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thequeereview · 2 years

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Outfest LA 2022 Film Review: ALL MAN The International Male Story ★★★★

Following its world premiere at Tribeca last month, directors Bryan Darling and Jesse Finlay Reed’s delectable ALL MAN: The International Male Story plays the 40th Anniversary Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival on Saturday, July 16th. The feature documentary chronicles the history of the alluring men’s fashion catalogue, International Male, with insights from the insiders who were part of…

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pansyboybloom · 10 months

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NO MINORS PLS!

im Emil (currently trying Sebastian and Anthony, pls call me those it makes me feel warm and fuzzy :3 ) and i'm your local pansy, a gay aro ftm from the southern USA. i'm 24, been on T since 2019 and had top surgery in 2020. i use he/him, it/its, and rot/rots. i do not use they/them. i'm pretty gender nonconforming and about as close to a hopeless romantic as an aro person can be. while i am a trans man, i see my gender as distinctly tied to my homosexuality. in short, I'm a pansy <3

i try to add image descriptions when i can, but i am disabled and have hand shakes so unfortunately im not very consistent at doing so. sorry!!

this is a safe space for all mlm and nlm, not just male ones. fem/women mlm, fem/women nblm, bigender, multigender, genderfluid, etc. if you id as mlm or nblm, you are wanted. that being said, as an aro binary trans gay man, this content will focus more on my lived experience

non mlm and nblm queer ppl are appreciated and welcome! you're welcome to rb any post not specifically for mlm or nblm, just use your best judgement! this is a 18+ only zone!

misgendering/detransition kink blogs will be blocked. no hard feelings, just just make me suuuuuper dysphoric and i cant handle yall in my notes

(main is @transskywardsword )

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BOOKS OF 2024: This year I am making an effort to read more intersectional, minority-focused, leftist, etc books, focusing primarily on nonfiction and memoirs. I post book reviews after finishing each book! track #ant reads if you'd like to keep up to date with my reading!

READ:

Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime (Alex Espinoza) 7/10

Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and Scapegoating of Femininity; 2nd Edition (Julia Serano) 7.5/10

Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States (Samantha Allen) 8/10

READING:

It Was Vulgar & It Was Beautiful: How AIDs Activists Used Art To Fight A Pandemic (Jack Lowery)

how to use rot/rots pronouns:

Subject Pronoun - rot

Object Pronoun - rot

Possessive Determiner - rots

Possessive Pronoun - rots

Reflexive Pronoun - rotself

a disclaimer: after years of repressing my sexuality and refusing to allow myself the chance to be sexual and intimate due to internalized transphobia, I am using this blog to experiment with becoming more comfortable with sex. That means there will be sexual posts on here. This is not a porn blog! But it will be nsft at times.

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wifelinkmtg · 9 months

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Yeah alright let’s talk Tarkir

Getting this out of the way: I do not care about Alesha, so if you were coming here ready to hear anything about the first-ever transgender girl out of Magic*, sorry to disappoint.

Actually, yeah, I’m gonna talk about this for a little bit. I understand Alesha means a lot to some people, and I’m not saying they’re wrong to feel that way. I’m sure there are people who had to fight to make Alesha openly & canonically trans, and I’m not saying that this was meaningless, wasted effort. It’s nice to be able to point to someone and say, see, there’s a place for people like me here. I was excited about it at the time and I wasn’t even into Magic back then.

But like c’mon, y’all, she’s not really a character, right? She gets one story, the thrust of which is, “this character is trans, and that’s basically fine.” Alesha exists to be part of the banner image of the internal WotC LGBT employees’ monthly newsletter. She exists to be the discord avatar for every third trans girl into Magic. She exists so a massive corporation can point to her as evidence that they care in some nebulous way about trans people, and she costs slightly less than paying someone to, say, actually moderate the hate speech comments on their vids of Autumn Burchett’s pro tour games.

All of which is to say, they don’t actually care. You know this. Individual staff, writers, artists - sure, but they’re not the ones who make the final decisions. And you and I deserve better from our stories, and we’re never going to get that from fucking Hasbro, right?

