#which is eerily thematically accurate

[oneslimybastard]

Another underutilized aspect of N, Natural Harmonia Gropius himself, is that he's conceptualized as not just a Math Guy, but a Math Genius if we go by some interview trivia notated on Bulbapedia.

It clearly shows in the way he speaks since his (translated) dialogue (idk about the original japanese one) is full of hamfisted references to formulas and frustration expressed when the chaos of the world does not align with them — which to me is like, the core of his character, something that makes him both An Asshole to deal with but also a very intellectually curios and creative individual. It's just a brand of creativity not a lot of people can keep up with nor understand.

N likes math because a lot of math is about clearly defined variables and their relationship to one another. If you come across an inconsistency that doesn't fit any prior definitions, you iron out a new definition and suddenly the field has expanded upon itself tenfold. It aligns with how his Very Autistic Brain functions, x + y = z, if I do x to y then z will happen. If z doesn't happen, then that just means I have to identify the hidden variables within the exchange and rewrite the formula to be more accurate.

Black and White's quality of writing is. Like pokémon often is. Questionable at best. The foundations are there but the execution is dumbed down and corny because it's still aimed at kids, BW in specific really cutting the theme of pokémon trainer ethics short in favor of just "dang u beat me in the pogiebattle guess ur right!". How-ev-er. In my head, and the reason why I still find the plot of those games compelling (aside for my unhinged thirst for goth man-milf Ghetsis) is that to me they're about local cult-raised autist Normal Henry Gropus bashing his head against the world over and over to desperately try and make the formulas make sense, to distill it into variables he can understand and predict on a consistent basis, and failing miserably at it. Because even if the world is Technically made up of a bunch of chemistry that you could, in theory, predict, there's just a lot of random noise in there from microscopic complexities that fuck everything up.

Pokémon are simpler creatures (discounting the eerily intelligent ones) who will be nice enough to behave like math problems most of the time. Humans rarely extend that grace, the more N studies them like a science project the more contradictory variables pop up. They have a million thoughts in their head he doesn't have access to, that brew into feelings he doesn't understand, which leads to actions he can't do a proper traceback through. Which is frustrating, devastatingly frustrating. At least at first.

Due to how BW2 pans out and my own yearning for thematic mirroring, whereas Ghetsis gives in to the Autistic Bitterness over all these NTs he doesn't fuckign understand, I like to think N develops a sort of joy in studying people like the impossibly complex math problems we are. Because he likes math, he likes figuring shit out, he likes buying a nightmare rubik's cube and charting the squares out on a nightmare variable graph (listen i am not a math guy. i respect the hustle but my skill level is too low to accurately attempt to simulate the process in writing. im sorry math guys) so he has a home-made flexible cheat code on how to solve any possible mix-up of it. It's fun for him, it stimulates his brain and he is so stupid good at it that he can only share that joy with like a stray alakazam or metagross because he's a bit of a tarzan just hanging out in the wilderness, he doesn't know any high end mathematicians he can casually geek out about combinatorial game theory with, and the normies just do not get it .

I think this math enjoying is kind of a big part of his ~Innocence~ as well, since there's a lot of childlike glee to being a Math Guy. It's the love of problem solving as a process rather than a means to an end, it's playful, but severely misunderstood to the point where people kinda might assume things about you if you are a math guy.

N's love of math helps him love the world but it also isolates him. He's a genius, but since he can't communicate it in a palatable way it'll get overlooked in favor of him just being a loomy weirdo on the street chatting up the local patrats.

If introduced to DnD though he'd spend so much time on forging ridiculously optimized multiclass builds, then migrate to digging through old obscure sci-fi ttrpgs from the 80s with hellishly complex systems just for the funsies of learning how the presented variables behave within a variety of frameworks, but then if you actually invited him to play with your group he'd look at you like you'd just called his mom a llama.

He's a neat guy to me, STEM guy who's also one of those animal rights activists who's a little too PETA-coded, I like him :)

[notmuchtoconceal]

The title "Resident Evil" as a localization which came about from a pre-existing copyright conflict is so eerily apropos, for in some ways it's even more appropriate than the original Japanese title "Biohazard".

Biohazard, of course, accurately summarizes the literal events of not only the initial, but each following entry. In the original, the title is even something of a spoiler. With Resident Evil you know you're in a house with zombies, and the discovery that it's a viral leak on the site of a hidden lab is something of a reveal. If you're an American player in the 90's you see killer dogs and the undead and night ravens in a gothic manor and you're liable to assume the possibility of something darkly fantastical. (The remake even hams this up by cryo-freezing a dangerous but too-precious-to-liquidate prototype specimen inside an underground vampyre crypt out in the crumbling 18th century graveyard which is literally suspension-chained over an altar and can only be unlocked with death masks.) If you're a Japanese player, you're seeing the same stuff, but aware of a rational, material cause, unless you would like to take the title in its grandest estimation to see all biological material -- and therefore life itself -- as constituting a hazardous contagion.

With "Resident Evil" we're using the subtleties of the English language to both redirect and obscure the central thematic preoccupation of the series. (For the sake of argument, let's assume the central RE games constitute a work of art in which each entry builds thematically and psychologically off their predecessors, responding -- and sometimes degenerating -- in complexity and nuance much like the gameplay mechanics themselves, cause uh... that's what they are.)

Once again, the original title can describe the literal evil of a house, as the game takes place in a secluded mansion. However, we're aware this title is subtly punny in an almost meaningless way because it could very easily just stop there. If you wanted to go any further, you'd have to risk being accused of looking too deeply at a mystery in plain sight, as though a glass onion doesn't infinitely refract when held up to the light.

When a North American hears the word "Resident" they don't only think of a home -- a residence -- or a person who occupies a home -- being a resident -- they also think of how the term is used as a adjective, as in Resident Doctor (again subtly pushing medical associations, hinting at a pharmaceutical reveal, but preserving the mystery while not really at all, if you're keeping your eyes open). That is, a resident in the sense of being a person who lives on the site of his job. Aha. Now we're getting somewhere. The title "Resident Evil" doesn't only function as something of a tabernacle where the nature of its occupant remains obscured, but it proposes the residence itself is that tabernacle, and a residence (a place one occupies -- occupation too having many broader connotations) too is something which is more encompassing, such as the nature of a home is not so much literal as felt. Thus, the residence of one becomes the city of two, which by the end of three is a warzone on the brink of annihilation.

Hence (all this preamble, I am not sorry to say, being necessary) the title Resident Evil functions as something of a cultural diagnostic. Resident Evil is about how corporate entities bring about the destruction of our homes. About how we give themselves to them willingly. About the mutations we induce in ourselves, the subtle yet intense dehumanization we accrue, the violence we inflict not only on our own bodies but on our families and our land -- by being unable to separate our toils from our labors or our homes. Resident Evil is not only describing and demonstrating how the work/life imbalance agitates into a cancer which is all-consuming, but how this cancer was manufactured in a lab.

