#yes it's acting but that's an excuse hollywood loves to use when putting young actors in scenes with much older actors

[nutmeggery]

actually I will say something about this:

setting up a romance line but waiting until one of the actors is a freshly legal adult before executing it is creepy, actually, especially when the co-star is 15 years older

[annqbthchse]

Agathas casting + Sofia Wylie

hi I just chugged 2 redbulls, ranted to my friend for like an hour about this because the amount of absolute disrespect and just plain racism i've seen about the casting infuriates me. so here are some of the comments i've seen and my opinion/reaction to them (this is literally just a passionate brain explosion done quite late at night -10pm-  and vv quickly so I apologise if some points are missing/worded weirdly!!)

“she isn’t how she looks in the books” || “i’m all for diversity but [🙄] why did they make the pale one a POC” || “it doesn’t make sense for agatha to be played by a black actress”

for those saying it doesn't make sense for agatha to be plated by a black women,,,  what are you talking about!!! IT ACTUALLY DOES THO???? if anything it makes more sense and adds more weight to her storyline and character arc! her entire arc is realising she has been beautiful ALL ALONG. its just her low self esteem and the impossibly and very eurocentric high beauty standards that's she's up against at the school for good & in Gavaldon keeping her down. having agatha being played by a WOC is perfect because that is something we unfortunatly have to face on a daily basis. it makes for a wider range of people to see agatha and her experiences and be able to relate to someone whose place in society mirrors their own. and isn’t that great??? SHOULDN’T WE WANT THAT????yes. we should.

as a WOC myself, when i found out the news I literally called my friend at like 8am to be like “HOLY SHIT :DDDD” its exciting!! i know that a lot of people loved agatha because they could relate to her and that's great! but you still have that!! book agatha isn’t going anywhere. she's still there! like i've said before, Sofia as agatha allows MORE people to be able to relate to her character. This is an amazing decision and these kind of changes in the adaptation should be welcomed and encouraged. i

and also you can’t just pick and choose what characters can/cannot be black. that literally makes 0 sense and isn’t how it works. having agatha - one of the films lead-  as a WOC is a big deal and suggesting that instead have the side characters have diverse actors infuriates me. why does it have to be a side character??? it makes as much sense for agatha to be black as it does any other side character and sofia is perfect!

ALso Soman (who first published SGE in 2013) probably just used whatever beauty standards at the time and ran with it. but hey, it's literally 2020 and if this year has taught us anything it's that times are changing! casting a diverse lead for a book that has a predominantly white cast reflects that change! its great! tbh before the casting news, i was very apprehensive about the movie because of some of the problematic themes and events that occur but this casting is the step in the right direction! it shows that at least on some level the people making the movie are all aware of its wrongdoings and adapting the movie to better fit and reflect a wider audience in 2020.which is what we all (or at least should) want!!

“She doesnt have straight black hair so she can’t possibly play agatha”

first of all her hair is gorgeous!!! and does it really matter that she wont have straight hair??? will you die if one fictional character doesn't have straight hair?? no. you won't. and she shouldn’t have to straighten, use relaxers or wear a wig to play the role. hollywood has a long standing history of making diverse (predominantly Black!!) actresses having to fit Eurocentric beauty standards LIKE having straight hair. and using relaxes can also be a really traumatising and degrading experience for black women and its unfair for people demand that she can only play agatha if she “fixes” her hair. and yea again it has some very racist undertones. but dudes this is HAIR we’re talking about people. it's such a stupid finicky detail to hyperfocus on that won’t even affect the plot or the movie in any big way. I for one would love to see Sofia play Agatha with her beautiful, gorgeous, natural hair!

we all have our different interpretations and visions of agatha and that's ok! but with that and the movie you have to be realistic. there is no way they could’ve casted the ‘perfect’ agatha. even if they did stick to her book descriptions. you can't please everyone and people will always have opinions and something to say about it

“I can’t see her as agatha because of her previous disney roles”

bruh it's called acting. and you know another famous actress known for the classic disney roles and is now an emmy award winning actress?? ZenDAYA. yea. stfu. we haven’t even seen them in their full costumes or anything, hell this is really the first big information that we’ve had! give it some time,,, lets see the rest of the cast, the costumes, the sets and THEN decide if “she's not my agatha” c’mon guys!! she's insanely talented (a triple threat at 16!!!) and criticising her casting of agatha based on one photo - which literally says nothing about her performance- does have some severe racist undertones no matter how many times you try to defend yourself using the classic “i’m not racist but-” excuse.  

The people who casted her are literal professionals. they do this for a LIVING and have been for ages. SO ofc they would’ve casted the perfect person for the role. these are the same people who casted Harry Potter. pls just have faith in the process. they don’t want the movie to be a flop any more than we do. they picked her for a reason and i'm sure that in time we will see the exact same reasons they do

“I wanted asian agatha so i’m very disappointed in this casting”

I get it, I do but honestly,, c’mon dude A WIN FOR ONE OF US IS A WIN FOR ALL!! all minorities are all severely underrepresented in hollywood rn and idk about y’all but i’m taking this as a massive win for all us POC regardless of whether she's black, brown or asian.

“Sofias too beautiful” || “Agatha's supposed to be ugly >:(”

Agatha has literally been “beautiful all along”. the problem isn’t that she's ugly, its just that she's had impossibly low self esteem and doesn't see herself that way because of the impossibly high (mostly eurocentric) beauty standards she's held against. and with the ugly casting??? you really want them to put out a casting call specifically calling for someone ugly?? what would that even entail?? dudes The Lord of the Rings TV show tried that shit here in NZ a lil bit ago and it did NOT go down well lmao. you can’t just cast an ‘ugly’ person. also ‘hollywood’ ugly is still hot (e.g She's all That ) so idk what you guys were expecting????

pls remember Sofia is literally 16 (!!!!), she's so young and must’ve been SO excited to have gotten this role!! and if we can see all these comments, she definitely can so just be kind. ok

anyways,,,

Sofia is absolutely gorgeous and the perfect agatha and i’m very excited to see more of her ❤️

[recurring-polynya]

Bollywood Review Time!

Today, I am going to talk about Om Shanty Om, a very good movie that was Not For Me.

Let me back up. People recommend stuff to me a lot and I try to watch it and talk about it, and I always feel bad when I don’t like it. This one was recommended to me by my friend @serene-faerie​ I want to make it very clear that you, reader, may like this film very much! It was a strange perfect storm of Things I Don’t Care For, and I actually rather enjoyed the experience of picking apart what I didn’t like about from what I did, because honestly, I am always interested in the ways stories are told and what stories say about themselves.

Cut for spoilers and also length

First off the bat-- this is not a film for the Bollywood beginner. It’s sort of a meta-narrative, with a ton of cameos from famous stars and jokes about Bollywood tropes and directors and such. There’s a ten-minute dance number in the middle that’s just famous people showing up to get down and everybody cheers every time someone new rolls in. I have only actually seen a handful of Bollywood films, mostly made after this one (it was made in 2007), and I could tell that there were a ton of gags and references that flew over my head. I got the sense, both from watching it, and from reading reviews, that this was all very well done and funny, I just didn’t have the proper frame of reference to appreciate it.

The main character, Om, is played by Shah Rukh Khan, an incredibly famous Bollywood star whom I had never heard of before watching this film. In the beginning, Om is a somewhat-bumbling movie extra, dreaming of stardom, flipping his hair, and falling in love with a beautiful starlet on a billboard. I… was not taken in by his charms. I feel like I really missed out by not knowing who Shah Rukh Khan was ahead of time. That was sort of an interesting thought to me-- that a famous actor brings the good will of all his previous roles to a movie with him, and that it was very interesting to me to watch a film stripped of that context. I was literally shocked when halfway through the film, he rips off his shirt and had killer abs, I was absolutely not expecting it.

The deal of the movie is that, through a series of coincidences, Om meets Shanti, the actress of his dreams (from the billboard). She is played by Deepika Padukone, who I fell for immediately. She is gorgeous and had a ton of charisma. This movie seems like it’s going to be a love story, but it really isn’t. Shanti is charmed by Om’s sweetness, but she’s already in a doomed secret marriage with a scumbag director, Mukesh, who ends up murdering her when she wants him to publicly acknowledge her, which is kinda time sensitive, because she is pregnant. Mukesh had planned to have her star in a lavish movie spectacle called Om Shanti Om, but when she forces his hand, he burns the set down with her locked inside. Om witnesses all this; he tries to save her and dies in the process.

Om happens to die in the same hospital where a famous director’s child is being born, and he is reincarnated as the baby, and grows up to have the life he always wanted-- that of a Bollywood superstar. His name is still Om, but his nickname is O.K., so I am going to call him that to distinguish between 1977 Om and 2007 Om. He meets Mukesh again who is now a super-successful Hollywood producer. O.K. gets all the memories of his past life back, and decides to Get Revenge by proposing to do a remake of Om Shanti Om. He finds a wanna-be actress, Sandy, who looks exactly like Shanti, and has her haunt the set in order to make Mukesh think he is going crazy (and maybe also confess? It’s not a terribly clear-cut plan). You might think that Sandy is the reincarnation of Shanti, but Shanti’s ghost shows up in the grand finale of the film, so I guess she wasn’t?? You also might expect O.K. and Sandy to have some romantic feelings, but they really don’t, and in fact, O.K. is actually pretty mean to Sandy, even though she is extremely sweet and I don’t see how anyone could possibly be mean to her.

The movie is lush. The costumes are elaborate, the sets are lavish, the dance numbers are many and long. There is not a single scene without an off-screen fan to dramatically tousle the actors’ hair. I actually rather liked the last act of the movie where they were gaslighting Mukesh and it was over-the-top, scenery-chewing, Hamlet--play-with-in-a-play madness. A chandelier falls on someone. A lot of the end doesn’t even make a lot of sense or exist in any sort of linear time, cutting between the film-within-a-film and dance numbers and what’s “really happening” and I really had no problem with any of this. I actually really liked the amount of meta that was happening and the breakdown of boundaries, and I found the end to be reasonably satisfying.

So what didn’t I like about it?

The entire film relies on you being charmed by Om and I did not care for him. We all have this set of trope personality types that we enjoy and fall for, and “young person who dreams of making it big on the stage/screen” is a huge swipe left for me. Give me a stolid second-in-command who has been stationed at an ice wall for 30 years to protect his homeland. A incredibly tired dude muttering “fuck” as he wades into a swamp to fight a bog zombie, because who else is gonna? My dude turn-ons include duty and self-sacrifice and really good posture. I couldn’t watch Naruto because everyone spouted off about “their dreams” too much, and I thought Om should have cut his losses and gotten a real job. I am who I am.

There’s a weird fine line between “meta,” that is, stories about storytelling and presentation and media, and movies about being in love with making movies. I like the former a lot and I do not care for the latter one bit. I did stage crew for a high school production of 42nd Street and I have a very distinct memory of thinking “this is a play about putting on a play. Why on earth would anyone who is not an actor want to watch this?” I also hate books where the main character is a writer (yes, Stephen King, this is a call-out). I also hate biopics about musicians and actors. I honestly do not care about the craft, and the “magic of cinema” has never been a thing I have found remotely compelling. 

What I love about reincarnation storylines is the period where the characters recognize the feelings and memories that are tied to their previous lives-- where they see someone and can feel their old emotions for this person, but without knowing why. This is where I live. I eat this with a spoon. I want this to prolong the emotional burn, because the characters don't know what are their own feelings and what comes from their past lives, and that there are conflicts that must be resolved for both lifetimes. Alternatively, you can also use a reincarnation storyline to skip the emotional burn entirely, by just having the character “get all their memories back in one fell swoop.” This is… the opposite of what I want. This is what Om Shanty Om does. I felt deeply cheated.

Relatedly, the entire theme of the movie was "When you want something badly, the whole universe conspires to give to you", a sentiment I wholeheartedly disagree with. I love stories about the conflict between agency and destiny, I think this is a really meaty subject, but once again, the movie used it as an excuse to let the characters sit back and do nothing and have a solution to their problems drop into their laps. I am sure you could make an argument for the charm of this viewpoint, but it is not for me.