So here’s my pitch: seek out actual queer stories, and I’m not talking about contemporary YA shit with a marketing budget. For readers of this specific blog I’d recommend looking up “Attack Helicopter” by Isabel Fall (you should still be able to find it online). Stories where the texture and structure of thought are queer and trans are revelatory. You don’t need to beg for crumbs from a megacorp’s table.

ANYWAY, COMMA,

welcome to Tarkir! There used to not be dragons here, but now there are. In either timeline, everyone is locked in a brutal, unending struggle of clan-against-clan, so thanks, Sarkhan? Yeah, no, I hear you, it’s definitely different now. Yeah, and better. Yeah, because of the...yeah, because there’s dragons now, right. No, you did great, buddy. You really, uh, made a difference.

JESUS, IS HE CRYING? GET ME OUT OF HERE PLEASE

Monastery Swiftspear (art by Steve Argyle)

I’ve come to think of the current era of MtG art (let’s arbitrarily say from Kaladesh block to the present) as the “Magali Villeneuve era”, and if I’m being totally honest, I kind of hate it. Everything is technically competent, clearly lit, and immaculately detailed. Everyone has amazing cheekbones. It is so, so boring. I’m not at all saying she’s a bad artist! Sometimes, as with Kaldheim, she is very nearly the only person in a set making good art. I’ve featured her work on here many, many times.

What I am saying is that her work always has this, like, objectivity to it that feels detached and even alienating, like we’re looking at these characters through a powerful telescope. There’s no stylization, and dare I say no style.

The reason I bring her up in a set in which I will not be reviewing her work (sorry, Narset fans), is that Steve Argyle makes for an interesting comparison. They are to my untrained eye very similar artists: the sharp linework, the combination of dynamics and detachment. The major difference is that Steve’s art is substantially hornier and substantially male-gazier.

And goddammit, at least that’s something.

I HAVE THIS OPINION BECAUSE I’M A BAD FEMINIST. AND I DESERVE TO BE PUNISHED ABOUT IT

Unyielding Krumar (art by Viktor Titov)

I’m not sure why Viktor made this orc look like a ripped lizard man. None of the other orcs in this block look like this. Maybe he thought “krumar” was a species of lizard folk, when in point of fact a krumar is, checks notes, an orphan of the Mardu raised by the Abzan who killed their parents in a twist of worldbuilding regrettably reminiscent of a strategy used in real-world genocides. Whoops!

Anyway, big arms. Lizard person. Sorry about your family.

WIZARDS STAY CLASSY I GUESS

Ire Shaman (art by Jack Wang)

Yeah, see, extremely not a lizard.

We’re not going to talk about armor practicality because that is very much beside the point, but we were all thinking it, and I want to acknowledge that before moving onto saying nice things about what all the leather bands are doing for her arms, and what this lamellar bustier is doing for her tits.

YEAH I KNOW WHAT LAMELLAR IS. PRETTY HOT, RIGHT

Den Protector (art by Viktor Titov)

I am not immune to mothers, nor women in furs, and I’m especially not immune to women with big two-handed weapons (in either sense, I suppose.) I really like the sense of motion in this picture, and the dynamic thrust of the landscape behind her, and... hm. Is her right-hand grip reversed from what it should be? Dammit, that’s going to bother me.

I LIKE MY WOMEN TO HAVE BETTER GRIP TECHNIQUE IS ALL I’M SAYING

Wandering Champion (art by Willian Murai)

I am trying really, really hard not to date myself by a reference to a shitty 20-year-old flash animation. Anyway! she has flexibility, power, and isn’t afraid of a little viscera now and again. All excellent qualities.

I AM HONESTLY EXERCISING IMMENSE SELF-RESTRAINT HERE

Sultai Flayer (art by Izzy)

Sorry, do you not want a forty-foot androgyne snake person to remove your skin with tender, agonizing slowness? Are you lost?

WHY DON’T YOU MARRY YOUR SKIN IF YOU’RE SO GODDAMN ATTACHED TO IT. PUSSY.

