. “So if they were really moderating that video, they would have seen and heard that.”

Her alleged assailants, Michelson Romelus and Bendjy Charles, face charges of sexual battery and distributing obscene material. They have pleaded not guilty.

Separately, in federal court in Florida, Sammy is suing the two men – and OnlyFans. Her lawsuit is the first to take on the platform itself under a federal sex-trafficking law that prohibits companies from financially benefiting from commercial sex abuses, according to a Reuters review of court filings and interviews with legal experts.

Sammy’s sex-trafficking claim is part of a growing number of lawsuits by people who accuse social media sites of profiting from abusive sexual content. The suits could signal a reckoning for OnlyFans and others in the industry, said five lawyers who specialize in porn and sex-trafficking cases.

“The legal landscape has shifted,” said Julie Dahlstrom, a human trafficking expert at Boston University School of Law. “You’ve seen judges interpreting trafficking laws more expansively,” and “lawyers and survivors understanding that they can bring those cases.”

NO FACE, NO CASE

For some people, the shock of seeing their naked images on OnlyFans was followed by a futile fight for justice.

Amanda Dicrosta’s battle began in Florida in February 2022, when she walked into the Tampa Police Department to file a sexual cyber-harassment complaint against her ex-boyfriend, Mike McFarland, a former player for the National Football League’s Indianapolis Colts. “I was just hoping that they would take me seriously,” she said.

The two had dated for about a year and then split up. McFarland afterward posted videos of them having sex on his OnlyFans and Twitter accounts without her permission, she told police.

Dicrosta, 28, told police that McFarland recorded some of the sex videos without her knowledge or consent. She knew other videos existed but said the couple had an understanding that those were private.

When Dicrosta first learned in June 2020 that McFarland, 32, had posted the videos on OnlyFans, she confronted him, and he initially took down the videos, she wrote in a sworn police statement. But in August 2021, when she revisited McFarland’s OnlyFans account, she discovered not just those videos but also new ones recorded without her knowledge, she told police.

When she saw videos of her advertised on OnlyFans for $5 each, she felt sick. McFarland had “exposed my entire body for $5,” Dicrosta told Reuters. “I can’t even buy a full meal at McDonald’s for $5.”

Dicrosta said she contacted McFarland again. This time, he refused to take down the videos, she told police.

On Twitter, McFarland posted snippets of the videos with links to his OnlyFans account, according to screenshots Dicrosta provided to Reuters and police. Another ex-boyfriend recognized her body in the videos and shared them with friends, some of whom assumed she was now in the business of “doing porn,” she said.

McFarland told police that Dicrosta knew the recordings would be posted on OnlyFans and Twitter. “It was with her consent,” he told Reuters. “I have nothing to lie about.”

X, as Twitter has been renamed, declined to comment on Dicrosta’s case but said it works to limit sensitive adult content from being shared.

After consulting with the state attorney’s office, police told Dicrosta the case couldn’t be prosecuted. The videos showed her private parts, underwear and a bathing suit – but not her face. For the case to proceed in court, the police report said, the videos had to include information that more specifically identified her.

Police closed Discrosta’s case in July 2022 and told her they’d reopen it if she located any such videos.

“I felt hopeless,” she said. “Do I just need to strip naked and show you my naked body for you to believe me? What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to prove to you that this is me?”

To violate Florida law, explicit images shared nonconsensually must contain “personal identification information,” such as unique physical attributes.

Mary Anne Franks, a professor at the George Washington University Law School in Washington D.C., studies the issue of nonconsensual porn and is familiar with Florida’s law. After reviewing Dicrosta’s case at Reuters’ request, she said the case could have been prosecuted because there was enough context of Dicrosta in the video to allow someone – in this case, a former boyfriend – to recognize her.

The case speaks to a broader problem, Franks said: Not all police departments are familiar with the nuances of laws on nonconsensual porn, especially as some laws are relatively new.

A Tampa police spokesperson said that detectives “dedicated over five months to the investigation,” but the evidence did “not meet the criteria to establish a criminal violation.”

Dicrosta felt angry and let down. She thought about the “personal identification information” demanded by Florida law and came up with another way to protect herself in case a sexual partner secretly filmed her in the future.

She walked into a tattoo parlor and had the words “not yours” etched on her backside.

BARRIERS TO PROSECUTION

Dicrosta’s experience illustrates the long odds of holding people who post nonconsensual porn to account.