I like dance numbers all right, but they are not why I watch Bollywood films. This movie is over two hours long and a lot of it was dance numbers. I was very tired of dance numbers by the end. That being said, the titular song was a bop and I had it stuck in my head for days. “Disco of Distress” was my second favorite.

I do not really feel a lot of nostalgia for the late 1970s, which is when the first half of the film takes place. If noisy patterns and kitsch and big winks and goofy hair is your period aesthetic, you will enjoy this part a lot!

Here’s what I did like!

Sunglasses. There were so many good sunnies in this film. So many. A parade of excellent shades.

Deepika Padukone. She is so adorable, for one, and she charmed me in every way that Shah Rukh Khan did not. I loved her both as the melancholy starlet Shanti and the doofy, gum-chewing Sandy, and also the Angry Revenge Ghost at the end. I would say this movie is 75% Om and 25% Shanti, and I would have liked it a lot better if it were the other way around. Sandy had basically no agency whatsoever; the second half of the plot was basically about O.K. getting revenge on Mukush... mostly for himself? I liked that the first half of the movie didn’t make Shanti fall in love with the puppy-like Om just because he was devoted to her, but it would have been a nice reversal if the jaded O.K. had softened toward Sandy more in the second act, and that there had been a bit of a love story to temper the revenge plot.

The idea of the plot. The plot described in words is very cool to me, and there was a period of about 3 minutes in the film when O.K. recognizes Om’s mother when I got real excited about where this was going, and then I realized it wasn’t going where I wanted and was sad again. I think I might have liked it better if the movie started out with O.K. and revealed Om’s story slowly, through flashback, but nothing about this movie catered to my narrative aesthetic, so I eventually gave up with ways of trying to fix it.

Anyway, as I said, I can definitely see how someone could love this movie! If you are a big Bollywood buff and you love dance numbers and silliness and Shah Rukh Khan, I would recommend it in a second! It was strangely almost tailor-made to hit some of my pet peeves, and I was mad because I wanted to like it more than I did.

That’s my review! @serene-faerie​ I hope you still love me even though I didn’t like your movie. I am always trying to expand my movie knowledge and I learned a lot watching this one, and I don’t regret watching it, even though it wasn’t my fave.

[wolfpawn]

I Hate You, I Love You Chapter 2

Previous Chapter

Rating - Mature

Triggers - references to Tom Hiddleston’s work with the #MeToo Movement. That chapter will be tagged accordingly.

authors Note - I have been working on this for the last 3 years, it is currently 180+ chapters long.  

If you wish to be tagged, please let me know.

tags: @sweetkingdomstarlight-blog

Four hours, it had been four hours since his mother left the house to go to Danielle's, but she had yet to return, and her car, and from what he could see into Elle's front garden, hers too, still in the driveways, he assumed neither had gone anywhere.

The time Tom had been in the house had at first been beneficial, allowing him to sort a few things he needed, but after a while, when his mind was allowed to think over his mother's reaction, and that of Elle, he became somewhat annoyed. He received a text from Taylor, stating she was going out shopping with the "squad" for the afternoon, so expect to see loads of pictures, but not to text or ring, it was ‘girl time’. That sort of thing would never have bothered Tom, he did have two sisters after all, but the memory of her getting irked when he did not reply to her text when he finished an exhausting scene in Australia came to the fore of his mind. Taking it all as him being jetlagged, he tried to make some tea. Boiling the kettle, he looked out to his mother’s garden, which was looking great. Diana always loved gardening, but being a single mother with a full-time career never afforded her the opportunity before, now, she claimed half its success was solely based on Danielle’s help, the young woman using her free time to aid his mother, rather than partying or finding herself a boyfriend.

Danielle had moved in next to his mother five years previous from Ireland. It was before the fame of the Avengers, but yet after Thor and War Horse, so he was on the path to fame, she had known the family before the name Hiddleston became internationally known, but being a fan of Marvel, she had known who he was. He had met her for the first time when he rang his mother to collect him from the airport after an audition in the US, and his mother could not make it, so she sent Elle instead, without telling Tom, so she knew who he was, and he did not know who she was. All that met him was a small woman, in a paramedic's uniform, standing beside an emergency vehicle, that he soon learned was supposed to bring an advanced paramedic or doctor to a scene of an accident, something he would have preferred her to tell him at a kitchen table, and not having to calm him after him assuming something had happened his mother at the arrivals door of an airport. The young medic soon made herself a firm part of the Hiddleston household. She aided his mother as best she could, calling to her before every shift to see if she needed anything, and bringing it to her the next morning, since she did the night shifts, she was the one age with Emma, so she and his sister were almost as close as sisters, and if the family wanted to go out for a meal without his niece when Sarah was around, she would call in a shift change and babysit for them, as well as playing chauffeur to him when he would arrive in Suffolk for a few days. Now, it would seem she was not the least bit comfortable around him and had done everything she had as a favour to his mum.

The sound of laughter caught his attention, and leaning onto the balls of his feet, Tom could see the origins of said laughter and it annoyed him. His mother and her neighbour were in the latter’s back garden, picking a few vegetables, clearly comfortable in each others company, even after supposedly spending the last four hours talking, something he had wanted to do with his mother, but she had obviously not wanted to do with him. He opened the window slightly, knowing it was not a gentlemanly thing to eavesdrop, but he felt as though it was justified, seeing as he was not going to get much conversation with anyone otherwise.

“I will make a soup with some tomorrow and drop it over if you’d like.” He heard Elle say.

“Thank you, sweetheart, you are too good.”

“I’ll freeze some as well, and drop a bit to his place when I am in London next week.”

“That’s not necessary darling, besides, I am not sure wasting your time cooking good sturdy home cooked meals is the right thing to do either. I am sure he is on a salad or some sort of craze diet now as well as she is.”

“He looked a little thinner, but that is probably just constant travel playing havoc on him, be nice. It’s the first time he bothered to come home alone since like, when?”

“Christmas.”

“What? Has it been that long? No, yeah, you’re right, in March you went to him in London. Well go in and spend some time with him so, he is only here for a couple of days. Who knows when he’ll have time again?”

“He has time, he just chooses to spend it jetting around the world with her in front of camera’s, honestly, it is like Crufts.”

“Diana!”

“It is, my son is just material for a new excuse for an album and in a year, he will be tarnished to any good women and the laughing stock of every major production company.”

Tom’s eyes widened at what his mother was saying; he had not known her distaste for his life choice could have gone that deep. He could hear the upset in her voice, how it nearly cracked at the end, he would wager she had tears in her eyes.

“It could be worse, she is very pretty, or was, she has a soccer mom haircut now, it looked far prettier when she had it long, or when it was the bleached, greyish blonde, and she is not using him for his money, that’s a good thing.” He heard Elle defend, sort of.

“There are others things worse than taking his money; he can earn more if he gets the work. Tom has a reputation as a serious, yet diverse actor; all he will get by the end of this is one of those stupid shark movies.”

“I actually think they are something of a cult classic, in an ‘it’s so bad, it is brilliant’ kinda way.” Elle half laughed.

“He needs to find himself a well grounded, hard working woman that will keep his head from the clouds and not have him gallivanting around with his nose in the air.”

“He comes from a wealthy background and is privately educated, not exactly grounded.” There was a small silence for a moment. “What? It’s not.”

“You can be too honest sometimes Danielle Hughes.”

“Yeah, well, I prefer to call things as I see them. But yes, going around with what was it, four bodyguards.”

“Five, five useless, attention grabbing fools that shouted ‘look at me, look at me.’ It is Suffolk for goodness sake, what was going to happen here, she gets assaulted by an over eager Cavalier King Charles to throw a ball or get its belly scratched, it was done for attention and attention alone. If you saw what way she acted in the house.”

“I have heard, the girls told me; I also got a play by play from your less than happy granddaughter.”

“What did she say?” There was something akin to fear in Diana’s voice.

“How she has not seen her favourite uncle since Christmas and that he was only allowed play with her in front of camera’s and when the, and I quote ‘princess’ allowed it. That he was not allowed spend time with her, how she only wanted her favourite piggyback-giver to read her the Gruffalo, but it was, and again I quote ‘silly nonsense’.” Elle revealed.

“What?” Diana was enraged, and Tom knew it. He had not realised his niece had felt that way, or that his family were so affected by his decision, but Elle’s revelations were not helping them get passed it, so he decided to put an end to the conversation before it got any worse. He walked to the back door, took a deep breath and opened it.

“Mum?” There was a moment’s silence. “Mum?”

“Yes, Thomas?” ‘Thomas’ her tone was glacial and the use of his full name, something she only did when she was reprimanding him told him he would not get much a reception from her anytime soon.

“Can I come in?” The two gardens were separated by a wooden fence, but since Danielle had been living there, a small gate had been put in. It was still quite high, to give both houses privacy, but easily opened to allow them into each others gardens, something most would thing odd, seeing as the occupier of one house had a Hollywood actor for a son, but it meant Elle was able to check on Diana at any time and Diana could go into Elle’s yard to feed her dog.

He could almost hear the silent looks both women were giving each other on the other side of the divide before he heard the click of the gate that allowed Elle’s side to open, he duplicated the action on his mother’s side and the gate opened, revealing a stern-faced Elle looking at him. “What’s the password?” Her face and tone were not as jovial as usual as she attempted the joke they had always had.

After hearing how the two women had spoken, in truth, he was not in the mood for her. “I need to talk to my mother.”

“That’s over five syllables.” She did not move.

“I am not in a gaming mood.”

“That was Hemsworth’s line, not yours.”

“Please, Elle.” He spoke through gritted teeth.

Pursing her lips, she finally moved out of the way and he walked into her garden, caught for a moment at how it looked. “You changed it.”

“Yeah, well, eight months since your last visit so, it does look different I suppose.” She shrugged.

“Sweetheart, the time,” Diana warned her.

Elle looked at her watch and cursed. “I have work in half an hour.” She stated, rushing into the house.

“What is it?” Tom had been so engrossed in watching Elle leave he had not realised his mother was in front of him. He looked down and felt guilty, now understanding why Danielle had stopped him up at the gate for a few moments. His mother had red around her eyes and nose, and Elle was giving her a moment to compose herself before allowing him to pass her. “What is so important you had to interrupt my talking to my neighbour?”

“I am only home for two days mum, you can talk to Elle anytime, she isn’t going anywhere. I was hoping you would actually speak with me.”

“‘She isn’t going…’ So I am to ignore someone who actually answers my phone calls to facilitate someone who will not, is that it?”

“I am your son.”

“Yes, you are.” There was an emotion in her voice that startled Tom more than her words she thought were in private did, shame. “I better get something packed for Elle for work; otherwise, she will be eating nothing for her shift.”

“That’s her problem, though, isn’t it?” Tom was getting angrier at his mother focusing on Elle and not him.

“She has to spend the next twelve hours hoping she has a boring night at work and not having to pull half dead and dying people from a car, or be called to a house fire, or God forbid even more terrible things, the least the girl could do after an afternoon of caring about me is have a good meal ready for her.” Diana snarled back at him. “What has happened you Thomas, you used to be the first to commend her, the first to acknowledge that as great as it is to give people the gift of entertainment, you and I, we do nothing as commendable or as noble as she does, and the manner you are speaking about her now, you… I cannot do this Thomas.” Diana held her hands up in defeat and walked into Elle’s house, leaving Tom alone in the garden.

[kimnamjooonz]

Blank Space  - Episode 7

Shake It Off

Songs that inspired this Episode: 

Shake It Off - Taylor Swift

''Cause the players gonna play, the haters gonna hate, baby, I'm just gonna shake it off. Heartbreakers gonna break, fakers gonna fake, baby, I'm just gonna shake it off.''