Highspire Mantis (art by Igor Kieryluk)

I did the mantis bit in my Battle for Zendikar post, but I thought I’d actually dig into what the appeal is here: raptorial forelimbs. The inescapable, serrated hold of something that could slice you open as easy as thinking, but hasn’t yet. The smoothness of chitin, hard without being inflexible. The many strange articulations. And then either you make out or it eats your head, and it is not up to you which.

WHEN WILL WIZARDS GIVE US THE MANTIS-FUCKER REPRESENTATION WE DESERVE. ROSEWATER’S SILENCE ON THIS ISSUE IS DEAFENING.

Alright, that’s Tarkir down! Who knows what’s next? Probably a very cranky explanation of what fiction is and why it’s okay to like fictional bad guys (it’s because they’re not real.) At first I thought that was going to be a more interesting topic, but the more I think about it the more it seems like it’s...really not. I can have fun with it, though! Thanks for reading, and I’ll see y’all next time.

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*the first-ever transgender girl out of Magic/had to settle on a name/and the top three contenders after weeks of debate/were Alesha/and Shensu/and the Kolaghan Bomber

#magic the gathering #tarkir

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annabolinas · 6 months

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Anne of the Thousand Days Review: Part 2

Alright, here's part 2! Spoiler alert but this movie has some shockingly regressive views about women... no, not just by the male characters in it.

Absurdities only mount as Henry visits Anne in person in her Tower cell and offers to let her live and have custody of Elizabeth if she agrees to an annulment. Anne utterly refuses; while this is completely the opposite of what the real Anne did, this is an understandable deviation, as it is more straightforwardly heroic. Anne lying that she committed adultery with “half your court”, though, is not only baffling, but an insult to the real Anne’s memory. I know that sounds harsh, but bear with me. In the movie, Anne seems to fling this lie at Henry to wound his fragile masculinity, as seen in her remark that he should “look, for the rest of your life, at every man that ever knew me and wonder if I didn’t find them a better man than you!” But Anne shifts far too rapidly from crying out at her trial, “They were innocent as I am innocent! Any man, no matter who he is, who says the contrary, is a liar!”, to freely lying and stating that she’s an adulteress. There’s no buildup, no rhyme or reason that the audience can see as to why she would do such a thing. Moreover, the real Anne never confessed to adultery, twice swearing on the Eucharist that she was innocent of all charges. Anne of the Thousand Days’ portrayal of its Anne as flippantly and falsely confessing to adultery and incest undermines her real-life courage and bravery in maintaining the truth until the end, even on peril of her soul’s damnation. It’s incredibly disrespectful, to say the least.

Above all, the movie fails on an emotional level. Not only does it sag in the middle with its pacing and excitement, but it fails to create a compelling or believable relationship between Anne and Henry, the movie’s two leads. The marketing for this movie played up its romantic aspects, even if it is really more reminiscent of a boss sexually harassing young female interns; its poster reads, ‘He was King. She was barely 18. And in their thousand days they played out the most passionate and shocking love story in history!” However, the movie fails to convince audiences of a core part of its story - the romance, let alone the believability of Henry and Anne’s relationship. There are usually two ways adaptations go with Henry and Anne’s relationship. They either have Henry and Anne, after some point, have a genuinely loving relationship until it goes horribly wrong (e.g. The Tudors, Blood, Sex, & Royalty) or portray Anne as stringing Henry along to win a crown (e.g. Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972), The Other Boleyn Girl, Wolf Hall to an extent). Anne of the Thousand Days takes a third choice and goes the route of portraying Henry as sexually harassing an initially quite unwilling Anne. Henry’s attraction to Anne is never explained, as in the first scene (chronologically), he’s drawn to her before she says a word, even ordering Wolsey to break her romance with Percy. Why? Is it just because he wants her in his bed? After all, Henry declares at one point that he’s never been refused by a woman; maybe he finds the challenge exhilarating. But if so, why does he remain fixated with her after she insults his words and poetry, even though he says there’s no better way to end his interest than by doing that? Indeed, Anne later says that Henry wants to know whether she’s guilty because “that would touch your manhood and your pride”, indicating that he is touchy about such subjects. Apparently, though, he’s not sensitive enough to abandon Anne after she blasts every part of his personality at the start of their courtship. Why does he still try to woo her for six years, throughout which Henry admits that “Not once have you said, ‘I love you’”? To be clear, it’s not an impossible scenario, but it is perhaps the farthest thing from romance imaginable.

