#we are Sticking with the rona theme here

[suspendrs]

angst 11 please!!!

“Nobody’s seen you in days.”

“i think that’s the point, haz,” louis says. “it’s called social distancing for a reason.”

“louis,” harry says, unimpressed.

“seriously!” louis says. “how are you going to get mad at me for isolating myself when the government literally—“

“louis.”

louis sighs. “what?”

“are you okay?”

“i’m fine!” louis says. “why does everyone keep—“

“i know this sucks,” harry says, blatantly cutting him off. louis glares at the tiny image of him on his phone screen, but if harry notices, he doesn’t let on. “i know it sucks that you’re in london and i’m stuck here in LA. i hate it too.”

“i’m literally fine, harry,” louis says. “i’m all good.”

harry still doesn’t look convinced. “you’re alone,” he says. “you hate being alone.”

“thanks for pointing that out, hazza, cheers,” louis grumbles.

“it’s okay to be upset, louis,” harry says. “this fucking sucks.”

louis swallows, tilting his phone back so that harry can only see him from the eyes up. “i’m gonna hang up on you.”

“please don’t,” harry says. “i miss you.”

“i miss you, too,” louis says quietly.

“i’m trying really hard to find a flight home, but california is pretty much in lockdown,” harry says.

“it’s fine,” louis says. “i’m fine.”

“then why do you sound like you’re about to cry?” harry asks.

“because,” louis clears his throat, “i don’t know.”

“love,” harry says.

“this just fucking sucks,” louis says, voice breaking in the middle, despite how hard he tries to keep it from happening. “like, i finally get my album out and get out on tour, i get two fucking shows in, and the whole world goes to shit, and now you’re not even with me and i’m just alone in this house and no one can even come visit or hang out and—“

“lou,” harry says, voice soft.

“i hate this,” louis says, putting his phone flat on the kitchen table to rub at his eyes.

“don’t touch your face,” harry scolds. “have you disinfected your phone?”

“i’ve disinfected everything, harry,” louis grumbles.

“good,” harry says. “i’m gonna try and come home as soon as possible, okay? i swear.”

“it’s not safe,” louis says miserably. “just stay where you are, like they’re saying.”

“no, i don’t care,” harry says. “all i want in the world is to be home with you.”

“all i want in the world is for this not to be fucking happening,” louis says. “but we can’t always have what we want, hm?”

“i’m so sorry, baby,” harry sighs. “pick up your phone, i can’t see your face.”

louis sniffles a little, showing harry his forehead again. harry smiles, and louis lowers the camera a little more, showing harry his reddened eyes, his pink nose.

“love,” he coos. “what have you been up to? how’ve you been passing the time?”

“doing a whole lot of fucking nothing,” louis says. “i even downloaded that tiktok app for, like, ten seconds. i’ve really hit a low point.”

harry laughs, shaking his head at him. “hey, it’s getting late over there. you should get some sleep.”

louis sighs, tapping his screen so the time pops up just above harry’s head. “yeah, maybe.”

“listen, stop being so distant, okay? text me in the morning when you wake up, or so help me god, i’ll fly home just to break your legs,” harry says.

“alright, fine,” louis says. “i guess i can stop moping so much.”

“good,” harry grins. “hey, i love you.”

“i love you, too,” louis says, voice quiet, pulling the phone close to his face.

“you look like an egg,” harry giggles.

louis hangs up on him, smiling at the long string of heart emojis that harry texts him a few seconds later. he eyes the mess he’s made of the kitchen in the past few days since he’s been locked in his house alone, and he thinks about cleaning it up, but, then again, harry did tell him to go to bed, so…

he drags himself up the stairs alone, gets ready for bed alone, and tucks himself under the sheets, you guessed it, alone. he fucking hates this, hates not having anyone in the world to pay attention to him right now; he hates how much he craves having someone’s attention at all times, and he hates the fact that the one person whose attention he can never get enough of is halfway across the world right now, quarantined with friends, because he had the foresight to not be alone when the whole world went to shit.

it takes him a while to fall asleep, but eventually, he manages, dreaming of the day this entire nightmare will come to an end.

send me a sentence starter

[watching-pictures-move]

Dispatches from TIFF #1

Hey folks, after two long years, I’m doing TIFF again, so I figured I’d make a little diary out of it with reviews and other thoughts.

Ciné-Guerrillas: Scenes from the Labudovic Reels (Turajilic, 2022) 

This was my first screening of TIFF this year (after not having attended the last 2 years thanks to Covid and whatnot), and either I mistimed my commute or they set it up later due to this movie's lower profile, but I miraculously managed to be the first one in line. During the wait, Steve Coogan arrived in front of the theatre, but because I was too slow in pulling out my phone, I only snapped the back of his head as he turned away. Also, it seems like the segment to thank the volunteers gets cringier every year, and I'm glad to see this tradition was continued despite the pandemic. I took a vacation from work to do a whole bunch of showings like I used to do in the pre-'rona days, so expect lots more exciting reportage from the front lines over the week (mostly when I don't have anything interesting to say about the actual movie).