It was the fist day of filming and everything had gone pretty smoothly considering what had happened the previous day. Yes, Sebastian and Morgan weren't on speaking terms but at least no one had shouted at anyone. Maybe it was thanks to Damien that had decided to start shooting the first scene between Morgan and Joe. She had to share with Sebastian only half an hour at the end of the evening. ''You were awesome. All of you'' Damien told them. ''You look just like how I imagined you in my dreams. You can leave.'' Everyone was in a happy mood, Joe and Michael were talking about some basketball match and Emily and Sebastian talking about an scene that they had shared. Morgan just hurried away to her trailer to change her clothes. She had a lot of the evening ahead and she wanted to treat herself with a Broadway show. She took off her character's signature 80's leather jacket for her normal clothes. She kept the make up because it was similar to what she wore everyday. The make up department had loved the exclusive shade of red lipstick that Chanel had made for her and decided to use it for Meredith Hathaway. Morgan had loved the idea. She was slowly making her exit and she had even reached the parking lot when she noticed Sebastian walking behind her, not in a very long distance. She wanted to run in order to avoid him but her phone rang in the exact time. Thanks to Taylor that was calling she had the perfect excuse not to give crap about him. He seemed to be avoiding her as he was also looking at his phone. ''What happened?'' she answered a bit harshly. ''Stop sounding so angry, Morgan. Don't be insufferable.'' damn Taylor that seemed to be in a mocking mood. ''Business calls. I need you to meet me at the Starbucks that's near the apartment.'' ''Taylor, if you want coffee, get it and then we talk in the apartment.'' ''Just do it. It's important. See you in twenty minutes'' then she hung up. Morgan was quite confused but she did exactly what Taylor said and without glancing at Sebastian she left the place.

It was an enormous surprise when she got off her Porsche in the front of the Starbucks and the first thing she saw was Sebastian getting off his Jaguar. In his defence he was as surprised as she was. ''Are you following me?'' she asked with sarcasm, forgetting that they weren't on speaking terms. ''Yeah, because I have absolutely nothing better to do with my time'' he answered back. Even Morgan admired his sarcasm. She didn't say anything and just went into the shop looking for Taylor and mentally cursing her for not talking at the apartment, like any normal person would do. She had no intentions to learn about Sebastian business there. She finally spotted Taylor, sitting on a remote table with a woman she hadn't seen before. She was heading there when she noticed Sebastian following her. ''Really mate, this is getting creepy. Go and get another table, this place is enormous.'' ''Sorry Llewellyn but I can't. I'm meeting my agent and she's sitting right next to yours if I'm not mistaken.'' Sebastian enjoyed the way that Morgan's face chanced. ''I dare to say, princess, that we're in trouble.'' Damn, he was right. And she hated to admit it. ''What is this Taylor?'' she asked, still with a harsh voice. ''Emily, what is the meaning of this madness?'' Sebastian asked his agent. It seemed that for once, Morgan and Sebastian agreed on something: this whole reunion stuff was useless. ''Hello to you too, Sebastian.'' Sebastian didn't say anything. He was giving a fair share of angry glances to everyone there. Morgan was doing exactly the same with a very similar expression. The likeness between the two of them was noticeable. Their personalities were pretty much alike, even though they were never going to see it. ''Look, Emily, Morgan and I fought yesterday, but is okay now, isn't it Morgan?'' It wasn't. But the easiest way out of that situation was to agree with Sebastian, shake his hand, get the hell out of there and go straight to Broadway. ''Yes, he's right. Who told you of this, Taylor?'' Morgan was making a mental list of people who could have told their managers about the fight. She immediately discarded Lucas, that young man was loyal to her from head to toe. ''Damien'' ''Damn it'' Morgan and Sebastian said at the same time. They couldn't do anything against Damien. ''He just wants peace in the set'' said Emily. ''And he doesn't want the media to learn about your fight'' said Taylor. ''In the eyes of the world you two are perfect friends. Understood?'' Both of them nodded. Apparently there was an easy way out of the situation. Damien just wanted to put some sense into their heads. ''Okay. What do you want us to do?'' Sebastian asked. ''Like each other picture's on Instagram? Comment nice things? Praise each other? There's so much love between us... yay!'' ''Do you think is going to be that easy?'' Emily almost laugh at him. ''If you make us date, I swear I'm out'' said an angry Morgan. Sebastian was furiously nodding. ''No one here is going to date anyone'' Taylor was quickly to calm Morgan down. ''We just want you two to be friends. Or make people believe that you are. And it starts today.'' Both of them groaned. They just wanted peace and quiet and be as far away from each other as possible. ''What are you making us do?'' asked Sebastian, sensing defeat. ''You two are going to the basketball match at the Madison Square Garden with the rest of the cast'' said Emily. Well, it wasn't that bad after all. It ruined her Broadway night but at least it was a bearable option. ''Together'' added Taylor. ''What?'' Morgan and Sebastian asked at the same time. ''It's just a show of fraternal love. You just have to put a nice show to the media. Improvise. You two are actors.'' Sebastian and Morgan weren't at all happy with the agreement. ''I have a girlfriend'' said Sebastian, as if it was some valuable excuse. Morgan just wanted to punch him in the face. ''Do you understand the meaning of fraternal?'' Emily teased him. ''Look, Sebastian, not Damien or the studio care that you have a girlfriend. They care about you and Morgan getting on well off screen. You two are going to Madison Square together and stop complaining please.'' For the second time that evening, Morgan and Sebastian were agreeing on something else: they were not going to give up without a fight. ''But I had a date'' Sebastian complained. ''You cancel it!'' Emily was losing her chill. ''I don't care! No one cares! You're going.'' Morgan let Sebastian fight her battle. Maybe he could convince his agent and free himself from a night alongside Morgan. And she'd be free from him. Maybe her Broadway night wasn't ruined yet. ''And at least can I go with Florence?'' he asked. So Florence was her name. Interesting... Taylor was checking on Morgan's facial expression but it never changed. It remained stony and a little indifferent. ''For the love of God, no. You can't. In which language do I have to tell you? Let me put it simply: no one cares about your girlfriend. The only thing you'd get out of this is to anger your fanbase. You'd get nasty comments on social media and I don't need that nor does the studio. On the other hand, people know Morgan and they like her.'' Sebastian knew that Emily was right. Morgan was the new darling of the media and the Internet loved her. She was the beautiful lovely damsel that came from a fairytale town to conquer Hollywood on her astounding strength of character. A modern heroine. ''You two are going together. That's our last word.'' ''Anything to say?'' Taylor asked Morgan who had been in silence for a longer time that it was usual on her. At least she wasn't making things difficult. Then Taylor realised that it was a cunning strategy. She was making Sebastian look like the whiny idiot while she was being the obedient good girl. Smart. Taylor had to admire her. ''No. I understand this is for the best.'' she shot a look at Sebastian that clearly meant 'Unlike others'. ''Pick me up at eight.'' she said to Sebastian. ''Don't be late'' her voice was soft but it made clear that this was an order. With a nod of her head she said goodbye to everybody and left. ''This is how I expected you to behave, Sebastian'' Emily was reprimanding him as if he were a misbehaving child. ''She's ten years younger that you but she is more mature.'' It was really hard for Taylor not to laugh. Morgan, mature? She was the prime example of immaturity and not acting her age. But she had an especial ability at deluding people. ''What? Emily! She was as outraged at this idea as much as I was. That she didn't say anything doesn't mean that...'' ''That makes her smarter that you. She didn't start whining about having a date. That was you'' Emily was really pretty pissed with him. ''Now leave. Make sure not to be late and ruin things even more.''