Having said all this (outlined a theory you might say) I now wish to prove it by saying the thing I had initially popped in to say, and truthfully the only thing which really matters to me (if you've read this far, you've done well and you're being rewarded with my heart, for all that jargon being necessary to tie my thinking to a living will, it functions too as something of a smokescreen -- against who or what I do not know; perhaps only some veil through which my eyes might gradually well to take in the light) which is that RE2 has haunted me for years, for rather than being a crudely-voiced work of melodrama performed by low-resolution digital marionettes, I consider it a profoundly enduring familial tragedy.

I could always feel. In my heart, and in my bones -- that Annette Birkin truly loved her daughter Sherry. The problem was ... she simply loved her husband more. Sherry was simply the product of their shared passion, and of course she cared for her as an extension of that passion, but you see... Annette and her husband were working on something together. Annette worships her husband. The note of not only despair, but reverence -- as though she were more his prophet than his wife -- when she howls into the void, that the G-virus is her husband's legacy.

Yet she could never stop being his wife.

Even as William continued to mutate, self-inflicted by his own viral load, to the point his head is pulled down into his chest -- his face a wound over his heart as he sprouted a new brain, a second brain; new arms, new eyes, taking on the silhouette of an avenging angel -- she can't accept that he's dead. The man she loves. He's right here.

She looks upon the monster he's become and is so happy his heart still beats for her, she addresses him as though he is a cognizant being seconds before he mauls her. Only this rude awakening (in that timeline) is enough to induce the sobriety necessary for her to explain to Claire how to manufacture the G-virus Antidote (DEVIL) to neutralize the embryos her husband shot into their daughter. (Yes.)

It's as though Annette simply never could become a mother. It's as though she's always running around in a trance. It's as though she has no awareness she even has a daughter... until Claire brings her to her attention. Annette Birkin, simply put -- could never love her daughter in the way she needed (though the love was real) simply for she was too internally divided. She was already so consumed by her work, she could never separate herself from it long enough to build a family.

Maybe she was fooling herself. When you think of Ada holding Sherry's pendent and the family photo swings away to reveal the concealed phial of G-virus, the implication seems to be the family was only ever a front. For the business. For the warfare state. Was Annette then -- her frank love -- simply a pawn at the mercy of whatever hunger drove her?

And what of William? Did he think anything of her? Does he ever regard her? In any way? When Annette finds him wounded by machinegun fire, she runs to him. Hold on, darling. All she can think of is caring for him, and he... he does not wait. He injects the virus into himself. Does he know he's on the brink of death? Does he know his poor foolish wife can't save him? Was she only ever a glorified lab assistant whose desperate need he could easily maneuver into a sham marriage and the guilt load of a neglected daughter? Was he truly married to his work, and his only love his precious G-virus? Did he feel so cucked by being gunned down by masked goons from his own corporate sponsor, he now needed to fuck them all in a violent bloodbath of his own unfiltered becoming?

Annette strikes me as the type of person so desperate to be loved and with so much love to give, but who has never been in a position where it was safe to love, though also ... her psychosis could have very easily been recent. Not only the grief of losing her husband, but the reality of being in a survival scenario with grotesques of unspeakable chimerical form. She could have simply been a cold, weak-willed nerd with delusions of grandeur who attached herself to likewise and couldn't control her horniness. Is that fundamentally rational? Why would anyone do that? To what degree is baseline sociopathy instilled and artificially propagated by corporate cultures? What effect does this have across generations?

Is it strange the only one who ever showed any concern or affection for her daughter was another young woman who was also basically an orphan? Who put herself in this desperate situation, only looking for her brother, who is saving her simply for she has the strength to love?

Oh, Sherry.

I never played the one where you hooked up with Wesker's bastard.

Theoretically, it sounds cute. More than likely, it's fucked.

[aion-rsa]

Mythic Quest Season 2 Pulls Off Another Standout Flashback Episode

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This article contains spoilers for Mythic Quest season 2 episode 6.

According to co-creator and lead actor Rob McElhenney, the Mythic Quest team didn’t go into the show’s second season on Apple TV+ with a plan to recapture the energy of season 1’s infamous flashback episode, “A Dark Quiet Death. But they ended up doing so all the same.

“We’re always trying to just stretch and do something different,” McElhenney tells Den of Geek. “It’s never a function of like, ‘Oh, that flashback episode worked, so let’s do another flashback episode.’ It’s more like, ‘Well there are no rules.’” 

In Mythic Quest season 1, the desire to operate under no set storytelling rules led to the stunning fifth episode “A Dark Quiet Death.” That installment was a flashback to the mid ‘90s in which two game developers, “Doc” (Jake Johnson) and “Bean” (Christin Milioti), met, fell in love, made some art, then sold out and fell out. The half-hour was seemingly unconnected to anything else in the Mythic Quest mythos, save for a scene at episode’s end when McElhenney’s lead game designer Ian Grimm purchased the cavernous studio that Doc and Bean once used to make their indie titles.

The episode was a thematic companion to Mythic Quest’s main storyline and an exploration of the insidious interplay between art, commerce, and human ego. Now, season 2’s sixth episode, “Backstory!” explores some similar themes via an extended flashback that actually involves a character the show’s audience is already familiar with.

As played by Oscar-winning actor F. Murray Abraham, Mythic Quest lead writer C.W. Longbottom is equal parts caricature of an aging blowhard sci-fi writer and a realistically tender depiction of a man intent on finding story wherever it might lurk. “Backstory!” takes things back to Los Angeles in 1971 when “Carl” Longbottom is fresh off the bus from Clear Lake, Iowa, and eager to begin his junior copy editing job at famous sci-fi magazine Amazing Tales Publishing. 

Playing the young C.W. with equal parts wide-eyed wonder and bitter creative disappointment is Josh Brener, who most audiences likely know as Nelson “Big Head” Bigetti on HBO’s Silicon Valley. 

“I was worried at first because, you know, it’s somebody else portraying you, so you’re kind of in their hands,” Abraham says. “It was a treat though. I got in touch with the actor to let him know how much I admire his work and how good he made me look. He had soul and heart and I think that’s essentially what C.W. is. You actually love this guy. You want him to win in the end and I think he does.”