Of the 128 U.S. cases Reuters documented, only 28 ended in an arrest and eight resulted in any sort of criminal conviction. Three people went to jail – two for 48 hours each.

Police closed 90 of the cases, including nine for lack of evidence, 12 because investigative leads were exhausted, and 10 because the accusers decided not to pursue charges. The other 38 remained open, including 15 cases marked as “inactive.”

Police documented some cases for “informational purposes only” when the accusers didn’t want to pursue charges but wanted a record of the incident.

Forty-eight states, Washington D.C., Guam and Puerto Rico have criminalized nonconsensual porn in the past two decades. But many laws have loopholes or are weakly enforced, according to lawyers, academics and victim advocates. Repeated efforts by the U.S. Congress to pass federal laws that criminalize nonconsensual porn have failed, largely due to objections by free-speech advocates.

Thirty-eight states classify the sharing of nonconsensual porn as misdemeanors, a low-priority crime for some police departments. Some investigators blame the victims for allowing themselves to be filmed, said Franks, the law professor. “There’s not much sympathy for victims to begin with,” she said.

Many of the state laws now used to fight nonconsensual porn are designed to combat “revenge porn,” in which someone posts explicit images to retaliate against a former partner. But in the OnlyFans cases documented by Reuters, the motive often isn’t just retribution. It’s money.

That’s a barrier to prosecutions in some jurisdictions.

In Florida’s Okaloosa County, a man contacted the sheriff’s office in September 2022 after discovering his ex-girlfriend posted a sex video of them on OnlyFans without his permission. Under Florida law, however, the video must be published with intent to cause “substantial emotional distress.”

“Although the victim expressed emotional distress, the intent of the suspect was financial gain, and therefore the elements of this crime have not been met,” the investigating detective said in the case report, which redacted the man’s name.

Police dropped the case.

‘IT NEVER ENDS’

Many OnlyFans creators rely on other social media to promote their content to potential subscribers. Some videos on OnlyFans are published or leaked on other porn sites. And some are disseminated so widely that victims are powerless to stop them.

Adreiona Prater said she was caught in a viral nightmare.

Prater was 18 when a sex video of her appeared on OnlyFans and other websites. She was attending junior college, studying criminal justice, in Tyler, Texas, in July 2019, when she met and briefly dated Anthony Reshon Scott, then 20.

Prater said she reluctantly allowed Scott to record them having sex but afterward asked him to delete the video. Scott assured her he did, she told police.

In February 2020, Prater discovered the video on Pornhub, another big porn site, and contacted Tyler police. She said she dropped the case after Scott promised to take the video down, but later discovered it on OnlyFans. She watched helplessly as it took off on social media.

On Oct. 6, 2020, a clip appeared on Scott’s Twitter account, revealing her face and naked body, police records show. The caption read, “Check out my onlyfans with over 200+ girls,” and provided a link to Scott’s OnlyFans page. An eight-minute version was also posted to Reddit by an anonymous user, watermarked with the address of Scott’s OnlyFans account.

In comments under the Reddit post, someone identified Prater by posting her social media information, according to screenshots she shared with police. On Instagram, one person asked her: “That was you in that onlyfans vid?”

After being harassed by online stalkers, Prater said she installed a home security system, changed her phone number and called police again, this time in Arlington, Texas, where she’d recently moved.

“I just felt so scared,” she said.

An Arlington police detective investigating Prater’s report ran into a problem: the OnlyFans paywall. It required a $5 monthly subscription fee. “So I was unable to view the contents,” Detective Jacklyn Donalson wrote in a case report. Donalson told Reuters she knew from experience that it would be tough to convince her superiors to pay for a porn subscription, especially when there was no guarantee it would provide usable evidence.

“Like all government agencies, our resources are finite,” said Tim Ciesco, spokesperson for the Arlington Police Department. “We have to be strategic about the way we disperse them.”

The case might have stalled there. Without a subscription, there’s almost no public information on OnlyFans accounts available to investigators. Some seek subpoenas to force OnlyFans to disclose account information, but that involves persuading a court that it’s relevant to an investigation.

In Prater’s case, however, Donalson said she ultimately was able to document enough evidence of a crime without Scott’s OnlyFans information because the video appeared on other platforms, including Twitter.

Spokespeople for Reddit and X didn’t comment on Prater’s case but said their platforms strictly prohibit nonconsensual porn. Pornhub operator Aylo said it “expeditiously” removed the video when it learned about it.