Five minutes before eight he was waiting at the hall of Morgan's apartment building. Emily had texted him the address and she had got it through Taylor as he still didn't have Morgan's number. Exactly thirty seconds before eight, the elevator's doors opened and Morgan made her appearance. Sebastian couldn't help staring at her. She was hands down, the most beautiful person he'd ever been around. After all, the more beautiful a snake was, the more dangerous and venomous. Morgan seemed to go by those rules. She was dressed simply, with ripped black skinny jeans, ankle high heeled boots, a long sleeved top with the word 'Rep' in gothic letters (that Sebastian had absolutely no idea that she had bought at the Taylor Swift merch store) and a leather jacket. She was wearing her black hair in perfectly careless waves and of course that she was wearing her signature red lipstick. She looked fierce and gorgeous. She snapped her fingers in front of his face, taking him out of his daze. ''Let's get going.'' He just followed her. Morgan wondered why she couldn't go alone, in her own car. More than anything she just wanted to avoid getting in a closed space with Sebastian Stan. Also, running him over with her Porsche was tempting. He unlocked his car and Morgan immediately went and opened the door herself, not giving him a chance to be a gentleman. Two months ago, the perspective of getting into a car with Sebastian Stan was part of her wildest dreams. Now, she just wanted to be anywhere else, specially at Broadway, seeing Daniel Radcliffe's new play. ''Look, I know we're not on the best of terms but...'' he started. ''Just save it. None of us want to be here, okay? Just make it easier for both of us and don't say a thing. I don't really want to hear your voice right now.'' she put her headphones on and started listening to something that Sebastian thought it was electronic music. She was actually listening to Ed Sheeran. His voice was the only thing that soothed her enough not to open the door and jump out of the moving car. Maybe with a little bit of luck she was left stranded near Broadway. Sebastian had had many uncomfortable encounters with women before but this was one of the worse (if not the absolute worst) he could remember. Morgan was there, with her beautiful face totally expressionless, listening to music and probably thinking about all the places rather be than with him. Morgan's rejection hurt him a little. Maybe it was just his pride screaming for attention or... maybe he just wanted to know her better. It was a relief for both of them when they reached their destination. Madison Square Garden was as spectacular as always with bright lights everywhere, full of people and the atmosphere of utter enthusiasm. Someone else would be blinded by the place but not Morgan and Sebastian. They were made for this kind of environments. Morgan took her headphones off and looked at him. There was something different in her gaze. Not dislike or indifference but complicity. It was as if he could read her thoughts. She was inviting him to make the performances of their lives not only to make the world believe that they were friends but that they were a team to be wary of. ''Ready to shine?'' she asked. ''Completely.'' It was as if for a moment everything was perfect between them. Sebastian wished that it was always like that. They got off the car at the same time. The parking lot was empty but once they reached the doors, it was full of people, most of them photographers. They knew exactly what they needed to do: just talk, with sincere smiles on their faces and their body language should tell that they were having a great time. They were pulling this off to perfection. Flashes were surrounded them but they just acted as if they were invisible and kept talking. Their topic of conversation was the weather. Morgan had decided to play it safe. Any other kind of topic could spark a disagreement that was going to end in a fight, probably. They ended their conversation when they were finally guided into the VIP section. ''A question'' he stopped her in her tracks. ''Do we have to keep this sham in front of the others too?'' ''Of course. We're the real life versions of Sponge Bob and Patrick, okay?'' Of all the best friends duos she had to choose this one. ''Okay, Llewellyn, but we both know that Bob and Patrick were more than friends.'' Of all the things he could have said, or not said at all, this was his best comment. Shocking. ''Okay, so Sponge Bob and Sandy, happy? Now shut up and smile.'' This was probably the first civilized conversation he had had with Morgan Llewellyn. And it was about Sponge Bob. Well played, Sebastian, well played. Morgan spotted the rest of her cast mates who were looking at them with the weirdest glances ever. ''What the hell is this?'' Joe asked to Michael and Emily. ''Yesterday they wanted to decapitate each other and now they are all smiley and friendly. What the hell happened here?'' ''Ask them yourself because I really don't know.'' Emily couldn't believe her eyes. ''Hello, people!'' a happy Morgan greeted them. Sebastian was standing beside her, smiling. ''Hi'' Michael's eyes went from Morgan to Sebastian. ''Are you two friends now?'' he was the only one who was brave enough to ask that to them directly. ''Yes.'' it was Sebastian who answered. ''We had just a silly misunderstanding.'' he placed his hand between Morgan's shoulders. ''I was missing on an very special person.'' he looked at Morgan with a smile. ''Friends will be friends'' she said, shooting him a nice smile. Sebastian would have loved that this version of Morgan were her real self. She was adorable. It was sad to know that it was just an act. But he also knew that if the real Morgan had been like that, he'd have fallen in love with her in two seconds after meeting her. It was her personality that stood in the way. She had some intriguing vibes that had attracted Sebastian since the first minute and she was enigmatic. Without counting that she was absolutely gorgeous. She was a mess, but the kind of mess he liked. No one said much more because the match was about to start. He was wondering what Morgan was doing to him. ''Wait a second'' he stopped her again. ''How do we proceed?'' ''We just comment the match between us, react to it and cheer a little. Remember that you're supposed to be having the time of your life.'' They sat side by side, the others were still waiting for one of them to snap and start a fight in the middle of Madison Square Garden. But that moment was not going to come any time soon. ''Can you see how pretty they look when they're not fighting?'' Emily asked. ''They're an absolutely gorgeous pair.'' Michael was looking at them. Sebastian was showing something to Morgan on his phone and she was laughing. When the match started they did exactly what Morgan had said. Sebastian was commenting stuff from to her time to time and mostly talking to Morgan. It didn't look like a night out of a whole group but more like Sebastian and Morgan on a date. They were also cheering on the team, high fiving each other and pulling the stunt to perfection. Only they knew that this supposed friendship was fake. But even if none of them was ever going to admit it, they were having a really good time. At some point Morgan was filming some videos and sending them to Clint. She was in Madison Square Garden watching the New York Knicks with Sebastian Stan. This was Morgan's 2013 dream come true. Clint needed to know about this. Sebastian was shooting furtive glances to Morgan's phone to see who she was texting to. He was quite shocked to see that she was texting to a gorgeous dark haired man. So shocked that he spoke before thinking. ''Who is him?'' Morgan was going to answer with a snarky 'that's none of your business' but they were in public. And it was just Clint, it was no problem to reveal who he was. ''This is my brother, Clint.'' she zoomed on Clint's profile pic so Sebastian could see him better. He wanted to punch himself on the face. He could totally see the resemblance between the siblings: the same black hair, the same condescending smile and the same facial structure, as if them both were carved by the angels themselves. The only difference was in the eyes as Clint lacked Morgan's electrifying dark blue ones. ''Wow'' he mumbled. ''Is he a model?'' ''No. He's a rugby player.'' ''Where do people like you two come from? You two are just on another level of gorgeous.'' he was still speaking without thinking. ''Thank you'' she said, this time without sarcasm. She knew that Sebastian was being honest and she was quick at accepting praise, from whoever it came from. ''And we are from Wales.'' She left Sebastian processing something she didn't know and concentrated in a text from her brother. ''MSG may be cool and everything but tell me tomorrow. New season of Doctor Who just started. It has Sheffield, Jodie Whittaker, kebab being thrown, a new sonic screwdriver... damn, sis, I'm crying.'' ''Oh my God'' she mumbled. She couldn't believe that her favourite show has premiered and she wasn't watching it. ''Are you OK?'' Sebastian asked with concern. He may not be in the best terms with his co-star but if she felt bad or if she was uncomfortable he was going to do the impossible to help her. ''No, I mean yes but I missed the Doctor Who's season premiere.'' ''What is that?'' She was so shocked at missing the episode that she even forgot to accuse Sebastian as an uncultured swine for not knowing Doctor Who. ''A show that means a lot to me.'' So, Morgan Llewellyn was a geek, or something close to that. Interesting, he wouldn't have imagined that from her. It was entertaining to find little things about her. They watched the last quarter in silence but at the eyes of the world they seemed interested in the match. But they were lost in their thoughts. Morgan was cursing herself. How could she had forgotten about Doctor Who? And even if she had remembered, there was nothing that she could have done to watch it because she'd have had to be stuck there with Sebastian, one way or another. Sebastian's thoughts were completely different. He was thinking about Morgan. He still haven't made up her mind about her and it was a much deeper thing that simply liking or disliking her. When he had seen her for the first time it was like love and hate at first sight. Morgan was special in all the ways, good and bad. He knew that there was more about her than what he had seen, who she really was behind that superstar mask. Somehow, and he didn't have a reasonable explanation to this, he felt a connection with her. He wanted her out of his life as soon as possible but at the same time he wanted to keep her near him forever. Sometimes he wished he'd never met her but at the same time he felt that meeting her was the biggest blessing of his life. It was like meeting his soulmate but with a sinister twist. She was everything he ever wanted but the last thing he needed. But what was he doing thinking about soulmates when he already had a girlfriend? But he was pretty sure that no matter how hard he tried, Florence wasn't his soulmate. He was more confused than ever. On one side he had the prospect of a peaceful life with Florence. It was nice and everyone would be more than pleased to have something like this in their lives. But on the other side there was Morgan who was the embodiment of endless excitement. She was someone that could never be domesticated, never, in a million years, of that Sebastian was sure. Just getting Morgan to like him was a challenge, he couldn't begin to imagine how hard would be to convince her to date him one day. It was like choosing with his heart or with his brain. If the next three months he'd had the chance of making that choice, he had the answer clear. He'd go with his heart and jump straight into Morgan Llewellyn's chaotic web. He didn't know how much time he had spent thinking all this stuff and staring at Morgan's perfect side profile but the rest of the cast had noticed and were even mumbling the words of Alicia Keys' song Fallin' as a joke. Thankfully Morgan was too concentrated in the game to notice. ''Should we take a selfie to proclaim to the world our undying friendship?'' she asked with a voice full of sarcasm. ''Of course. Nothing would make me happier'' he had the same level of sarcasm in his voice as hers. They looked so happy in the picture that no one would have guessed that their emotions were fake as hell. When the game ended, the only thing they wanted was to leave. Sebastian was finally shaking those weird thoughts off his mind and just wanted to be away from Morgan. But at the same time he was disappointed that the night had ended so quickly. Damn his contradicting mind.

P.S. Thanks to everyone that’s been reading and liking this stuff. It means a lot to me. I think we all want our life to be like Morgan, especially me at this exact moment. Sometimes I wonder why did I have to grow up and deal with this bullshit called life and I think that the last time I was truly happy was back in 2008 singing High School Musical songs with no worries in the world. But I have two options: curl into a ball and cry or grab life by the balls like Seb would do. I think I’m going for the second option. Well, I needed to get that out of my chest. And also writing this stories give me life and make me a lot happier so thanks for reading.;)

[popwasabi]

“Crazy Rich Asians” Review: Support This Movie So I Can Stop Being Angry

Directed by Jon M. Chu

Starring: Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, Gemma Chan, Awkwafina

 “Crazy Rich Asians” might be the first film I’ve ever been nervous about seeing.

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust that director Jon M. Chu would properly represent Asian Americans in a way most Hollywood films don’t but I found myself worried not about whether I would like the movie but whether others would. You see, in the theater full of mostly Asian people I saw it with there was a row of five middle-aged white people right in front of me and my mind immediately went to the gutter thinking “will these people laugh at anything that isn’t a stereotype in this movie?”

(White people be all like: “Why do Asians all look the same?”)

Obviously that’s an unfair assumption to make but Hollywood makes it for them all the time. Rarely producing films that give being Asian any nuance or depth beyond being smart, martial arts masters or more infuriatingly submissive enablers of a white protagonist over their own stories.

A part of me didn’t care about enjoying it so long as it made an impression on Hollywood and larger film-going audiences; I needed this film to succeed because it could mean so much more for representation and inclusion down the line.

Luckily, from what it looks like, the film is trending well and in the end managed to warm my cold dead heart with its whimsical rom-com charm, even if parts of it devolved into the predictable.

Based on the bestselling book by Kevin Kwan, “Crazy Rich Asians” follows the story of Rachel Chu as she and her boyfriend Nicholas Young travel to visit his family in Singapore for his brother’s wedding. Unbeknownst to her, Nick hasn’t been completely forthcoming about his family’s lifestyle and as it turns out he is part of the richest family in Southeast Asia. Now Rachel finds herself in a battle to establish herself in front of his matriarchal mother and prove to her that she’s worth it to Nick.

In writing this review over the last few days it’s been very hard to convey how I’ve felt about this film without going on an angry tangent about Asian representation as a whole in popular cinema. It’s pretty much impossible for me not to talk about it so I’m going to try to talk about this as briefly as possible before I get into the film itself and where it stands personally for me.

(Me trying to avoid writing 10,000 words of pent up rage over the first couple drafts..)

There have definitely been better movies to come out, even in recent years, about the Asian/Asian American experience in the west and more than a few starring all Asian casts, writers and directors. Last year’s, much smaller film, “Gook” for instance gets much more personal about race and the ugliness of society.Even as far as comedies go “Seoul Searching” (which is on Netflix) is a funnier more relatable take on the issues and themes raised in this movie.

(Also, if you didn’t know already, Justin Chon is a GREAT actor and needs to be in more movies. Or at least directing them.)

But as many in the media have pointed out already, this is historic in that it’s the first MAJOR film of this kind since “Joy Luck Club” and to finally have a film featuring this type of cast, director and story with big corporate backing is huge for representation whether you find the film underwhelming or not.

Over the last couple years, whitewashing has become a more recognized topical issue in Hollywood than ever before as Asian American audiences are speaking up more loudly about problematic casting and writing choices that Hollywood and apologists find all kinds of excuses for. Despite plenty of evidence to support otherwise that “bankable” stars don’t guarantee box office draws and that Asian Americans are the largest movie-going demographic per-capita in the country, Hollywood still will place relatively unknown white actors in lead roles on huge box office productions (look at the history of Hollywood trying to make Armie Hammer a thing) while simultaneously telling people like myself that people who look like me can’t be mainstream draws.

If for nothing else, cast more Asian Americans because it’s the right thing to do. The representation and inclusion is waaay overdue and if I have to hear “Just make your own movie” or “People from (insert Asian country here) don’t care” one more God damn time I will tear my fucking hair out! Kevin Kwan had to FIGHT to keep the role of Rachel Chu in this movie Asian and Asians from the mainland and Asians in America, or more broadly in the West, don’t have the same lived in experiences. Not even close!

(Me failing often to maintain my decorum in polite company when these topics are brought up...)

One of the weirdest and most shocking revelations I had coming out of this film is that it was one of the only films I could recall seeing an Asian couple engaging with each other romantically in a Hollywood film for more than five minutes at a time ever. That’s. Fucking. Nuts!

I hope that with the commercial and critical success of this movie what’s left of the skeptics will come around finally (especially the ones in Hollywood) and stop with the dismissiveness. They probably won’t but hey maybe it’ll shut them up for a while at least…

(It gets me through this shit...)

Anyways, now that I’m (mostly) done ranting, as far as the movie goes this is a solid date-night romantic comedy that I’m sure everyone regardless of background can enjoy.

“Crazy Rich Asians” is fairly predictable, albeit with some minor twists, but it still manages to tell a story we’re all pretty familiar with in a unique and often dazzling way.

The first thing that pops out immediately about this film is its visuals as the movie displays a wide array of hues and colors that make the cinematography and the literal richness of the plot truly pop. Its visual eye-candy in the best way, even if it comes across as shallow at times, and if nothing else will keep your eyes glued to the screen as the films moves through its lush scenery.

The soundtrack also helps highlight this between the pop songs and Cantonese renditions of them and director Jon Chu does a great job of splicing it all in together with this group of characters and making their performances even brighter through it.

The cast is the true strength of the film, of course, featuring multiple well-known Asian actors and actresses as well as a few newcomers, who I hope breakout in Hollywood through this film. Constance Wu is delightful, sassy and strong-willed as Rachel Chu and helps shed the stereotype of the meek and submissive Asian women in this story by standing up for herself and not hinging her existence on a man, even one she loves. On the other side of things Henry Golding looks every bit like a star in the making and is charming as Nick Young (even if he is a bit of a Gary Stu character) while also smashing stereotypes about asexuality and unattractiveness in Asian men himself. The two of them have great chemistry onscreen and make a very believable romantic couple and it’s hard, even for an eternal cynic like me, to not be like “Awwwww true wuuuuuv” while watching their romance play out.

(*sniff* It’s so extra yet it’s so beautiful ;_;... *sobs at the extra-ness of the romance*)

There’s a hilarious cast of characters who support Wu and Golding alongside them as well. The always enjoyable Awkwafina plays up her role as the funny best friend very well, the Daily Show’s Ronny Chiang gets in some nice quips and Ken Jeong plays the perverted weirdo perfectly.

The indomitable Michele Yeoh does a great job as the menacing matriarch Eleanor Young but manages to keep it from getting too cliché as the writing adds some nice shades of grey to the character. Her love, even if misguided, is well acted alongside Golding and the two make for an interesting mother/son dynamic that I’m sure plenty will be able to relate to.