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By Alec Bojalad

The plot of the episode surrounds Carl’s relationship with his new copy editing peers Peter Cromwell (Michael Cassidy) and A.E. Goldsmith (Shelley Hennig). The trio begin as allies (or a “tripod” like the aliens in their beloved H.G. Wells’ creation) and attempt to get one another’s work published by Amazing Tales. It quickly becomes apparent, however, that A.E. and Peter’s fiction is much more suitable for public consumption than Carl’s strange, illogical hard sci-fi. 

“Carl, it’s not enough to propose a future where things are different. They have to be inevitable and unexpected at the same time,” A.E. tells the young writer, trying to help him. 

Unfortunately Carl is in no position to hear her. Sure, it makes no sense that humans in the future would have flesh packs on their back when backpacks would work just fine. But Carl wants humans to have flesh packs on their back because that’s how his imagination wants them to carry things.

Eventually, after A.E. and Peter find creative and professional success, Carl resorts to a soft form of plagiarism when he adopts all of the extensive notes that none other than Isaac Asimov provided on his manuscript and publishes them as his own. That’s enough for Carl to take home a Nebula Award, but A.E. understands precisely what happened. 

Carl, however, does find some semblance of real success in the form of an eerily accurate prediction. At his lowest, after Asimov essentially rewrote his story, Carl drunkenly takes off down the street in an uncharacteristic Southern California downpour. While walking, he sees a game of Atari Pong running on a model television in a storefront window. His eyes light up with the possibility of future storytelling. He then tells his peers that one day stories won’t be linear, but rather bolts of lightning. 

“The inevitable march of technology will not be stemmed. Enough iridescent geometry to create an entire world…no, worlds. We will give birth to creatures the likes of which have never been seen! Naturally, none of these worlds will mean anything on their own. They’ll need to be infused with story.”

And infused with story they’ll one day be, as Ian Grimm and Poppy Li (Charlotte Nicdao) track the aged C.W. down at a renaissance fair to write the story for their new Mythic Quest game. 

“Backstory” was written by special guest writer Craig Mazin, a prolific and powerful Hollywood presence who is now best known for creating HBO’s classic Chernobyl miniseries. This is Mazin’s first time penning a script for Mythic Quest but he did guest star in several of season 1’s episodes as the highly inappropriate games tester Lou.

Mazin also appears in this episode as Sol Green, the publisher of Amazing Tales. Mazin and McElhenney gave Sol the same last name as Lou to suggest that one is a grandfather of the other. But McElhenney is not discounting the canonical possibility that Craig Mazin is simply just an eternal force of nature.

“Again, there are no rules, so who gives a shit? Lou could be a character who has existed since the beginning of time,” McElhenney says. “To me, it’s the spirit of Mazin that lives on throughout the millennia. He’s like that in real life. I mean, that really is what he’s like.”

In addition to the presence of the writer of Chernobyl as a potentially immortal being, “Backstory!” differs from its “A Dark Quiet Death” flashback predecessor in one major way. This isn’t the end of the Carl Longbottom story. Next week’s episode, “Peter,” will continue the tale of C.W. Longbottom’s sci-fi writer life, this time in the present. And playing his friend-turned-rival Peter will be yet another actor of note.

“We essentially do a play between two Oscar winners: William Hurt and F. Abraham Murray,” McElhenney says. 

It looks like Carl was right: stories don’t have to be linear. They can be bolts of lightning too.

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New episodes of Mythic Quest season 2 premiere Fridays on Apple TV+.

The post Mythic Quest Season 2 Pulls Off Another Standout Flashback Episode appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[hyperbolog]

2019 Oscar Predictions Pt. 1: Sound Editing, Mixing, Score, Song, Costume, Make-up/Hairstyling & Production Design

Sound Editing

Sound Editing is a category that traditionally awards Oscars to Action and War films. This decade the only outliers have been Arrival and Hugo. There are no clear front runners in most of this year’s technical categories, especially Sound Mixing and Sound Editing. I think First Man should and can win, however it’s lack of nominations in prestige categories, such as Adapted Screenplay, Picture and Supporting Actress may indicate that there is a tepid support of the film as a whole. If that’s true, expect this award to go to Bohemian Rhapsody, which continued to build upon its inexplicable award season momentum with a surprising Oscar nod for Editing and a big win at the Eddies, the latter giving it the edge in this category. There is also a lot of support for A Quiet Place, which could pull an Arrival-esque upset.

Will Win: Bohemian Rhapsody Should Win: First Man Could Win: A Quiet Place Should Have Been Nominated: A Star is Born

Sound Mixing

Unlike Sound Editing, Musicals tend to win Sound Mixing Oscars. While neither Rhapsody or A Star is Born are conventional musicals, music is the key element of both films and essential to their success. Both are box office juggernauts with nominations for Picture, but one film is trending up, and that’s Rhapsody. I’ve never seen a film bottom out during an award season quite like A Star is Born has in 2019. Just a few months ago it was a favourite to take home multiple awards, including Best Picture. Now the only sure win is for Best Song. Hurting Star’s chances further is that the film has not been nominated for Editing or Director. While Rhapsody never stood a chance for director thanks to Singer being a garbage-fire, it stole a coveted Editing nom from Cooper’s film. Rhapsody also took Best Sound at the BAFTAs, which have accurately predicted all but one of the winners this decade. I do think a lot of voters may feel that Cooper was slighted for director and want to award his film in some way. If so, this is the best chance to do that, as the vocals in A Star is Born are entirely done live by the performers, unlike Rhapsody. Also, don’t count out Panther, which may surprise everyone and take every technical award in which it’s nominated. That SAG award was a very loud win.

Will Win: Bohemian Rhapsody Should Win: A Star is Born Could Win: A Star is Born Should Have Been Nominated: A Quiet Place

Best Score

This category shifted from stable to volatile once the nominations were announced and the presumptive frontrunner, First Man, was left of the ballot. Beale Street has the most effective and thematically resonant score, which weaves its way throughout most of the film’s runtime. Britell’s music is gorgeous, evocative and, most importantly, a central component of the film. If there’s any real spoiler in this category, it could be Blanchard for BlacKkKlansman. He’s an industry vet, with 5 Grammy wins who has scored every Spike Lee film since 1991. This is his first nomination.

Will Win: If Beale Street Could Talk Should Win: If Beale Street Could Talk Could Win: BlacKkKlansman Should Have Been Nominated: Colin Stetson, Hereditary

Best Song

Shallow has won every single precursor award and multiple Grammys. Don’t get clever and try to outthink the room. This is a done deal.