In August 2021, a Tarrant County grand jury indicted Scott for violating Texas’ “revenge porn” law, a felony. The jury cited his Twitter post that advertised his OnlyFans page.

In a conversation that Prater recorded and submitted to police, Scott told her he would pay her to drop the charges, according to the recording, which Reuters reviewed. This time, Prater refused.

Scott pleaded guilty in June 2022 to publishing intimate visual material without Prater’s consent, and received three years of community supervision, akin to probation. “I didn’t do anything wrong,” Scott said in an interview. “I want to leave it at that.”

As police investigated her case, Prater wrote to OnlyFans on Feb. 23, 2021, to complain about the video and give them the name of Scott’s OnlyFans account. The company replied the next day, saying the video would be removed if confirmed to be nonconsensual, according to a screenshot of the message that Prater shared with Reuters.

“We take all reports of this nature extremely seriously,” a help desk representative wrote to her.

Prater said she never heard from OnlyFans again.

According to OnlyFans, the complaint contained “no actionable information.” The company did not elaborate but told Reuters its moderators deactivated the account in April 2022 – more than a year after Prater’s takedown request.

Versions of the sex video remain online, the OnlyFans watermark still visible.

“I still get harassed about it to this day,” Prater said. “It never ends.”

’MY HEART DROPPED. IT WAS ME’

The surge of pornography unleashed by OnlyFans and other websites in the smartphone era is reminiscent of the “Golden Age of Porn,” a period in the 1970s and 1980s when another technological advance – home video players – brought porn to a much wider audience.

As the porn market expands, turbo-charged by social media, so does the challenge of verifying consent.

OnlyFans’ terms of service say creators must have documents to prove the age, identity and consent of other people who appear in their content, unless OnlyFans has already vetted those people as creators too. But multiple creators said in interviews that they have uploaded porn featuring others without providing that proof.

The OnlyFans spokesperson said the company strengthened procedures in late 2022 to require proof of consent before creators could post content on the platform. Yet Reuters found more than a dozen cases filed with U.S. law enforcement agencies in 2023 in which people alleged that explicit videos or images were posted without their consent.

In addition, of the nine people Reuters interviewed who said they were victims of nonconsensual porn, all said they were never asked for documents.

“Even if you have content moderation rules that are fairly clear against nonconsensual intimate images, those rules are abused regularly,” said Danielle Citron, a University of Virginia School of Law professor who has studied online abuse on porn platforms.

While CEO Keily Blair pledges that OnlyFans monitors 100% of content, the terms of service say the company has no obligation to do so: “We are not responsible for reviewing or moderating Content.”

The company spokesperson didn’t address the apparent inconsistency but said: “We know the legal identity of all our creators and work closely with law enforcement around the world. This approach means OnlyFans is an extremely hostile environment for anyone” seeking to share nonconsensual sexual content, she said.

Some women said they were only able to confirm suspicions or rumors of their appearance on OnlyFans by buying access to images or videos of themselves.

Jennifer Aviles told police she initially heard about the explicit videos of herself from her 15-year-old daughter. The teen discovered Twitter posts by Aviles’ ex-boyfriend, William Lewis, that advertised his OnlyFans account with images of her face and body.

“I got my only fans set up if y’all want to see some really GOOD STUFF,” Lewis tweeted on Oct. 18, 2020.

“I looked at it and my heart dropped. It was me,” Aviles, 40, of Woodstock, Illinois, recalled in an interview.

Aviles knew that explicit images and videos had been taken during their eight-year relationship. “I enjoyed being recorded, then watching afterwards,” she said. “I think it’s why most people consent to do intimate videos.”

But she told police that she had asked Lewis to delete the images after they broke up. “Being vulnerable like that involves a lot of trust. Little did I know years later it would haunt me.”

Wanting to know exactly what Lewis had posted of her on his OnlyFans page, she paid for a $50 monthly subscription to his account, she said. She discovered photos and videos of her naked body and of her engaged in sexual acts with Lewis.

Aviles called the Woodstock Police Department.

On Aug. 29, 2021, a detective brought Lewis, 41, to the police station for questioning. During the videotaped interview, which Reuters reviewed, Lewis initially denied posting explicit material of Aviles on OnlyFans or Twitter. Then he said he couldn’t remember. Then he broke down in tears. “I’m hoping this doesn’t ruin the rest of my life,” he said.