The real surprise star, and honestly the most interesting part of the story, actually comes from English actress Gemma Chan who plays Nick’s cousin Astrid. The sub plot involving Astrid and her husband sets up a unique and powerful message about the give and take in relationships and its reflection upon femininity and masculinity. Chan puts in a short but nonetheless thoughtful and sincere performance here and I look forward to seeing more of her in the sequel and hopefully other major film productions.

(That look you give when someone tells you a film starring a dozen or so Asian actors and actresses can’t be a huge box office success)

The film doesn’t have many profound things to say otherwise, it’s again a fairly by the numbers rom-com with a heavy dosage of opulence porn and not to mention some problematic elements, but the one message I hope white audiences take from this film, other than everything I mentioned earlier *gets back on soapbox*, comes from Rachel’s mother at the very beginning of the film.

In the lead up to Nick and Rachel’s big Singapore trip Rachel’s mother warns her about what people of the mainland will think of her when they see her. She states that she may look Chinese and speak Cantonese but, pointing to her heart, they see her as American.

This speaks to a lot of what growing up in this country feels like sometimes for us Asian Americans. That despite many of us being three or four generations deep now in this country we’re seen as foreigners and people from “our country” see us the same way. It’s a deep struggle for our identities and the perpetual foreigner syndrome is a real issue for many of us. Yes, as adults it’s easier for us to shake these insults and micro aggressions but that doesn’t mean it’s still not fucking annoying. Hopefully when white film-goers see this scene they begin to understand that we are as much Americans as anyone else and that seemingly harmless but nonetheless insulting comments like “no, where are you really from” need to be done away with.

(”Where are you from?”---->”Oh I’m from LA.”----> “No, I mean where are you from?”---> “Uhhh California?”----> “No where are you really from?”----> “The United States?...”----> “No where are you REALLY from?”--->*me^*)

I won’t stand here and tell you that Asian Americans have had it worse in this country than other minorities but stereotypes and poor cultural representation, or lack thereof, does contribute to a wide array of issues for us and hopefully this film helps hammer away those regressive viewpoints.

TL;DR “Crazy Rich Asians” is a good date movie and, if nothing else, support this movie so I can go on less rants about Hollywood shitting on Asian Americans.

It may be, at least on the surface, a pretty straight forward romantic comedy but its little nuances and unique commentary on this demographic of people (Even if it talks about a small section of it) makes it a film worth supporting.

Hopefully in the future this film will feel pretty ordinary as representation and inclusion become more accessible things for not just Asian Americans but for people of all backgrounds but until then this is a nice, waaaay past-due, coming out party for Asians across this country and abroad.

 VERDICT:

4 out of 5

*Me awaiting the inevitable “Well actually...” comments that’ll come from this review*

[bamby0304]

The Hart: Chapter One

Summary:  When Lizzie was just a few months old, she lost her father. Fifteen years later she lost her mother, and then her sister. Now in her early twenties Lizzie spends her days and nights hunting things and saving people. When the Winchesters meet the bright eyed and bubbly blonde they don’t realise what they’re in for… and neither does she…

Part Twenty-Four: Lights, Camera, Action

Masterlist

Warnings: Nope :)

Bamby

EPOV

I sat next to Sam in the tour cart as we were driven around a studio in Hollywood. It was my first time in LA, but surprisingly, I wasn't that excited. The hype of it all was wasted on me. Why be excited about fake worlds when I knew the exciting truths of our own? Sam seemed to be on the same page as me. Dean on the other hand? He was practically giddy with excitement.

"First opened in 1927, the lot has been in continuous operation for eight decades," the guide noted.

"Hey, you know this is where they filmed Creepshow?" I turned to see Dean talking to the teen next to him. The teen of course, couldn't care less, more interested in his ice cream.

"Now, to the right here is Stars Hollow. It's the setting for the television series Gilmore Girls," the guide spoke through her microphone. "And if we're lucky, we might even catch one of the show's stars.

That caught my attention. "I loved that show. The character Dean, he was always my favourite." I smiled, looking around to see if I could spot a familiar face.

Suddenly Sam stepped off the cart, but before I could go after him, I was stopped.

I felt Dean's breath on my ear before I heard him whisper so only I could hear him. "Must be the name."

"Pretty sure it was his good looks." I grinned as I left the cart and followed Sam.

Dean was right behind us. "Guys, can't we finish the tour?" he whined, but didn't protest anymore as we continued walking.

Grinning widely, Dean looked at everything, acting like a kid on Christmas morning. "Check it out, it's Matt Damon." He gestured to a janitor.

Sam gave a short and light laugh. "Yeah, pretty sure that's not Matt Damon."

"No, it is," Dean insisted.

"Well, Matt Damon just picked up a broom and started sweeping," Sam pointed out.

Shrugging, Dean was sure he was right. "Yeah, well, he's probably researching a role or something."

I could help but laugh. "Sure Dean, you must be right." Shaking my head I turned to Sam. "So, where are we going?"

"This way." He nodded to a coming corner. "I think Stage 9's over here."

"Come on, man. Let's just keep going this way." Dean pointed to the road ahead of us, eager to keep exploring.

But Sam was adamant. "No, come on, we gotta work," he told us, earning a sigh from Dean. "Dude, you wanted to come to LA."

"Yeah, for vacation. I mean, swimming pools and movie stars. Not to work."

"Does this seem like swimming-pool weather to you, Dean?" Sam asked, speaking of the grey clouds and chilly air that had all three of us wearing jackets. "It's practically Canadian."

"Yeah. I just figured that after everything happened with... Madison, you could use a little R and R, that's all," Dean suggested.

"Well, maybe I wanna work, Dean. It keeps my mind off things."

"Okay, boys. Enough." I moved to stand in front of them, pressing a hand to their chests. "We've got a job to do." Looking to Sam, I stayed serious. "We focus on the job, get it done." I turned to Dean, smiling. "If we get it done fast enough, you can have a little fun before we move on to the next job. Sound fair?" I asked both of them.

They both simply nodded before Sam continued on.

Once he was out of earshot, Dean stepped a little closer, wrapping an arm around my waist. "You know..." He leaned in to whisper in my ear even though no one else was listening anyway, "If Sammy's all twisted up in this case, we might get some alone time."

Laughing, I shook my head, stepping back and ignoring his grin. "Head out of the clouds and into the job, Winchester. There are damsels in distress waiting for you to rescue them."

Still grinning, he walked beside me as we moved to catch up to Sam. "So, this crew guy, what did he... he died on set?" he asked me.

"Yep." I nodded. "Apparently the sets haunted."

"What, like Poltergeist?"

As we caught up to Sam, he answered his brother. "I guess it could be a poltergeist."

"He means the movie, Sam."

Dean looked to me, surprised and impressed. "You know about the rumours?"

"Yeah." I shrugged before explaining it to Sam. "People believed the set was cursed. That they used real human bones as props. Three actors died during production."

Sam took in the information, seeming to think it could be a possibility. "Yeah, it might be something like that."

"All right, so this crew guy, what's his name?" Dean asked.

"Frank Jaffy," Sam answered.

"Frank Jaffy, you got a death certificate or corner's report or anything?"

"Well, no," Sam admitted. "But, uh, it's L.A., you know? Might not even be this real name. But the girl who found him, she said she saw something. A vanishing figure."

"What's the girl's name?"

"Tara Benchley," Sam and I both said at the same time, causing Dean to stop and turn to us.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Tara Benchley? From Fear dotcom and Ghost Ship, Tara Benchley?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes."

Dean lips turned up into a smile. "Dude, why didn't you say so?" He gave Sam a playful punch on the arm.

Sam scoffed, amused. "So now you're suddenly on-board?"

Wiping the smile of his face, Dean shrugged, trying to play it cool. "I'm just... I mean, I'm a fan of her work. It's very good."

"Whatever." Shaking my head I walked off in front of them, feeling annoyed for some reason.

SPOV

We walked into the busy studio and came to a stop at the sight before us. I'd never seen anything like it. People were moving around, working like ants, never stopping, always doing something. In the middle of the large space was a dark forest setting. I mean, it looked like an actually forest was in the middle of the building.

"Uh, excuse me, uh, green-shirt guy!" a man in a suit called, gesturing to Dean who turned to him. "Yeah, yeah, you, come here." As Dean listened, the man went on. "Could you get me a, uh, smoothie from craft?"

Dean paused. "You want a what from who?"

The man in the suit gave a short, unamused laugh. "You are a PA. This is what you do."

I could see Dean was in trouble, so without wasting another minute, Lizzie and I hurried over to save his ass before we got kicked out of the studio.

"Yeah, yeah, he, uh..." I shook my head, smiling at the man. "One smoothing coming right up." With that, I led Dean away as Lizzie followed.

"What's a PA?" Dean asked, voice low.

I shrugged. "I think they're kind of like slaves..."

After I'd searched the place for an EMF and come up with nothing, I'd gone looking for Lizzie. I found her walking around with a tray of smoothies, smiling at people as they came by to take one of the drinks from her.

She talked to each, looking so carefree and easy going. It was easy to forget she was a hunter. She was so charismatic, her personality drew people to her like a magnet.

Once the last person left her, I walked over. "Hey."

"Hey." Her smile widened as she turned to me. "Thank God. I am dying here. These people won't stop coming up to me. I haven't been able to do anything."

I gave a light chuckle. "It looked like you were enjoying yourself. You're a real people-person."

"Well, yes and no. I'm a people-person who loves to hunt and kill things that used to be people." She shrugged, taking the last smoothie as she placed the tray on a nearby table. "I'm just doing the job, Sam. Doing what I gotta do."

"Speaking of which... you know, how you're doing things... odd things."

Wrapping her lips around the straw in the smoothie, she drank and gestured for me to follow as she began to walk. "You wanna talk about it, don't you?" she asked around the straw. "About what happened at Madison's?"

"You threw Madison across the room... with your mind," I noted.

The whole thing had shocked me enough that I hadn't mentioned it right away. Or for a couple of days after. Then when I'd had time to think it over, we never had the chance to talk because we were never alone. This was the first time in days that Dean wasn't with us.

"You see the future, I move things with my mind. So what?" She was trying to act like it wasn't a big deal. But it was. It was a very big deal.

I grabbed her shoulder, stopping and turning her around. "You really had no idea?"

"Nope."

"You never had the bad headaches before? It's only just started?"

"Come on, Sam." She gave me a knowing look. "We both know it's only just started. And we both know why. You were there. It wasn't you, but you were there."

She was right. I just didn't want to admit it out loud yet. I didn't want to turn it into words. I didn't want what she went through, be real, even though it was. Even though it was hanging her. Making her like me.

"Look, it's not your fault. We both know that. And anyway, it's not like I didn't already have the potential in me. The demon said it. They just lost me when I was young. I probably would have been triggered eventually."

Her words brought up another question I'd been wanting to ask. "Do you know how they lost you? They mentioned the deal your mum made..."

"Yeah. I guess. I didn't at first, but I've been thinking about it, and I'm pretty sure I know what they mean."

When she didn't go on, I pressed. "And?"

"I died."

EPOV

Sam's face went white. "What?"

"It's no big deal. I know I'm over it." I shrugged, starting for the snack table.

He was right behind me. "You're over it? You're over it?! How do you get over something like that? You died."

"Yeah, but only for a moment." I looked over my shoulder at him, seeing question in his eyes. Sighing, I stopped and turned to him. "I was four. My mum and I were driving, got in a car accident. I ended up in the hospital and before the night was over I was put in an induced coma. After two days, my body just gave up. The machines were the only things keeping me 'alive' but I was technically dead."

Recognition reached his eyes. "That's why your mum made the deal."

"Exactly. My mum wanted me to live a long and happy life. She wanted me to experience everything the world had to offer. So, in exchange for her soul, the demon was to bring me back. Completely healthy. No lasting injuries or complications from the accident."

Sam frowned. "So, how would that have hidden you from the demons?"

"My guess is, it's because I died. And maybe because of the deal. Maybe my soul is marked by it or something. I don't know." I shook my head, continuing on to the snack table.