Will Win: Shallow, A Star is Born Should Win: Shallow, A Star is Born Could Win: All the Stars, Black Panther (but not really) Should Have Been Nominated: Thom Yorke “Suspirium”

Production Design

This is a two film race between Black Panther and The Favourite. Hannah Beachler has already made Oscar history by being the first black nominee in this category and Panther’s Wakanda is a landmark piece of cinematic world building. The Favourite is a beautiful film, but the cinematography far outpaces the Set Design in terms of originality and personality. This category has historically honoured period pieces from eras both real and imagined. Since 2000, there has been only one contemporaneous winner (La La Land) and two wins for films set in the future (Fury Road and Avatar). Every other of the 15 winners have been films predominately set in the past. I expect The Favourite to continue that tradition.

Will Win: The Favourite Should Win: Black Panther Could Win: Black Panther Should Have Been Nominated: Cold War

Best Makeup & Hairstyling

This category has always been a fickle mess and this year is no different. The Favourite was not included on the Short List, let alone nominated and presumptive frontrunner Black Panther was also snubbed. Mary Queen of Scots is this year’s mandatory period piece, while Border is the third film from Sweden to be nominated in the last four years, whatever that means. Both films appear to be pacing far behind Vice, which hopes to join The Iron Lady, Dallas Buyer’s Club and Darkest Hour by scoring a win for both Makeup and a lead performance. Much like those films, Vice’s win can be seen as another way for Academy voters to honour a critically praised performance from an industry vet twice in one night.

Will Win: Vice Should Win: Vice Could Win: Border Should Have Been Nominated: The Favourite & Black Panther

Best Costume

In the last decade The Artist is the only film that has won both Best Costume and Picture, so this is not a strong predictive category. Sandy Powell has been nominated 6 times in the last 9 years, including 2018’s The Favourite and Mary Poppins Returns. The last time she was double nominated was in 2015 for Carol and Cinderella. That year she lost to Fury Road. 2018 feels eerily similar. The Favourite takes Carol’s place, as both are critical darlings with multiple above the line nominations, while Poppins, like Cinderella, is a Disney vault staple just happy to be invited. Black Panther, much like Fury Road, is a critical Sci-fi, action hit that captured the pop culture zeitgeist and is nominated for Best Picture. Ruth Carter’s costumes in Black Panther have been a focal point since its release back in February and, as evidenced by 7 Nominations and SAG win, the film has not lost any momentum going into the Oscars.

Will Win: Black Panther Should Win: Black Panther Could Win: The Favourite Should Have Been Nominated: Crazy Rich Asians

[mastcomm]

Best Coast Almost Had No Future. Now Everything Has Changed.

LOS ANGELES — Bethany Cosentino can be eerily good at predicting the future.

She wrote the song “Boyfriend” before the guy in question took on that role. She released a track with the lyric “What a year this day has been” in 2012, well before our 24/7 news hellscape took hold. She spoke out about sexual misconduct in the music industry in 2016, a year before #MeToo took off. And she wrote a new song called “Everything Has Changed” about quitting drinking and finding happiness 14 months before she took action.

“Deep down inside, it was a life that I wanted — it was just not one that I thought I would be able to live,” said Cosentino, the 33-year-old singer, guitarist and songwriter for the indie rock duo Best Coast. She added that in an early version of a mission statement about the group’s fourth studio album, “Always Tomorrow,” due Feb. 21, she explained her seemingly divine powers in the lingo of the feminist internet: “As it turns out, I am indeed a very powerful witch.”

With that said, she paused to dip a thin brush into a small ceramic palette. Cosentino was spending a December afternoon decorating an oversized mug at Color Me Mine, a pottery-painting shop with an outpost minutes from her childhood home, steps from the since-closed record store where she’d first discovered the Blink-182 albums that inspired her to take up the guitar.

“If you had told me at one point in my life my hobbies would have been like, talking about my life over Color Me Mine, I would’ve been like, ew, that’s not true,” she said and laughed. “I’ve never been happier.” She shaped a large “S” for Scorpio in black, a homage to the so-called Stussy doodle.

On the topic of botched prognostications, Cosentino also didn’t foresee that the very qualities that made her such an appealing rock star over the past decade — her openness about her life in lyrics, her availability on social media, her seemingly cavalier attitude about her vices — were simultaneously causing her to unravel. “Always Tomorrow,” a powerhouse rock record with a sharp perspective and loads of hooks, is a document of an artist stitched whole again. It’s also the sound of an invigorated band rejecting the idea that the greatest music comes from tortured roots.

When Best Coast — Cosentino and the guitarist and bassist Bobb Bruno, 46, a friend from the Los Angeles scene — released its first album, “Crazy for You,” in 2010, it arrived with a sonic fingerprint: chiming guitars, gobs of reverb, girl-group grooves, vocals delivered with a casual affect. With the producer Jon Brion, the duo wiped away a layer of haze on its follow-up, the 2012 LP “The Only Place,” and spread its sound out further on “California Nights” in 2015.

Cosentino is what the “Always Tomorrow” producer Carlos de la Garza calls “one of the greatest singers I’ve ever recorded.” He described her “rich tone” in a phone interview as “a classic type of voice, almost like a Patsy Cline” in an indie rock slipcover. But an outspoken mob always seemed to be challenging the band in its early days. Best Coast’s songs weren’t all lyrical love letters to California — or weed, or Cosentino’s beloved ginger cat, Snacks — but the idea that the group was beholden to a guiding aesthetic and a thematic shtick stuck to them like sap.

Female musicians don’t just get asked a lot of questions about being women in bands; they face an outsized amount of verbal abuse. Best Coast’s rise coincided with the growth of social media as a marketing tool and omnipresent force. Cosentino was very online, and very sensitive to the digital daggers piercing her music, her personal life and her looks.

“I was so good at acting like I don’t care what you think of me, but deep down, I read every review, I read every comment, I cared so much,” she said. “And I believed those things. Like if somebody said, ‘This girl’s music is mediocre,’ I was like, oh, I’m a mediocre human. I should lock myself in my room for five days.”

Bruno cited the snarky and now defunct blog Hipster Runoff as emblematic of the era’s freewheeling fire hose of negativity. “There was a lot of misogynistic and really wrong, hateful stuff that site would put out there, and yet it was popular,” he said in a phone interview. “It still upsets me.”

The story Cosentino wanted to tell on “California Nights” five years ago was of maturity and evolution, of demons conquered and ladyboss status achieved. That wasn’t exactly accurate. While contemplating the lettering on her mug, she quoted the lovably loose-moraled “Seinfeld” character George Costanza to explain her personal relationship to the truth at that time: “It’s not a lie if you believe it.”

She added: “And literally the entirety of my 20s, that was my M.O.”

During the five-year gap between “California Nights” and “Always Tomorrow,” Best Coast toured with Wavves, the band led by Cosentino’s boyfriend at the time, Nathan Williams, as well as with the pop-punk juggernaut Paramore. The duo released a children’s album, and served as the house band on “What Just Happened??! With Fred Savage,” a parody of TV after-show programs.