In May 2022, Lewis pleaded guilty to one count of nonconsensual dissemination of a sexual image – a felony. He received 24 months of probation.

“I am remorseful,” Lewis told Reuters. “I do feel bad about putting it out there into the universe.”

OnlyFans confirmed it responded to a police inquiry about Aviles’ case in March 2021 and that the account had been deleted the previous November. X didn’t comment on the case but says it bans non-consensual nudity on the platform.

Far from giving consent, 11 women and five men involved in the cases reviewed by Reuters told police they had no idea that images featured on OnlyFans even existed until after they had been posted. Each said the videos had been recorded without their knowledge.

Taysha Blase, 29, was among them.

The Nebraska woman said she had subscribed to her ex-boyfriend’s OnlyFans account out of curiosity. What she found distressed her. Her ex, Vincent Tran, 31, sent out a notification in July 2021 offering his OnlyFans subscribers a 47-second sex video of a “PAWG,” or Phat Ass White Girl, for $15.

The video showed a distinctive tattoo. Blase said it was hers.

The next morning, Blase contacted the Omaha Police Department. She told Reuters she also submitted an online complaint to OnlyFans about Tran’s account but never received a response. According to OnlyFans, “no actionable information” was provided to the platform at that time.

About a month later, Blase said, she heard from the police that her case would be forwarded to the domestic violence unit. By that time, Tran had taken down the video, but Blase still wanted him charged, fearing the post could resurface, she said.

For months, Blase said, she felt distraught and uncomfortable in public, wondering who might have seen her on OnlyFans. “For all I know,” she said, “that person may now know what the most intimate parts of my body look like, and there’s nothing that I can do about it.”

On Dec. 12, 2023 – more than two years after Blase reported the incident to police, and nearly four months after Reuters first inquired about the case – an arrest warrant was issued for Tran. It alleged he recorded and distributed an intimate video of Blase without her consent – felonies in Nebraska.

Tran remains at large. Reuters reached him by telephone, however, and asked about the case.

“That’s something I don’t want to talk about,” he said.

‘WHEN I HAVE SEX … I ALWAYS FILM IT’

One alleged victim of nonconsensual porn is setting her sights on OnlyFans itself: Sammy, the college student.

Her lawsuit, filed in November 2022 in federal court in southern Florida, isn’t just about her alleged rape, but also about who profited from it.

It’s the first of its kind against OnlyFans and tests whether the website is liable under federal statutes designed to protect people from companies that “knowingly” benefit from sex trafficking – defined as commercial sex produced under “force, fraud, or coercion.”

“Those types of claims require that there be a financial benefit to the platform,” said Carrie Goldberg, a New York lawyer specializing in nonconsensual porn cases. “There’s really no easier platform to prove that for than OnlyFans,” she said, because the website takes a 20% cut of every transaction.

Sammy’s lawsuit cites violations of the same sex-trafficking laws used in a high-profile case against Pornhub. In 2021, its parent company, MindGeek, settled a sex-trafficking lawsuit brought by 50 women who accused the site of hosting nonconsensual porn and sought $100 million in damages.

The parent company – now called Aylo Holdings – said it has comprehensive safety measures to eradicate illegal material.

Sammy’s case, if successful, could bring similar attention to OnlyFans and its effectiveness in policing millions of creators, four legal experts told Reuters. It could also spur more lawsuits, they said.

OnlyFans did not comment on the experts’ assessments.

In a court filing, OnlyFans’ U.S. subsidiary, Fenix Internet, said it will seek to have Sammy’s sex-trafficking case dismissed, citing free-speech protections that shield social media platforms and other websites from liability for content posted by users. If the two men did post the video, they would have violated OnlyFans’ terms of service, the company said.

Sammy’s lawsuit against OnlyFans is on hold pending the outcome of the criminal case against the men, Romelus and Charles.

Reuters couldn’t access the video of Sammy’s alleged rape posted on OnlyFans, which her attorney said lasted about 10 minutes. Instead, reporters viewed screenshots and listened to parts of the recording played by Miami-Dade detectives while questioning Romelus and Charles. They also pieced together Sammy’s story from other law enforcement records and interviews with her.

It was spring break in 2022, when Sammy, a music production student and aspiring singer, met Charles, 24, on a dating app. He invited her to a party at his apartment, she told police and Reuters.

She was excited when Charles picked her up that night with Romelus, 27, in the passenger seat. But when the three arrived at the apartment, no one else was there. After some drinks and dancing, the men grew sexually aggressive, she said.