As for the movie, the subject, about Yugoslavian cameraman Stevan Labudovic and his involvement in the Algerian War, is interesting enough to make this reasonably engaging viewing. Like a lot of modern documentaries, there is a certain formal dryness, but I think the access Turajilic had to her interview subjects and the actual footage alleviates that. That being said, I found the film a little frustrating. It reveals towards the end that despite the Labudovic's hero status in Algeria, very few Algerians had actually been able to see his footage. During the Q&A, Turajilic expanded on this, referring to the Algerian government's tight control of messaging around the Algerian War, and her difficulty filming in Algeria until she used Labudovic's name as a way to get access. For a movie as concerned as it is about propaganda and the way media can be an extension of warfare, I would have liked to see it interrogate that last revelation further.

Fixation (Morgan, 2022)

Jittery genre fun with an appealingly twitchy lead performance Maddie Hasson. I found her a bit much in We Summon the Darkness, and that’s probably true here as well, but it serves the material better this time around. This is a about trauma and whatnot like pretty much every modern horror movie is, but works better as it’s more concerned with translating the heroine’s experience into visceral terms than making sure all its themes tie out nicely. During the Q&A the director and cinematographer said they tried to work in a large number of references to their inspirations, but I appreciated that it wasn’t too distracting. I tend to be put off when movies are too studied in their homaging, as I’d usually prefer to watch the inspirations instead. Now, they didn’t cite any specific films in their answer, and I was too embarrassed to ask to confirm, but I’m 90% sure that between the premise and the inclusion of the line “I know you’re watching me” that the filmmakers have seen Nightdreams. I will say that I was less than enamoured by the ending, but I had a good time for most of this.

On a side note, this opens with a trigger warning indicating that the movie contains content some might find triggering, but provides no details as to what that content might be. I’m not inherently against content warnings (I’ll sometimes check the IMDb Parent’s Guide before putting on a movie), but what am I supposed to do with that warning? I imagine most people watching it in this setting bought tickets through the site, which gives more helpful descriptions of what’s in the movie, so it’s not exactly useful for them. And for people who got in from the rush line? The warning has no details. Are they just gonna get up and leave? Okay, rant over.

Sick (Hyams, 2022)

This review contains mild spoilers in the second paragraph and major spoilers in the third paragraph.

The things that stick out the most to me about John Hyams' action movies are the unwavering clarity of the steadicam cinematography and the sheer physicality of the violence, in a way that almost flirts with body horror. Both of those qualities are present here, so Hyams fans will likely have a good time with this. The camerawork is quite a bit choppier, but never hard to follow, as it tends to follow the action in a pretty natural way. In the Q&A, Hyams mentions a reluctance to intentionally shake the camera, and the shakes here feel like a natural extension of the messiness of the action, with confrontations between the killer and their victims drawn out to be much longer and less one sided than is usual in the slasher genre. Which also means that the gnarliest acts of violence make quite an impact (the hooting and hollering by the audience during my screening was well justified).

Now, I'm going to flirt with spoiler territory in this paragraph, so hold off from reading if you'd like to go in completely blind, even though I'll do my best not to give away outright plot points. This is written by Kevin Williamson, whose credit is essentially a spoiler as he recycles elements from the Scream franchise, but applying it to a story set in the early stages of the pandemic (April 2020, to be precise). I've been interested in how movies have been influenced by the pandemic in their production methods and particularly their storytelling. The COVID element is pretty explicit here, with our two heroines heading up to a secluded cottage. The movie presents some of the preventative measures which in retrospect seem a bit excessive (outdoor masking, wiping down groceries, constant spraying of disinfectant), and plays these as punchlines. Some of this is inevitable given that we have more information about how COVID spreads now, and some of that is the Williamson touch. But in the Q&A he discussed wanting to capture the ambient sense of fear in those days into the story, and I don't know if Hyams or Williamson deserve the greater share of blame, but I never felt that the usual slasher sense of isolation ever translated to COVID paranoia.

I am diving into outright spoiler territory in this paragraph, so skip to the bottom if you don't want it ruined. The way the movie tied COVID into the killers' motivations didn't sit right with me, and I'm going to spill over into my personal views here for a second, so bear with me. In the Q&A, Hyams and Williamson spoke about wanting to capture the need to find a specific target to blame to find some catharsis when the threat is more ambient and the causes are arguably systemic. I guess this is where I differ from from them in that I think individual actions absolutely have played a part making the situation worse. It's not an either or situation. I don't think Hyams or Williamson intend to minimize the harm caused by COVID (otherwise they wouldn't have made this a major plot element), but I think of the way the killers in Scream are given time to develop as actual characters ("humanize" seems like the wrong word, but I got a sense of them as people outside the plot). I guess you can blame Hyams' narrow storytelling focus, which arguably enhances the suspense, but I don't think that happens here. Okay, major spoilers over.

In short, this is a pretty effective piece of slashering, even if certain storytelling decisions left me deeply frustrated.