Cosentino’s very public relationship with Williams, whom she said she has “nothing but respect for,” made her a tabloid figure for the Stereogum set. (They shared a Spin cover in 2012.) She said it was hard to navigate a “relationship that was at times very unhealthy” while “feeling like my identity was so tied into it.”

Outside of it, she remained a public figure in indie rock, rallying behind women who accused the music publicist Heathcliff Berru of sexual misconduct in 2016 (he apologized for “inappropriate” behavior), and appearing on “The Daily Show” to discuss sexism in the music industry: “I literally was sitting there being like, how did I get here and how did I become the spokesperson for this?” (She took Xanax before the show taped, “which wasn’t smart,” she realizes now.) She later wrote an op-ed about misconduct, revealing that a family member assaulted her when she was a child.

When she wasn’t on tour, destructive patterns awaited. “My self-care at the time was like, oh I just get really [expletive] up and watch Bravo,” she said. (She still watches Bravo, sober, for the record.) She was blacking out often, “mixing a lot of things that shouldn’t have been mixed,” she said, “to the point where I’m like, really lucky that I’m still alive.” On the advice of her best friend since childhood, Cosentino returned to therapy, but kept some things secret. She was abusing her prescriptions. She was burying feelings. “I knew if I said certain things out loud, I would have to address them,” she said.

And for the first time, the prolific songwriter was creatively paralyzed: “I would sit and try to write and nothing would come out.” She ultimately broke down and asked Bruno if he would send over tracks for her to write to, something she’d never requested before.

Bruno, a longhaired, chilled-out musician with omnivorous musical tastes — inspirations for “Always Tomorrow” include Avril Lavigne, Kool & the Gang, White Lion and the Spinanes — said he didn’t fear the worst: “I have the utmost faith and belief in Bethany.” Four of the tracks he sent ended up on the album.

The first one became “Graceless Kids,” a song anchored by a chugging riff with glimmers of ’80s pop-metal. Lyrically, it’s a message to Cosentino’s fans, who need “a hero not a wreck,” and it includes a spoken-word section that both thrilled her and thoroughly freaked her out. “My fear was that it was going to sound like when Taylor Swift does it,” she said. “When I recorded it in the studio, I made everyone leave.”

The music was inching along while Cosentino’s Instagram was filling with images of wine glasses and Coronaritas, but she started to crave change. “I had friends that had quit drinking, and I would look at them and be like, how did you do that?” One of them, Jennifer Clavin from the band Bleached, had likewise manifested her sobriety in song before it happened, and became instrumental in Cosentino’s journey.

“It’s almost like we subconsciously know the lifestyle we’re living is really unhealthy and self-harming and we want to get out, but we aren’t ready to fully accept that that’s what we need to do,” Clavin said in a phone interview, noting how easily the music industry facilitates and glorifies drinking and drug use. “Beth is such a huge inspiration to me,” she added. “She knows what she wants and is willing to go for it.”

Playing older songs on the Paramore tour, Cosentino gained an awareness of the pain in her own music. “I remember listening to my lyrics and thinking to myself like, why are you still doing this if you’re so miserable?” Not long after she returned, she woke up after a friend’s birthday party, hung over and bawling, and says she hasn’t had a drink or taken a drug since.

Bruno recalled that their conversation about it was brief. “She was just like, I’m not going to do any of that stuff anymore,” he said. “I was like, O.K., cool. And that was it.” Writing sober didn’t hold Cosentino back; it helped her break out of a creative lull: “Being awake to everything in such a clear way is so [expletive] crazy.”

The producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Paramore, M83), an early “Always Tomorrow” collaborator, described the duo’s unique working relationship as an “easy coexistence.” “It’s almost like Bethany and Bobb are two halves of one person” in the studio, he said in a phone interview. He explained that the pair’s goals for the new album were to avoid rehashing the past, and to “honor their influences without it ever seeming pastiche or too on the nose.”

Part of Cosentino’s enduring charm is her willingness to reveal her inspirations and gab about pop culture. Her current obsession? The anthemic band White Reaper. Lana Del Rey, who invited Cosentino to share the stage last year? “Literally the nicest person I’ve ever met.”

You can hear dashes of everything Cosentino absorbs on “Always Tomorrow,” an album about looking to the future while stealing enough glances at the past to stay on track. There’s crisp pop-punk (“Different Light”), spacey fuzz rock (“Used to Be”), a song about Snacks (“Rollercoaster”). And yes, Fleetwood Mac is still a touchstone.

While the lyrics lean toward the earnest, Cosentino did allow herself a wink on “Everything Has Changed,” rhyming “lazy crazy baby” as a nod to the doubters who have dismissed her writing as repetitive.

Being anything but brutally honest wasn’t an option. “I realized if I didn’t tell this story, I’d be lying to people,” she said. “I would just be doing exactly what I was doing in the past, which was putting on an act and pretending like I didn’t give a [expletive].” Success looks different to Cosentino now, too. When she bought her new house, she downsized to something “super teeny.” She traded in her Mercedes for a Subaru.

Nearly four hours after her mug odyssey began, she carefully applied a series of dots (her signature), then thrust out her hands. “My tattoos are a perfect example of where I used to be and where I am now,” she said. One finger displays “trust no one.” On her other hand, there’s “let it go” and “surrender.”

“So it’s fully like old me, new me,” she said. “But they still both exist.” And she doesn’t plan to remove any of them.

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[geeksrs545]

American Horror Story: Cult Explained (and Why It Is The Best Season Yet)

Our world is in ruin. To look around on a local and global scale and come to any other conclusion seems foolhardy. We are a people on the verge of extinction due to the terrible choices we've made up to this point. And with that feeling, a sense of dead seems to be always hanging over everyone's head now. Hell, just this week a shitload of people got shot at a country concert, if you don't think THIS is hell, I am curious what your version looks like.

The reason I say that is this season of American Horror Story has done something very brave and timely. Skewing ANY supernatural elements, they went for a show (American Horror Story: Cult) that plays off the fears of modern America while also sort of satirizing the idea of whole country living in fear (which is what many of us are).

Whereas past seasons threw ghosts and possession and killer nurse twins at us, this season is simply a sort of satirical photograph of Trump's America. A world unhappy with how it is being ruled and convinced that this is the end of the world as we know it (which it is, but what the hell can you do about it other than accept it?). The fact is, American Horror Story Cult has been a very real, creepy, and honest ride up to now, and for those reasons, not only is pertinent to the life we are all living, but it shows us just how scared into submission we have become.