"But your mum didn't die in a fire when you were a baby. Which means you're like the others," Sam noted.

I paused again and turned to him. "What did you just say?"

"That you're like the others?"

"No, about the fire."

"Oh, uh, there are a few of us. People like you and me. Four of us lost our mothers in a house fire that started in our nurseries when we were six months old," he explained, completely oblivious to the tension growing inside me. "That's how my mum died. That's why we became hunters. To find the demon who killed her, and kill it."

"A... a demon killed her? You're sure?"

"Yeah. Our dad saw it." He nodded. "It had yellow eyes." Suddenly he seemed to notice my discomfort. "Lizzie, you okay?"

"I... I don't feel too well. I'll, um- I'll see you and Dean later," I blurted before rushing off, feeling a mixture of emotions. Fear, confusing, and sorrow. My heart ached in ways it hadn't in years. In ways, I never thought it could or would again.

DPOV

I'd been standing by the snack table, watching Sam and Liz talking. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but it had seemed like an important conversation. At first, I thought it was about the case, until I saw Liz's skin turn at least three shades lighter before she ran off, leaving the studio.

"What was that about?" I asked Sam as he came to stand by me.

He shook his head. "I don't know."

I looked over to the door where Liz had disappeared to, wondering if she'd want me to follow or if she wanted to be alone.

Deciding to play it safe and leave her be, I turned back to Sam, getting back to business. "I found no EMF anywhere. You?"

"Nothing," he sighed. "So, what are we thinking?"

"Well, I think being a PA sucks," I started. "But the food these people get, are you kidding me?" I lifted one of the mini burgers off a tray. "Look at these things. They're like miniature Philly cheesesteak sandwiches. Their delicious." I offered him it.

"Maybe later."

Shrugging, I at it instead. "What did you find out about the dead crew guy?" I asked, mouth full of food.

He watched me as if there was something on my face as he responded. "Uh, Frank Jaffy was just filling in for the day. Nobody here knew him or where he lived or anything."

"Oh, great. So, you found out as much as I did."

"No, not quite, I-"

Sam was cut off as a short man with glasses stepped between us, grabbing some food. "Hey, guys." He nodded. I was pretty sure his name was Walter, one of the other PAs.

Sam nodded back. "Hey."

"Oh, hey." I smiled as he grabbed a mini burger and headed off. "They're wonderful!" I called after him.

Sam got back to it once we were alone. "Listen, I did dig up some stuff about Stage 9's history. Four people died messy here over the past eighty years. Two suicides and two fatal accidents."

"Any of those could be a vengeful spirit." I noted.

"Yeah. Just gotta narrow it down more."

I was about to respond but was stopped when I spotted Tara Benchley. "I'll get right on that." I told Sam absent mindedly before walking towards Tara. On my way I stole some papers from a woman walking by. Slowing down, I smiled nervously at Tara. "Are you supposed to get one of these? I don't really know what I'm doing so..."

She looked up at me, confused at first, until she smiled widely at me. "First day?"

"Yeah, my big break." I nodded, causing her to give a little laugh. "You know, I know it's really uncool to say this, but I'm a big fan. I loved you in Boogeyman."

She looked away, still smiling but now a little embarrassed. "Oh, God. What a terrible script," she laughed. "Uh, but thank you."

"Yeah." I couldn't wipe the smile of my face. Turning to leave, I paused, knowing the next question I asked was for the case and was a risky one. "You found him, right, the... the dead guy?" Both our smiles fell then. "I'm sorry, you probably don't even wanna talk about this." This time when I turned to leave, I was really going to go.

But she stopped me. "No actually it's... it's okay, but nobody around here really brings it up very much. I think they're all scared I'm gonna have some kind of breakdown."

"That must have been awful... what happened?"

Her voice was softer as she spoke. "It was horrible. There... there was all this blood coming from his eyes, and from his mouth, and, uh... I saw this, um..." She stopped herself, smiling with embarrassment again.

"What?" I pressed gently.

Sighing, she looked to me again, letting it out. "I saw this shape. To tell you the truth, I don't know actually, what I saw. I just know I saw it."

"Here you go, Tara." Walter stepped towards us, handing Tara a drink.

"Thanks, Walter." She smiled at him as he walked off.

Once he was gone, I spoke again. "Uh, so this crew guy, Frank. I mean, did you know him?"

"Uh, no. Not that well."

"That's funny. It's like no one around here actually knew the guy."

"I've got his picture." She shrugged.

That was a surprise. "You do?"

"Yeah, I like to take Polaroid's of all the crew." She smiled, reaching down to grab a book next to her seat. "It's just one of those things you do to kill time on set." She explained as she looked through the pictures. "Uh, right there."

I stepped closer to her, looking down at the picture she was pointing to. It took only a second or two to recognize the face. "Son of a bitch..."

EPOV

I stood next to Dean in the studio as we watched the actors play out a scene- at a safe distance so we could speak. He and Sam had just come back from speaking with Gerand St. James, and actor whose most recent role was the one and only, 'Frank Jaffy'.

"So, you're telling me that the producers of the movie hired an actor to come in for the day to play this Frank guy, just so they could kill him off to make everyone think the studio is haunted?"

"Yeah." Dean nodded.

"So, what? We're done with the case?"

"Well, yeah." He shrugged. "But you said-"

"I know what I said, Dean." I smiled up at him. "You'll have your fun. I promise."

"Well, that means we need to find Sam. Speaking of which..." He turned to face me completely then. "You wanna tell me what you and Sam were talking about earlier? Why you ran off?"

No.

There was no way I was going to tell Dean anything. There was too much to say and I had no idea where to start. Plus, I had no idea how he would react to the news. Besides, Sam already knew too much. There were too many things he knew about me, and too many things he could figure out.

My past was my past. As much as I trusted the brothers, no one knew the whole truth. Not even Bobby, Jo or Ellen knew the early troubles of my life. No one knew what had happened to my father. Everyone just assumed he was either dead or just gone.

"We were just talking about my migraines and stuff. He's worried I might be over working myself and might get sick again," I lied.

There was a look in his eyes, like he didn't believe me, but he didn't question me. He didn't say anything actually. We just turned back to watch the actors.

A moment or two later, there was a loud crashing nose as something fell through the roof of the cabin the actors were in. People screamed and yelled as they looked at the thing that fell through.

Hanging there from the roof was the man who'd ordered Dean to get him a smoothie when we'd got here. A rope around his now broken neck.

My eyes watched the body swing. "So... I guess there might be a case after all."

DPOV

Standing off to the side, I watched as the actors played out the same scene from yesterday. The studio had shut down after the suit guy died, but now we were back in business. Which seemed odd to me. I thought for sure they'd give everyone a break to relax after, you know, witnessing a guy die.

"Can we... can we cut or something?" Tara asked, breaking character.

"Uh, uh, yeah, cut. Cut!" the director, McG, called.

"That's a cut!" I yelled.

McG turned to the woman next to him. "Only I can say 'cut'," he told her before moving over to Tara. "Hey, what's up?"

Tara sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm just a little upset."

"Well, with everything that's been going on around here, who can blame you, huh?"

"I just can't wrap my head around the dialogue. You know, salt? Doesn't that sound silly? I mean, why would a ghost be afraid of salt?"

"Okay, um... Martin." McG turned to the writer. "What do you think?"

"I'm not married to salt. What do you want? We still sticking with condiments?"

"Mm... Just sounds different. Not better." McG noted. "What else would a ghost be scared of?"

"Uh, you gotta be kidding me." Walter the PA mumbled, a few steps ahead of me.

"Maybe, uh... maybe shotguns?" Martin offered.

McG went to agree before shaking his head. "Okay, that makes even less sense than salt."

Walter groaned, turning and walking away from the set. "These people are idiots," he muttered as he passed me.

I was about to say something when I noticed the actor that played Mitch, was now talking to Liz. More like flirting with her.

SPOV

"How's it going here?" I asked, coming to stand next to Dean.

He didn't turn to me, instead he turned his attention to Tara. "It's going good. Tara's stepped up her performance. I think it's probably from all the sense memory she's drawing on."

"Sense memory?"

"Yeah."

"Dean, you know when I ask how it's going here, I'm talking about the case, right? We don't really work here. You know, I thought you hated being a PA," I reminded him.

He looked down at all the PA gear he was wearing. "I don't know. It's not so bad. I kinda feel like part of the team, you know." He smiled up at me. "It's good."

Rolling my eyes, I got back to the reason why we were here. "Listen, I conned my way into the morgue."

"And?"

"News reports are right. Brad's a doornail, no question."

He looked away for a moment. "Copy that," he said and then turned back to me. "Sorry, what?"

Huh? "Copy that?"

He didn't explain though, just wanted me to repeat myself. "What'd you say?"

"The news reports are right. Brad's a door-"

Before I could finish he spoke again. "They're aware."

He was confusing the hell out of me. "Who's aware?"

"Sorry, what were you saying?" he asked me.

I shook my head. "Uh... the newspaper's right. Brad's a doornail, no question about it."

"I guess it's a good thing we didn't skip town," he noted. "Oh, come here. I want you to hear something." He gestured for me to follow as he spoke again. "Copy that. On my way."

We walked over to the sound equipment, Lizzie catching up to us as before we reached it. She didn't look up at me. In fact, she hadn't spoken or even looked at me since the talk we'd had before.

"Hey, Dave, can you play him that thing you were playing me earlier?" Dean asked the sound guy.

"Sure." The sound guy nodded, handing me a headset. As I took it, he smiled at Lizzie. "Hi, Elizabeth." I swear, he blushed.

She smiled back at him. "Hi, Dave."

Ignoring them, I listened as Dave played a recording through the headphones. The voice of the character Mitch was speaking.

"Doesn't matter, we're not leaving till we-" He was cut off as the audio crackled.

I looked up at Dean and Lizzie, both of them giving me a knowing look.

Bamby

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[dreamsamongmortals]

“Hatari!” An example of queer coding in film history

As I watched for the first time in years the movie “Hatari!” a new perspective came to mind, and I discovered a secret my subconscious had been telling me about since childhood. “Hatari!” is a simple, charming kind of romantic comedy-adventure, about a group of hunters in Africa that catch animals and sell them to Zoos all over Europe. The movie is quite forgotten nowadays since it has no big thrills, action scenes, dramatic love story or gross out humor. It is only remembered as one of the decent John Wayne movies. But it turns out, it is also an example of queer coding done right and for the right reasons and contains a beautiful powerful gay “bromance” story.

 So, let’s do this.

I know what a lot of you may be thinking. Queerbaiting is never right! But queer coding and queer baiting are not the same. It is only recently that the LGBT community has gained its rights, and even now the representation in media is usually not very good or inexistent, just as with the majority of minorities. But during the 40, 50 and 60 eras things were much worse. Since the beginning of Hollywood, films had to be approved by the censors before they could appear on screen. No extreme violence, no sexual relations, no communist propaganda and definitely no queer content was allowed. However, things got worse when in 1946 the Hollywood Blacklist started. It was then when screenplayers, actors, and directors started to be imprisoned for their beliefs. And until 1960, when Trumbo was actually recognized and accepted back in Hollywood the Blacklist stayed. But even afterward, the witchhunts and censorships continued. Therefore, those who wanted to tell different stories, present outside characters or represent themselves had to use coding and subtext to do so. And thus, queer coding became a loudly spoken secret, just as subtextual communist ideas or sexual tension and innuendos disguised as the fight of the sexes. And “Hatari!” a movie by the great Howard Hawks and released in 1962, made a great and positive use of this, which is why I wanted to use this movie as an example.

The film tells the story of the chief of the hunters, played by John Wayne, who falls in love with a photographer that works for a zoo from Switzerland. At first, it seems he can’t stand her, and he assumes she is going to be trouble. But as their relationship blooms and they even adopt three motherless elephants, it turns out they are quite a good match for each other. Of course, it is not this two characters that interested me in my new viewing of the movie. Although when I  watched it for the first time with my father, who loves it, I thought they were the most relevant characters of the story, two other characters caught even then my attention. And it’s about their relationship I want to talk here.