Their behavior culminated in an attack in the bedroom, where Sammy said she was stripped, slapped, raped and sodomized – all while a phone recorded her from atop a dresser.

“I was disoriented, shocked, scared,” she told Reuters. “I was just overwhelmed with how powerless I felt.”

She gathered her clothes and tried to take refuge in the living room, she said, but was again raped there. She said Romelus stood over her, holding his phone close to his head. At the time, Sammy thought he was on FaceTime, talking to someone, and shielded her face with her hands.

In fact, police said, Romelus was recording.

Afterward, the men took her to the workplace of her friend, Chris Philbert. As he drove her home, she broke down, punching the dashboard and swearing, Sammy and Philbert said in interviews. She opened the car door and tried to hurl herself onto the highway, because it felt “like the moment I’m supposed to die,” Sammy said. Her friend pulled her back in. “It was bad,” Philbert said. “It was just a terrible situation.”

Later, she checked herself into a hospital, where she called police.

Meanwhile, Philbert, after learning from Sammy that she might have been filmed, found Romelus’ OnlyFans page. Using OnlyFans’ messaging function, he said he was interested in buying a video of three people having sex, according to screenshots of his chats with Romelus provided to Reuters by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office.

On June 30, Romelus sold Philbert the video for $20, the screenshots showed. “More good videos coming my boy,” he told Philbert.

Philbert shared the video with investigators, and on July 26, 2022, Miami-Dade police arrested Romelus and Charles. They both denied they had raped Sammy. “Nobody forced her,” Romelus said in a video-recorded interview with two detectives, which Reuters reviewed.

The detectives played the OnlyFans video for Romelus on a phone. “In the video she says, ‘No, stop.’ Did you hear her?” Detective Nicole Wells said to Romelus. “She’s pushing you off.”

Romelus said he thought she was protesting because he was penetrating her too deeply. She knew she was being recorded and consented, he added. “When I have sex with somebody I always film it.”

When the detectives played the video for Charles, he said he couldn’t hear Sammy saying no and didn’t know the video had been posted on OnlyFans.

It’s unclear how long OnlyFans hosted the video or how many customers viewed it. Eleven days after it was posted, a lawyer for Sammy emailed police and said she was seeking to have it removed from the site “ASAP,” according to Miami-Dade Police Department records. The video has since been removed.

According to OnlyFans, it deactivated the account on July 29, 2022 - three days after Romelus’ arrest. It didn’t comment further on the case.

The OnlyFans video remains key evidence against the defendants, who are out on bond and due to stand trial later this year. Charles declined to comment, as did the public defender’s office representing Romelus.

The detectives questioned Romelus for an hour on the day of his arrest, then left him alone in the interview room.

A camera in the room continued to record.

He sank his head into his hands and spoke quietly to himself. The man who had filmed Sammy seemed unaware he was now being filmed himself.

“I should have never posted that video,” Romelus said. “I’m so stupid.”

[sleepycatten]

PSA about hair removal

This post is for anyone who's seeking hair removal, but especially for the many other trans women / trans fems I see being given misinformation by laser or electrolysis technicians, especially in the US and UK 🥺

Laser hair removal

* Permanent hair reduction.

* Always shave the area closely beforehand. Laser is less effective if you do not shave.

* Ideally look for a clinic that uses something like a Candela GentleMax Pro or newer. Such machines are less painful & more effective than ones like any of the Alma Soprano devices.

* 6-8 sessions will typically be the sweet spot before moving on to electrolysis.

* If the technician or clinic tell you not to use numbing cream, that's a massive red flag against their knowledge. A technician does not need pain feedback from you to know they're using safe levels!

Electrolysis

* Permanent hair removal.

* You must let the hair grow at least a few mm before a session.

* Ask your electrologist for an estimate of how long it will take to clear an area, as their expertise and speed will vary. For example, NHS Scotland estimates it can take 250-400 hours to fully clear a face of facial hair. My own highly-experienced electrologist estimated 100-150 hours max for me, but has nearly cleared my face in under 25 hours. She's not yet taken more than about 120 hours to clear someone's face / neck fully.

* Again, numbing cream is not only absolutely safe, it's in fact highly recommended if you cannot afford local anaesthetic injections.

* For most folks, it's as much a mental challenge as it is about physical pain management. Even with numbing cream and strong painkillers, it's gonna hurt, especially in 2 hour+ sessions and around sensitive areas (especially the top lip and around the mouth).