On top of that, it also goes so far as to hint that maybe, just maybe, that crippling fear we feel might just be justified, making it one of the more unique and interesting seasons of AHS yet. This is not the season to come to if you want vampires and rape-gimps. This is the season you come to if you want a show that looks eerily like the America you are living in, right now, in 2017. American Horror Story season 7 is our life, right now, or at least pretty damn close to it.

Side-note, yes Sarah Paulson is INCREDIBLY annoying the first half of this season, but that insanityis what she is supposed to be playing off of, and just you wait to see where her character goes because the payoff is going to be crazy mind-blowing.

A Shout Out to Trump Nation

The first thing you see on American Horror Story Cult is a woman (played by Sarah Paulson) LOSING HER SHIT because Trump won the presidency from Clinton. They had me right there, for the simple reason that, for the first time, a season of American Horror Story was based on current, real life.

Don't get me wrong, all past seasons have been partly based on things that supposedly (and actually) did happen, but AHS Cult was dealing with the America we are in while we are watching it. Not many shows have the balls to straight up call out an election's results as apocalyptic, but to show the political fallout and social fallout between friends and then to use that separation people have right now (rights vs. lefts) as a jumpoff point for the horror on this season was genius.

So just what IS the horror of this season, and what makes it so spectacular?

Well, for one, you have a.

A Gaggle of Killer Clowns (And That Is Always Creepy-Fun)

Imagine for a moment, you are out shopping late-at-night for some last minute things in an empty grocery store, and suddenly the lights flicker. When they come back, in the store are roughly ten people dressed up as clowns and other terrifying things, skateboarding around you, throwing bottles of wine at you, trying to grab you and whisper in your ear. You are freaking out, screaming for help and nothing is happening. Suddenly, lights flicker, and they are gone.

You are on the floor screaming, but nothing is there. You try to tell people, but NO ONE believes you and even the cops say there was nothing on the tape other than you freaking out in a grocery store, late at night (even though they won't SHOW you the surveillance tape).

Can you imagine how alone you would feel, how crazy that would drive you? That is what the season is about. To tell you more is to ruin some of the killer (shitty pun intended) twists and turns that unfold during American Horror Story: Cult.

Another thing worth mentioning and something totally unique to this season of AHS, there are.

NO SUPERNATURAL HORROR ELEMENTS THIS SEASON

Yes, the show that had a nun get possessed by Satan himself (Asylum) and had a Halloween episode filled with zombies that was reminiscent of the camp of Evil Dead (Coven) has decided to askew all supernatural elements this season. Meaning, there are no MONSTERS or creatures or ghosts of goblins. This is a show about a society reacting and the polarizing outcome of that, including the personal responses of people involved.

Basically, long and short without spoilers. Trump wins the election. This sets Kai (played by Evan Peters who better get an Emmy this season) off and running on his idea that the country needs to be ruled with fear. That nothing keeps people in line like fear. That being said, using some very unique ways (that are VERY accurate to actual cults, I would know, I just interviewed the last Member of the Heaven's Gate cult, who ALSO get brought into the mix later this season even though I am not supposed to know that) Kai wins the trust of enough people to form his fear cult. That is where the terror begins.

But just the simple fact that a season of American Horror Story (which has had wall-crawling ghosts on it) is not doing ANYTHING Supernatural takes guts for a show built on the supernatural. Truth is, you don't need that shit for it to be scary. Right now, our lives are scarier than any whack-ass Paranormal Activity film where someone gets their sheets pulled off.

AHS: Cult is horror in the realest sense, which is why it is so great. This shit COULD happen.

Perfect Satire of Post-Election America

The other underlying thing about this season that I find enthralling is the fact that it takes who we are right now, on social media, at political rallies, on news footage, and cranks that dial up to ten. This is not primarily a show telling us we are screwed now because Donald Trump is our president. Cult is SHOWING US the only way things will really go when we, as humans, over-react or flip out. No good comes from panic, in other words.

AHS: Cult is playing off a fear that is already alive and well in post 9/11 America. The idea that there is no safety anymore. The idea that, from schools to concerts to churches and polling stations, nowhere is safe anymore, and that is true, sadly. Believe it or not, the fear we all constantly fear now between the barrage of bad news from our Facebook feeds to how much we gorge on the TV news now, this show plays off that, and plays off that superbly.

What if, instead of a cult focusing on an entire nation, they turned their actions essentially toward driving one (already crazy) woman even nuttier? Imagine if a group targeted ONE PERSON and slowly, every person that person knew played along and just did all they could to drive that ONE person to the very edge of madness and suicide?

Can you imagine how wholly unsettling yet wholly possible that would be? THAT is AHS Cult.

It's impressive stuff considering this is American Horror Story season 7. 7 years in and still bringing wickedly unique ideas and concepts to the table, you can't be mad at that when most shows are known for just recycling the same shit, year after year.

They NAILED The Cult Part

A big part of this season of AHS is watching the Kai character (blue-haired and charismatic as hell) slowly bring more and more people into the 'cult', and the way he does this is remarkably true-to-life. As in every season, this season of AHS did a bunch of homework and got the cult thing JUST RIGHT.

A cult leader is whoever you need him or her to be. They find someone who is empty, angry, ignored, and they offer them everything their life is missing. They offer to fill all the 'holes' (holes being another thematic visual to the season, though it is more a metaphor than anything else). Seeing the way Kai won over every person differently by giving them what they needed was a sight to behold.

A cult takes people who feel alone and powerless and finds them a group to put them in and pretends to give them a voice. The reality is, a cult member is a sheep, period. They do not think for themselves. They blindly follow the leader like a God, until the cracks start to show. This cult will play out no differently. They were doomed from the start, but aren't all good cults doomed?

It is also cool the way we see Evan Peters As Kai channel all the cult personalities we know as Americans. From the charisma and you go do it while my hands stay clean aspect of Charlie Manson, to the gentle way he acts like what he is making them do is necessary and will fix the world, what blows your mind about this season of AHS is the fact that everyone Kai is during this season represents one of the major cult leaders we all know of from history, from Jim Jones to the aforementioned Manson.

Also, sorry to make a prediction here, but if the show is running all the American cults into one, that means this group will DEFINITELY go out Heaven's Gate, Jonestown style at the end of the season, suicide style, together (probably with black shoes on, no joke.

Ending this season any other way would be a fail, but only time will tell if this prediction plays out.

Oh, and have I mentioned.

Evan Peters is UNREAL

Evan Peters who plays Kai, the cult leader who is everything to everyone at a time when they need it most is, in a word, sublime. The kid pretty much steals every season (Roanoke being an exception), but as Kai, he is something else. You sit at home watching and even though you know he is a fucking loon put out there to represent all the extremists in the country right now, he will say some things that even you, as a viewer, will agree with (even if you disagree with 99% of his teachings, which the sanest of us will).