The movie begins with one of the hunters getting hit by a rhinoceros. Immediately, they all rush to hospital, but by the time they arrive, “The Indian” has already lost a lot of blood. It is then when a new character appears. A French guy named Charles Maurey that has heard they’ll be needing a new worker. Of course, Kurt Muller, a German car racer that is part of the hunter’s team, jumps immediately with anger. His friend is “not yet dead”, and so he hits the French guy. However, as it turns out  “The Indian” has a pretty rare blood type, and the only person that can transfuse him is the French man. But Charles does not care about the job anymore, he just wants Kurt to ask him for help. Thus their love story begins. Even if very few people will recognize this couple as more than friends, the coding is there.

Charles, who soon will be called “Chips” by his new colleagues, and Kurt are the only male characters in the entire movie that are somewhat sexualized. The female love interests appear almost always fully and usually quite modestly clothed ( the only exception being the time Dallas is “attacked” by a leopard while showering). In fact, you could say, especially if you look at other movies the actresses partook in, that they were unsexualized in this one. In contrast, “Chips” always shows off his muscles under are a tight blue shirt and a pair of “Rebel-without-a-Cause-Glasses”; and Kurt wears the shortest pants with pride, while he unbuttons his collar, and makes the same use of his glasses. 

The second time they meet, some days have passed since “The Indian” got send to the hospital, and John Wayne receives a call, telling him that “Chips” abandoned the place after asking for money. Kurt assumes that he has gotten the money for himself and is not going to appear again. But soon after, the French comes by, a rifle that he bought back with the money he asked for in his hands, and ready to apply for the job. After they try him out and realize he’s a good shot, Kurt seems to be quite happy to accept him and even gives him his weapon. “Chips” punches him in the face and asks him afterward: “Do you still want me?”

It was at this point that I first noticed the queer coding. Who would ask if someone still wanted him when he was applying for a job? Funny enough, it was obvious that the reason they did not like each other at the beginning was mare Pride from “Chip’s” side and Prejudice from Kurt’s part. But after this, they become close friends. They drive together in the same car, they wear the same glasses, are always close to each other, “Chips” even safes Kurt’s life at one point… And yes, they also fight for the same girl. You may wonder how that’s possible if they are both gay. However, it was rather usual for queer coded movies to put a female love interest in between “gay acted” characters, in order for the film to pass the censorship. It is obvious if you see the movie that neither of the two men is really interested in the girl they are chasing. They pass more screen time looking at each other than at her, and when it turns out that she is in love with the comedic character, they accept it easily and Kurt invites “Chips” for a drink. 

What is great about this movie is that you can easily see when the screen players or director thought, they were being too obvious, as immediately after a very close scene between them comes another one with a female counterpart, or were one is relegated to the background, looking at the other from time to time with apparent longing. They get hurt together, they heal their wounds together, literary in fact, and they are always driving together. By the end of the movie, they both have planned to go to Paris together and stay there until the next hunting season. They apparently both know a girl there. “It’s a good excuse for another fight,wright” says Kurt and then asks John Wayne what his love interest is going to do, therefore comparing “Chips” with the girl Wayne loves.

It is precisely this ending that makes me love the movie more. And for that to be understood we have to see how the queer coding at the time went. When we think about hidden queer characters in classics, usually there are some movies that pop up repeatedly: “Strangers on a train” by Alfred Hitchcock, “Spartacus” by Stanley Kubrick, “Some like it hot” by Billy Wilder… Each of this three examples shows a different kind of typical queer coded character:

 “Strangers on a train” was not the only time Hitchcock queer coded main characters. He did the same with the movie “Rope” and the similarities between the men are quite obvious. As much as I love Hitchcock both for his films and his willingness to break molds and fight for acceptance, I have to agree with those that criticize him for making his villains gay. Even in “Strangers on a train”, where the hero is also queer coded, he ends up with a female lover instead of with his villainous gay counterpart. In that sense, “Spartacus”, the movie that helped break the Black List and is all about freedom of expression and the right to be oneself, has a similar problem. Tony Curtis plays a young, attractive and somewhat feminine slave that falls in love for Spartacus, who rescues and takes care of him. But as the story is a tragedy and a reflection of the times Trumbo lived in as he wrote it, everybody dies. Only Spartacus’ female lover survives and runs away with her baby. 

And then we have the hilarious “Some like It hot”, that is way more explicit and actually has a happy ending for the two queer coded characters. The only slight problem is that these characters are supposed to be a joke. Their sexuality is supposed to be part of the joke. By stating this, I’m not trying to devaluate these movies. They are some of the best films ever made, touching on impossible themes at the time with impeccable taste and great direction. But they also show the stereotype that would follow gay characters in movies up until now. 

There have only been three queer characters in Hollywood for decades: The comic relief, the villain, or the hero with a tragic ending. Nothing more nothing less. And this is the brilliance of “Hatari!” in my opinion. Kurt and “Chips” are anything but gay stereotypes. They don’t have a tragic ending, they are not villains, and they are not there to be a comic relief. In fact, “Pockets” the character that so easily could have been queer coded, is the one that ends up with the girl.

This is the reason I wanted to write this essay. This two minor, overlooked characters of a movie that nobody bothers to remember could easily be the best gay couple that was written during the censorship era. And they end up happy, and they have never been outed before. So this is me pulling them out of the closet.

 I hope you like it.

 But even if you don’t believe the couple is gay, you can still enjoy the movie, as my family does, because of its light harded humour, great score from Henri Manccini, great screenplay by some of the best Hollywood writers at the time, and beautiful elephants in the room ;)

[movietvtechgeeks]

Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/stranger-things-season-2-told-us-expect-season-3/

'Stranger Things': What Season 2 told us to expect for Season 3

There's no way to not binge watch Stranger Things no matter how hard you try to make the nine episodes last as long as possible. Especially knowing that Season 3 won't be around until 2019, but all of us here at MTTG wound up breaking our Season 2 viewing into two days unlike Season 1 which had us spending all afternoon glued to our 4K television. The Duffer Brothers have said they wanted this season to wrap up more plot threads than in the first season, but it seems they left plenty more for us to comment on and then ask what will come of them in 2019. Season 2 didn't end with such a big cliffhanger as one did, but it did give us a nice warm happy feeling even (who couldn't get all fuzzy feeling at that dance?) with that little peek into what's coming back. HOW LONG DO WE HAVE TO WAIT? After Season 1 premiered, it took Stranger Things creators Ross and Matt Duffer 15 months to write, film, and add all the creature-feature special effects to the second season of their hit Netflix series. With stars like Finn Wolfhard, David Harbour, and Millie Bobby Brown increasingly in demand on major upcoming film projects like It 2, Hellboy, and Godzilla: King of Monsters, the Duffer brothers might find it even more challenging to get their entire cast together to film Season 3. Either way, fans likely won’t get another installment in this particular adventure until 2019. No Game of Thrones or Stranger Things in 2018? What’s a genre-lover to do? When Season 3 does premiere, the Duffers have confirmed the show will feature yet another significant time jump in order to keep pace with its young, growing cast members. If Stranger Things does leap forward one year in time (say, to the end of Eleven’s confinement?), then expect to see a few more inches of hair on its leading lady’s head and, perhaps, the start of her first-ever school year with the rest of her friends. If all the kids—Eleven, Mike, Will, Lucas, Dustin, Max—are 14 in Season 3, that means we’ll likely see them all bravely entering the dangerous territory of ninth grade at Hawkins High. WHO WILL BE THE BIG BAD?

If the finale is any indication, the Big Bad of Season 3 seems like it will be the same as ever—the giant, shadowy creature that the kids call the Mind Flayer. As Ross Duffer told The Hollywood Reporter:

They’ve shut the door on the Mind Flayer, but not only is it still there in the Upside Down, but it also is very much aware of the kids, particularly Eleven. It had not encountered her and her powers until that final episode. Now, it knows that she’s out there. We wanted to end on a little bit of an ominous note. Well, no wonder the episode concluded with that classic 80s ode to stalking: 1983’s “Every Breath You Take” by The Police. We’ve seen the Mind Flayer looming over Hawkins before, but now it seems to have zeroed in precisely on Eleven—and will be closely watching every breath, step, claim, smile, vow, and move she makes. HOW WILL IT GET IN?

In previous seasons, Will has acted as an unwilling gateway of sorts to the Mind Flayer’s attempts to invade and destroy Hawkins, Indiana. Will he again act as the monster’s vessel? The Duffers have said the once-possessed Will has now been cleansed of any supernatural invaders, but actor Noah Schnapp is not convinced. “I personally think it’s not all out of him,” he told THR. “I feel like it can’t be. There’s this massive monster taking over all of Hawkins, and all you have to do is light a few fires and turn on a few heaters, and he’s gone? It just doesn’t make sense to me, really. He’s still there—I just don’t know how.” If I were Mike, I would keep a close eye on my best friend for any sign of “The Spy.”

IF NOT WILL, THEN WHO?

If the Duffers are not playing coy and Will is completely cleansed of any trace of the Mind Flayer, then who else could help the many-legged creep sneak back into Hawkins? Well, bear in mind that while exploring the creepy underground caverns created by the monster, both Sheriff Hopper and Dustin got sprayed in the face with Upside Down pollen. Hopper wasn‘t wearing any protection when he got hit—twice. Dustin, who was sensibly wearing goggles and a bandana, claims some of that dust got in his mouth. Either one of them—both emotionally fragile people at the end of Season 2—could be unknowingly incubating something nasty.

And if Hopper does wind up being the vehicle for this particular brand of evil, a quick trip under his cabin floorboards could hint at how that nastiness might manifest. We haven’t seen Hopper’s war experience take a toll on him (the grief he was nursing seemed pegged to his late daughter), but Vietnam-inspired P.T.S.D. was very much a subject of fascination in 80s pop culture. Will Season 3 take us on a hellish climb up Jacob’s Ladder (1990)? CHEKOV’S DEMODOG

One final possibility for a Season 3 invader could be the dead (or is it?) Demodog that Dustin and Steve stuffed in Joyce’s fridge. The creature doesn’t get another mention—not even in the “One Month Later” montage—but it’s hard to imagine students of pop culture like Ross and Matt Duffer ignoring something as enticing as that thawable critter on ice.

ANOTHER ANTAGONIST

If the Duffers want to give the Mind Flayer a rest for a year, only to bring him back for the planned fourth and final season, then there are a few other possibilities as to who might cause trouble for Eleven et al. next year. High on the list has to be her long-lost “sister” Eight, a.k.a. Kali (Linnea Berthelsen). Kali’s particular set of skills—being able to make you see whatever she wants you to—plus her violent, vengeful mission could easily put her on a path to come to blows with Eleven. (Those hallucination skills could also link up with a potential PTSD plotline for Hopper.) We also don’t know what Eleven’s other labmates (One-Seven, Nine, and Ten) are up to. We could have a big X-Men-esque showdown on our hands before all is said and done.

Another possibility for Kali and her rag-tag band of punks is that the Duffer brothers intend the seventh episode of this season to operate as a backdoor pilot for an Eight-centric spin-off series. (In fact, the brothers referred to that episode as “a whole little other pilot” when speaking with Entertainment Weekly.) Given the critical reaction to Eight’s episode (which was mixed at best), that spin-off seems unlikely. But either way, we’ve surely not seen the last of Kali who, bear in mind, is named after the Hindu goddess best-known for being “the destroyer of worlds.”

PAPA, CAN YOU HEAR ME?

Eleven could also face danger from another pseudo member of her family: Dr. Brenner a.k.a. “Papa.” Though Matthew Modine’s Season 1 antagonist only appeared in flashbacks and visions this season, the Duffers have been quite clear that there’s probably more in store for him. Matt Duffer told IGN:

I would say that if we were going to kill Brenner… as an audience member watching the show, if that was his death, that would be very unsatisfying to me—when the monster jumps on him, and we cut away. He would deserve much more than that as an ending. So yes, there’s a possibility of seeing him again. Season 2 leaned in heavily on the notion that Benner is not quite dead yet. So Season 3 could give us a battle of Eleven’s father figures: Hopper vs. Brenner. WHO WON’T BE BACK

Though we likely haven’t seen the last of Brenner or Eight, we did see the Department of Energy chased out of Hawkins, hopefully for good. I’m not saying a shadowy government conspiracy won’t rear its head in future installments, but it would be nice to give the DoE a break from the villain role. I also wouldn’t mind if Billy, a truly unnecessary new character, disappeared into thin air.