* Aloe vera gel helps with post-electrolysis swelling and recovery.

Numbing cream

* The most common brand of numbing cream is EMLA, which is 2.5% lidocaine and 2.5% prilocaine.

* The strongest cream I've found without prescription is Tattoo Numbing Cream, which is 5% lidocaine and 5% prilocaine.

* If you can get a stronger cream on prescription at an affordable cost, this is definitely something to consider.

*To help with absorption, exfoliate and clean the area before applying cream, apply 60-90 mins before a session, and cover in an air-tight, water-tight dressing (cling film / plastic wrap works well).

Sadly, I can't provide much information on local anaesthetic injections. In the UK, they're typically arranged either by a medically-trained specialist at an electrolysis clinic or separately (such as at a dentist's) immediately before attending a session.

[animusrox]

movie tag game

tag game: recommend movies based on the following questions, then tag 5 people.

a film in the IMDB Top 250

an indie film

a summer blockbuster

a foreign language film

a black-and-white film

an animated film

a film released before 1970

a film released after 2010

a film from the year you were born

a film where the vibes are immaculate

a film whose main genre is Action/Adventure

a film whose main genre is Comedy

a film whose main genre is Horror/Thriller

a film whose main genre is Drama

a film whose main genre is Science Fiction

a film whose main genre is Science Fiction

a film whose main genre is Romance/Musical

a film whose main genre is Western

a film to feel good/uplifted

a film to feel bad/depressed

tagging: @celine-song @talesfromthecrypts @ewans-mitchell @madeline-kahn @anyataylorjoys

[aradiaravenswood]

Aradia’s Project List

Hi friends! This pinned post will show all of my completed, in progress, and planned fanfic works. Works that have been posted will include a link to the fic, and each entry will have brief details about theme, pairing, and expected general timeline of posting. I will be updating this periodically as I release things/complete things/potentially get new ideas, and I’ll keep this post pinned to the top of the blog. Enjoy!

— horizons

— restitution in absentia - epic length, HBP divergence (or arguably very late OOTP divergence), mystery and angst, super-powered Ginny, morally gray Draco; currently WIP, anticipated completion date December 2024/January 2025

— where the sky meets the sea - multi-chaptered but significantly shorter than RiA; working summary of “In which Draco Malfoy goes to trauma therapy, as told by a trauma therapist. In which Ginny Weasley deals with the aftermath of accidentally temporarily becoming a god— oops. In which Draco and Ginny learn to love each other and lead fulfilling lives in a post-Voldemort world.” Will be posted in 2025.

— secret third thing with no title yet - crossover? multiverse? action and adventure? yes? anticipated for 2026

— this is me trying (working title, subject to change)

— Mise en Place - one shot, EWE, summer fest fic, second chance relationship for Draco and Ginny in 2009, Draco in the Muggle world, divorced Ginny; completed

— Of Apples and The Trees They Fall From - will be multi-chaptered, sequel, Ginny introducing Draco to her family, early days of navigating their new relationship; fall fest fic, will start posting in 2024 but won’t be finished until 2025

— Vol Vers La Vie - multi-chaptered, prequel, exploration of Draco’s life from Deathly Hallows until the events of Mise; likely will start posting in 2024 but won’t be finished until 2025

— all of this is temporary

— PTOLEMAEA - 10 chapters, dead dove, Ginny/Tom, Voldemort Wins AU, written for TWHoS Gothic Fantasy Fest; inspirations include Dante’s Inferno, Black Mirror, American Horror Story, Ethel Cain’s “Ptolemaea”, and Paris Paloma’s “escape pod”; will be completed 2024

— PENANCE - multi-chaptered, D&G surviving in a Voldemort wins world, tied together by mutual common interests; do we live with horror or fight to change it?; will be released 2025

— PRODIGAL - multi-chaptered, D/G time travel fix it fic to save the world from a Voldemort empire; will be released 2025

— Note: this was loosely supposed to follow the Divine Comedy (inferno, purgatorio, paradiso), but it’s really more like purgatory - hell - paradise, which is cool

— Stand Alones

— The Mental Game - 250 word drabble, Ginny and Quidditch, could conceivably fit into RiA or Mise universes; completed

— Ginevra - an Anastasia (animated film) retelling but make it Drinny; probably multi-chaptered but short, sticks pretty closely to film plot; maybe 2025, maybe 2026 depending on how other projects go