Crazy has never been this charismatic, and he owns the season. Imagine if Kurt Cobain and Johnny Rotten had a baby with Charlie Manson and you understand what you get this season with Peters. He goes from being a skinny, punk-looking kid to scenes when his personality is larger-than-life and fills the screen. It is a sublime performance that Peters loses himself in, and in the process, we get caught up and lose ourselves in it, too.

And it's key to remember, he is not a demon or monster or possessed. He just represents a small part of the country that thinks all this shit that is going down right now is okay. In many ways, it is almost fun to think of Kai like the Joker (as in Batman's Joker). From the strings of wet-colored hair hanging in his eyes to the feeling of anarchy that follows him like storm clouds, you can tell he feeds off of adding chaos into the mix, just like The Joker did. He is that one kid you sat next to in school you kinda scared you cuz he always wore a trenchcoat and talked about guns. He is the one guy at the poll you KNOW is gonna vote the wrong way and send the world spinning into Hell. He is the punk ass kid who looks harmless for the most part until he opens his mouth, at which point, people listen and act.

He IS the heartbeat of season 7 of American Horror Story, this being the most realistic of them all so far.

Where It Is All Heading

I am telling you to get on board with this season of American Horror Story for no other reason than it is sort of a snapshot of America right now, minus the clowns to be afraid of (as we are also the clowns in this example).

But the real reason I think people should be watching AHS: Cult is because you know what? Maybe we could learn something from it and whatever tragedy unfolds for these people, maybe we still have time to keep it from actually happening to us.

Or maybe we should all just buy some clown masks and play the other side. I know I'm ready.

You might also like The Best Horror on Netflix for Halloween 2017

[blaisebambini]

FILMS 14-23

14. Perfect Strangers, Paolo Genovese

I believe this is the first full foreign film I’ve watched with subtitles, and I’m quite happy that it is. I usually get irritated when technology, particularly cellphones, are depicted as inimical objects. There’s always a paranoia that I’m being subjected to propaganda geared towards retrograde progress, yet this film deals with the issue in a different light. It presents the phone as an accepted element of society, not something to be rallied against, while maintaining an ominous quality around it. It comments on the abuse of its aid in the way that we can become slaves to little black boxes. We entrust our entire selves to them. It’s a matter of checking oneself in the perspective of the extent of damage that the worst case scenario can produce upon its unravelling. It’s sad how we can get complacent in pouring more of ourselves int o the recesses of our phone, rather than actually spitting it out and dealing with the consequences. There was also a very clear eclipse motif, which I almost found too blatant and subsequently cheap, but the way they played on the concept of an eclipse (passing and the moon becoming normal again) redeemed it. The movie was paced really well, the dissolution of all their relationships taking place in the span of a dinner made it feel like an inconspicuous weight was slowly setting on your shoulders until it suddenly dropped at its peak.

15. The Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos

I DON’T THINK I CAN FIX MY NOTES FOR THIS ONE, BUT IT’S REALLY GREAT. IT’S A CONTENDER FOR FAVOURITE FILM IN 2016:

Bi sexual several operational problems There are no half sizes for shoes

Revert to animals if you don't find a suitable match Second chance but restrictions Aversion to being single Simulated or arranged controlled Perfectly matched and having similarities

Tudor Phoenix

Beautiful

Ruin relationships show how unmatched they were Love is blind

16. Nerve, Ariel Schulman & Herny Joost

I’m writing this in 2017, forgive me, but I still think of this film fondly. Upon watching the trailer, I though to myself, “This seems fun and like a one-time joyride type of film, I want to watch this.” It has proven itself to be more than that. Theses one of the few movies that I would be happy to watch again. The plot, as interesting as it is, also contains substance. In the frenzy of the game, it spoke to the tendencies of social media, namely the way people can get sucked into all this stimulus that appear on their feed, living vicariously through other people or the way some are dictated by online reactions, projecting images of themselves that are then shaped by the audience’s reception—both paths leading into the same endless black hole. Throughout the film, these things were represented very cleverly in the visuals. The one that struck me the most was the image of all figures in the shot being a shapeless black, allowing  the lit phone screens to dominate, in the same way that people can just hide behind the anonymity of online personas and the cold indifference of typed words or human actions filtered through non-living mechanisms. The entire film was held together by the tension and stress that it captured precisely. I’m still struck with the resonance of the film and its themes, but certainly a fraction of its success can be attributed to the soundtrack, which very accurately represented the current time period without resorting to mainstream music. Also, the cinematography was on point, very fast-paced, yet well focused (in terms of what the eye is drawn to or conveying/ representing the main ideas and elements in a particular scene), and the color grading was very stark, the colors were neon and very clean. AND THE ROMANTIC PLOT WAS CUTE TOO, BY THE WAY.

17. Music & Lyrics, Marc Lawrence

This is one of my favourite films from my early childhood. Apart from The Little Mermaid, this is the first film I remember thoroughly enjoying to the point that I would gladly watch over and over.

18. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, David Yates

I was honestly very skeptical walking into the movie because I was scared it would ruin the entire franchise. I was afraid that its aim was to garner profit, especially with the five succeeding movies already being planned. Nonetheless, all I wanted to do in the moments after the end credits scrolled up was rewatch the movie or better yet, watch the next film. The film had such an excellent opening montage of newspapers. It was a really good way to get the audience focused by projecting familiarity, establishing the imminence of Grindelwald and dark magic, as well as pointing out that it was an international issue given the foreign language newspapers featured in it. I’ll admit, I entertained a few nostalgic tears because I finally got to see the entire world again, the world where everyone carried around wands and moved with corresponding grace. The characters in themselves are endearing in true Harry Potter style. They were perfectly clear and commanded authority independently, forming immediate bonds with the audience. What I enjoyed most was that the film took a turn from Harry Potter, creating an entirely different, and considerably darker, story. The obscurus, although a new concept, fit logically and congruously into the Wizarding World. The entire film with the integration of the beasts and acting was great. One thing I wish was in one of the books is the manner of execution in the pool that looks like a giant pensieve. That was eerily real. I like how you can see how much image quality and cinematography have improved through the years because although this is set in the 1920s and characters and settings are adorned correspondingly, it looks and feels much more modern compared to the first Harry Potter film. SO EXCITED FOR THE NEXT ONE HEHE <3