Also, please let this be the last we hear of Barb Holland. Season 2 was far too preoccupied with serving the fan demand of “justice for Barb.” Justice having been served, I hope she rests, permanently, in peace. WHO HAS TO COME BACK

As with all high school-set stories, Stranger Things may have written itself into a bit of a corner when it came to graduating characters. It’s a fine tradition for teen shows to find some excuse to have their 18-year-old characters stick around town even after their senior years end, whether it be following burnouts like Tim Riggins on Friday Night Lights or inventing conveniently localized universities like Hearst College (Veronica Mars), U.C. Sunnydale (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), or California University (Beverly Hills, 90210). So what, oh what will the Duffers do to keep graduating senior Steve Harrington in Hawkins next year? There’s no way they get rid of fan favorite and Season 2 MVP Joe Keery.

The third season could take place over 1985 summer vacation—but that seems unlikely, given the show’s penchant for autumn. Instead, the Duffers cleverly planted the idea in Season 2, Episode 1 that Steve might stick around town and go work for his old man in order to keep a protective eye on his now-ex Nancy. That’s not what I want for Steve the character. (Move on, Steve! Go to college!) But if it means the world’s best babysitter and his incredible head of hair stays in the mix for Season 3, then I’m all for it. The Jonathan/Nancy/Steve love triangle will live to fight another day.

FRIENDS AND LOVERS

Speaking of love triangles: the dynamic gently simmering in the background of Season 2 between Joyce, Bob, and Hopper means that we can all expect Will’s mom and Eleven’s adopted dad to go full Brady Bunch at some point in the future. Will the Duffers make us wait until the end of Season 4 for the moment we all can see coming?

[caption id="attachment_50486" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Not Zac Efron[/caption] NOW FOR OUR QUESTIONS ABOUT STRANGER THINGS SEASON 3 Are Hopper and Joyce finally gonna get together? Yes, Bob Newby’s heroic corpse is still warm, but Jopper fans need this question asked right up front. Joyce Byers and Jim Hopper certainly share a traumatic experience now, if not several, and they’ve got a long history that dates back to sneaking cigarettes together in high school. There’s something in their final moments this season that suggests this pair may be closer to uniting than ever before. Just think, Will and Eleven could be step-siblings! David Harbour certainly wants it to happen, saying on Beyond Stranger Things that “the sex would be a lot better with Hopper than it is with Bob.” Ouch. Were Dustin and Hopper infected in the tunnels?

A whole bunch of characters travel into the Upside Down–esque tunnels in Stranger Things 2, but two of our favorites also ingest a great deal of the funky stuff that’s floating around down there. Hopper spent a great deal of time trapped by those supernatural vines and Dustin swallowed a big chunk of Upside Down ephemera. Given the Duffer brothers’ reverence of Aliens, will these occurrences come back to haunt them? Like Will, might they develop a connection to this other dimension, or worse? If Dustin ends up having the Stranger Things version of a chest-burster, we’ll need years of therapy to deal with it.

What role will Kali play next season?

After that incredible opening scene for Stranger Things 2, we don’t see Linnea Berthelsen’s Kali until close to the end of the season, as Eleven has an adventure with her psychic “sister” that teaches our heroine the extent of her own powers. But is that it for Kali and her Warriors-esque crew? It’s hard to believe we’ve seen the last of her, not only because her connection to Eleven remains strong but because her arc ended so abruptly. There wasn’t the closure this character demands. There’s a lot more to this character and more story to tell.

Are there other numbers out there?

While we’re on the subject, are there other people like Kali and Eleven hiding in the Stranger Things universe? If we’ve met Eight and Eleven, where are the rest? The flashbacks to Eleven’s childhood and the way she connects with Eight certainly implies there could be more kids out there with similar powers. This is the kind of question that may not be answered in Stranger Things 3, but could come up in later seasons — or possibly a spinoff series. Just picture it: Stranger Things 5: Eleven Meets Twelve.

Will the Mind Flayer be the antagonist of season three?

That final shot of Stranger Things 2 is a beauty, and not just because it adds another layer to the use of “the stalker song,” as Gaten Matarazzo describes the Police’s “Every Breath You Take” in Beyond Stranger Things. The Mind Flayer is still watching every breath that the gang takes during the Snow Ball, as we see it stalking about Hawkins Middle School in the Upside Down. Does this mean that it’ll be back as the main villain next year? Or even further into the arc of the show? It certainly implies that we haven’t seen the last of this great TV villain.

Will Dr. Brenner return?

One of the most interesting developments in Stranger Things 2 is the strong implication that Matthew Modine’s Dr. Brenner is still alive. Not only does Kali tell Eleven that she hasn’t looked hard enough for “Papa,” but the Hawkins Lab goon that they threaten says that he can actually take them to Brenner. It’s not hard to envision a return for Modine’s formidable character in season three or beyond. After all, Eleven hasn’t completely closed the door on the first person to show her any care, so there’s a reason why she still hasn’t tried to track him down. (Also, Millie Bobby Brown has some fascinating insight into the Brenner-Eleven relationship in Beyond Stranger Things.) Whether it’s in flashbacks or an actual return to Hawkins, Brenner will almost certainly surface again.

Is Will Byers finally free?

The main narrative thrust of Stranger Things 2 was Will’s connection to the Upside Down, but are we sure that he’s been saved for good? We know that the Mind Flayer was able to hide itself pretty well inside Will’s mind. What if there’s still a deadly connection between it and Will? This poor kid just can’t catch a break.

What’ll happen to poor Steve?

The love triangle between Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan is all but over, officially leaving Steve as the third wheel. Sure, he’s become a big brother figure for Dustin, but is that enough to keep this character around for Stranger Things 3? He’ll be graduating from Hawkins High pretty soon, and as much as he’s a fan favorite, it feels like he’d be the one to go if the show decides to make room for new characters.

Is Hawkins Lab closed for good?

As most of the technicians at Hawkins Laboratory turned into food for Demodogs, and the rest drove off after Murray dropped his bombshell scoop about Barb’s death, it feels like the door is finally closed on the Hawkins Lab arc of Stranger Things. If we had to guess, season three will move away from characters like Dr. Brenner and Dr. Owens as primary characters, although a place like that surely has more secrets from its past just waiting to be unearthed.

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Oscar Diversity doesn't reflect real world industry

Hollywood is a prime example of why things are the way they are now in America. For years, it ignored the fact that minorities got the short end of the stick when it came to the Academy Awards and film roles while still praising itself for being so liberal minded. They would hold fundraisers for so many liberal causes without realizing that it was part of the problem by whitewashing so many of their films. Of course, they tried to use every excuse in the book for this, but it was all about the bottom line. It's always been like that since the film industry began. Now that Donald Trump is in office, Hollywood is seeing a rather horrid reflection of itself in letting things slide for so long. Yes, this year there are more minorities that were nominated, but it's a gesture that has come too late. Whitewashing in film has only empowered those in our country who feel that anyone with skin darker than theirs is a lesser being. That's how this has always worked in the past. People know there is a problem in their actions, but they'll rationalize by saying at least they're not like 'those people.' Sadly, that type of thinking makes the person even worse than 'those people' because 'those people' aren't afraid to let their views be known. Donald Trump's campaign put red hats on top of their heads so we could see them. By hiding behind, 'at least I'm not like them' has let 'them' come to be in power now. So while Hollywood is congratulating itself for being so forward thinking, just remember, you were forced into this thinking by being shamed. If you are truly as forward thinking as you promote, this would never have been a problem needed to be brought to your attention. After two years of intense public scrutiny over the academy's all-white acting nominations, the 2017 Oscar nominees are as diverse a group as the organization has ever seen, thanks to films like "Moonlight," ''Fences," ''Hidden Figures" and "Loving." It's been cause for celebration, but also for reflection and heightened scrutiny of areas where there is still work to be done. And there are some in the industry who wonder whether the rich diversity of this year's Oscars is a blip, a sign of progress, or some complicated combination of the two. Then there's the matter of who will ultimately win on Sunday night. The landmark nominations are undeniable, especially in the acting categories. It's the first time ever that each has at least one black nominee. Denzel Washington ("Fences") is up for best actor (his seventh nomination), Mahershala Ali ("Moonlight") for best-supporting actor, Ruth Negga ("Loving") is a best actress contender, and, in another first, the best-supporting actress category includes three black nominees (Naomie Harris for "Moonlight," Viola Davis for "Fences" and Octavia Spencer for "Hidden Figures"). All in all, there are six black actors nominated and seven actors of color (including Dev Patel for "Lion") - a deafening response to #OscarsSoWhite, which activist April Reign coined in response to the all-white acting nominees in 2015, and then again in 2016. There were strides made behind the camera as well. Bradford Young became the first African American to be nominated for cinematography for "Arrival." ''Moonlight" editor Joi McMillon is the first black female nominee in that category. It's the second time a black female producer has been nominated for best picture (Kimberly Steward for "Manchester by the Sea") and the first time that three films with black producers were nominated for best picture (including Washington for "Fences" and Pharrell Williams for "Hidden Figures"). There are also four black directors whose documentaries were nominated, three of which are about race. It might lead one to think that #OscarsSoWhite is a thing of the past - eradicated through public outcries and an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences membership shake-up in which 683 new faces were invited to join with an emphasis on diversity. One of those new members, director Amma Asante, said it's "a good thing" that "more people who look like me have been nominated." In reality, however, the nominations are the result of a messy confluence of factors that don't lend themselves to a simple narrative - not to mention the fact that diversity doesn't end with black and white. "One year does not make up for over 80 years of a lack of representation of black people in the film industry," Reign said. She never intended #OscarsSoWhite to just be about black nominees, either, or even race. Instead, it was meant to shine a light on all underrepresented communities in films. And while much has been made of the breadth of the academy's efforts, David Poland, editor of MovieCityNews.com, has estimated that in the end, there were fewer than 50 new black members and just over 30 new female members inducted. (The academy does release specific information about membership.) He and others have questioned the idea that this year's nominations are a result of those changes. "The diversity of the nominees is 100% a function of the films that were released this year," Poland said. "It is wonderful that these films were recognized this season, but not because they were 'of color,' but because they are excellent movies ... It is, in reality, insulting to the films that are about or made by people of color that they will get in or have gotten in based on the issue of race." Conflating the protest with the accolades is a double-edged sword for many, especially those involved in the films. It's one thing to recognize correlation. It's another to assume causation. "I'm hoping it's not a trend," Viola Davis said. "I'm hoping it's not something based on a hashtag. It is something based on the natural fabric of what America is and what America now wants to see." Also, as nominated "Moonlight" director Barry Jenkins points out, many of the films responsible for the diversity this year were in the works before OscarsSoWhite. "Most of these films started a few years ago - four years ago, five years ago - not as a response to what happened last year, but as a response to the lack of these voices," Jenkins said. "I have no doubt that next year we'll be here this time of year and it'll be the same thing ... we're not going away." To be fair, Reign, too, doesn't believe that anyone was nominated because of a hashtag, or that any of the films were made in response. Ultimately what the hashtag did, like all effective protest movements, is raise awareness and consciousness around representation and, possibly, the films. But the Oscars litmus test is a shallow one for some. Oscar nominations (and even wins) are simply a last stage reflection of the industry at large and what films actually get made and put into the marketplace. It's telling that most of the best picture nominees started as independent films. "Let's be clear, it's a much better year than it was the last two years, but complacency and the notion that things have changed are things that I would guard against," said actor David Oyelowo. "The infrastructure that enabled two years of OscarsSoWhite hasn't fundamentally changed." Raoul Peck, the nominated director of the documentary "I Am Not Your Negro," echoed Oyelowo's sentiments. "As long as the person giving the greenlight to a movie is not a woman, a black person, a Latino, a gay, whatever - if there is not a bigger repartition of this power structure, nothing will change," Peck said. "We will go back and back to this conversation as long as nobody can say these are the definite changes."

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