19. Moana, Ron Clements

I actually watched this in the cinema twice and I’m still in awe of the score and animation, especially of the water. I liked how all of the songs had a distinct voice and tone that catered to the story more than just entertainment. Speaking of which, I didn’t know the Rock could sing; I was pleasantly surprised to hear him singing “You’re welcome,” something he could definitely get away with. My favourite was Shiny, sung by Tamatoa. It was such good villain song, and it acted as a great anti-thematic song. The song and its accompanying animation were glorious digs at falling into a dark pit and choosing wealth and external satisfaction over the ultimate message of following what your heart is calling you to do, going beyond your comfort zone or the “reef” or status quo you’ve been brought up hardly knowing you’ve been hedged in until it’s almost too late. I liked how they reconciled that idea with the very Ithaca theme of the journey being more important than the destination because you will always end up back home in a way. It’s interesting how the entire story had been a fluke, something linear with a simple alternative used to drive home these two themes, as the god Teka had actually been a bitter, dried out Tahiti lacking her heart. It’s also real in the sense that Maui had done all these things yearning for love, but knew he couldn’t stay on the island with Moana and her people. There’s also the question of being the chosen one, of succeeding down the path you thought you had so much faith in.This was a fairly funny film, there was something new in its ability to make remarks about Disney princesses who are next in line and have talking animal friends (and she hadn’t been accompanied by the pig that everyone, I suspect, expected). In that respect, aside from having the film set in Polynesia, they’ve decided to break barriers. It reminds me of the Bechdel test and the conditions that need to be satisfied in order for a character not to be classified as a manic pixie dream girl (my Grade 10 research paper was on how YA fiction—or all well-written fiction—deconstructs the manic pixie dream girl archetype).

As per usual, Disney screens an animated short before the actual film. In this case, I think it supplement the film really well, what with the literal depiction of finding the slightly skewed balance between head and heart.

20. Cafe Society, Woody Allen

The cinematography is great. The emotional build-up, execution, and resonance of the plot were exceedingly satisfying. It was so creatively done, especially the introductory encounter with the hooker to illustrate the naivety and discomfort at being in a foreign environment. The way Vonnie had been backlit and framed with a halo in the early scenes until the image she had been presenting, feeding him with angsty comments on being  disillusioned by Hollywood, fell through and broke the innocence of the film at the point of Bobby’s brother being condemned and executed for his crimes, a connection Bobby had been ignoring. It’s a dreamlike film where they settle into complacency, into the derided “cafe society” and tables turn when Bobby has the pleasure of showing Vonnie around, their minds always on what could have been.

Too bad though, that dream ended with Woody Allen and the cases of child molestation against him. That just makes the film feel almost like a parody, a justification, or a platitude like food once savoury and now only a sour aftertaste of chyme.

21. Miss Stevens, Julia Hart

Nothing great, but I would like to commend the film for being able to do a lot within such a small place and concept. I’ll say this is only memorable because I have a vested interest in the arts and teaching English, but I was struck when one of the students commented on the student teacher relationship and how a lot of communication takes place but they don’t really know each other. There’s also the idea that some institutions restrain expression like school and the intangible boundaries that enclose it, evident when Miss Stevens curses in the car although she had reprimanded the students within the four walls for it. It’s interesting to attempt to fathom the conditions of a situation and why it definitely sounded weird to have Billy call Miss Stevens “Rachel,” how although they weren’t in school, they still were. Also, Miss Stevens mentioned how she was used to “talking at people” and in that moment it made me sad but also something so familiar from Lit Beadle and VP stuff. In addition to this, having the other English teacher explain the allure of an English teacher—someone wiser, inspiring you and telling you what to do. It’s something that sounds so organic, but in this light is very formulaic and I can’t shake that. Of course I want to go into the profession talking about themes and inspiring, but does that leverage from speaking of universal themes and essentially teaching students how to be human take away from the nobility, success, and satisfaction of the career. The film felt pretty ambitious but not cohesive enough. It certainly has compassion and made me think in the moment, but if not for my notes, I would have hardly remembered more than the basic plot.

22. Roman Holiday, William Wyler

Every scene was so interesting and aesthetically pleasing despite the film being devoid of color. The characters were endearing and engaging, and the actors behind them were equally so.

23. Sunday Beauty Queen, Baby Ruth Villarama

It was such a struggle for me to find someone willing to watch this film with me, but it was definitely worth it. I would have felt no resentment had I actually gone to see it alone. I think this was a great conclusion to the position paper I had written this semester. My partner and I had decided to focus on the lack of educational programs provided to kasambahay, branching out into the causes and effects of the issue, the links with the national issue of kasambahay sector being integral parts of the economy yet being treated as second class citizens, and the international issue of OFW stereotyping. One of our last submissions for the Political Science/English for Academic Purposes finals was an AVP that summed up the position paper.

By no means was the issue discussed anything new, yet the film was able to match its gravity without being overwrought. The film found a path into the issue from an unhackneyed angle, enshrining it in the Sunday beauty pageants that take place in Hong Kong. At the thought of the films premise, I was already so close to tears—the simple joys of escaping for a day and being the apples of someone’s eyes for a change. It’s a nice idea to be giving them a little glory, and it is this calm before the storm that serves as a voice for the entire film. The cameras don’t just shut off at the end of the pageants, it follows the domestic workers through the trains bound for their employers homes. In those moments, they’re in liminal states and you feel the heaviness of the situation sinking in as they remove their make-up and try to push back that feeling of being light on their feet from earlier in the day. The film doesn’t romanticise anything, revealing the way some are terminated so quickly, with no mercy for the early hours of the night. Everything is real and candid. The documentary doesn’t even attempt to be poetic or scripted, it’s just that the words coming out of their mouths speak of a greater truth that I don’t believe could have been fully developed if the issue was dealt with in any other way.

As mentioned, the film hadn’t sugar coated anything, at the pageants they would poke fun at the contestants, asking them questions that “agitated” them and edited none of the slightly ineloquent strings of English they had pulled together. With this they also presented a sample of the array of issues all of them put up with because of the strict contractual policies of Hong Kong, particularly the 14-day grace period in between jobs before they are sent back to the Philippines. We are shown the side of the story where they are glorified, they build rapport with accepting families who sometimes even support them on Sundays and consider them part of the family like Mr. Jack and the ballet teacher, but those sit alongside the poor working conditions, harsh regulations, and how they have to take care of other people’s children and sacrifice their time just to support their own. I can’t tell you how many times I teared up during the film. Every one hit hard and made me think about being more compassionate. I used to be bothered by the people loitering in the underpass areas or subways/ making commissions in the streets, thinking them people of no class, but now I understand the frenzy and excitement they're in.

Although the film left me downcast, the documentary itself was balanced out by a very Filipino humor, like “Beauty and the Best, where Best is the les” or the enjoyment people get from watching the contestants perform and the difficulty they have in answering in English. And the bottomline is not that it’s about something as shallow as outward beauty, but giving them the nourishment the inside needs, doing something fun for them that will also benefit other charities.