In other words, what are we supposed to think of Henry and Anne’s relationship? Far from being a passionate romance turned toxic, Anne of the Thousand Days portrays a toxic relationship driven by lust on Henry’s part and ambition on Anne’s part, a relationship where supposedly, they only love each other for one day. Such a characterization of any relationship, let alone the fascinating and complex one of the real Henry and Anne, would be too reductive. Henry starting to hate Anne immediately after she falls for him not only is too simplistic for viewers, but not even supported by the movie. Henry continues to love Anne and behave affectionately towards her after they sleep together until she gives birth to Elizabeth, meaning there are at least nine months of mutual love between them in the movie’s timeline!

Even the ending of Anne of the Thousand Days, despite its seemingly-empowering voiceover of Anne narrating how Elizabeth will be a great queen, is hampered by an unwillingness to face the full tragedy of her death. In real life, Anne was at most 35 when she was beheaded on false charges, and in the timeline of the movie, she’s around 29, following the 1507 birth date. Anne’s death is presented as poignant, as she remarks on the May flowers growing just as she did on her coronation day. But the absence of her execution speech, in what I can only assume is an attempt to highlight its somber brutality, is in fact borderline disrespectful to the real woman. While unlike Anne Boleyn (2021), this film does not purport to present Anne’s side of the story through a feminist lens, it is still galling that in place of the real Anne’s words, the writers inserted a fictitious monologue about Elizabeth’s greatness, which the real Anne could never have known! The real Anne Boleyn was a highly intelligent, ambitious, and reform-minded queen executed by her husband on false charges. Not only was her death, along with the deaths of the five men accused with her (never mentioned in the film!) a grave miscarriage of justice, but it was a tragedy. Much of its tragic nature derives from the fact that Anne left her toddler daughter, as far as she knew, dependent on the whims of her father and a bastard. There is no way she could have known, that anyone could have known, that Elizabeth would become queen. Anne of the Thousand Days giving Anne this knowledge makes sense out of a senseless, brutal demise, almost implying that there was a silver lining to Anne’s death because her daughter became queen.

It once again defines a woman by her reproductive history, and the film follows in a long tradition of claiming Anne’s real worth lay in her womb and the great queen it produced, her tragic downfall notwithstanding. Despite its ostensible focus on Anne Boleyn, the movie, like so many films then before and since, fails to understand - arguably, does not try to understand - historical women like Anne on their own terms. Women, in this mindset, must always be defined by their relation to a man or an exceptional woman. It’s not enough that Anne was an exceptional woman in her own right, that women are inherently important on their own, not by virtue of their family. Anne of the Thousand Days, at a time when cinema was pioneering in so many ways, is rigidly traditional in its views of women. Dramatic license with history needs to both fulfill a satisfying dramatic aim and at least be in contact with the facts; Anne of the Thousand Days’ portrayal of its titular queen’s death fails on both counts.

Needless to say, I didn’t like this movie. Its costumes, sumptuous pageantry, and strong performances from Genevieve Bujold as Anne, Anthony Quayle as Wolsey, and John Colicos as Cromwell, cannot make up for the fact that the rest of the film’s parts are either mediocre or simply bad. Why then do so many people think fondly not just of Genevieve Bujold’s Anne, but also this movie? Part of it must be nostalgia - it would have gained a special place in the hearts of Tudor fans who grew up in 1969 and the following decade. Its accessibility for purchase on platforms like Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and Youtube, also meant it gained more popularity than the far superior 1970 BBC miniseries The Six Wives of Henry VIII, which is only available on DVD and the platform Britbox. But I’ve argued in this review that Anne of the Thousand Days is just as inaccurate as more scorned depictions like The Tudors; in fact, I firmly believe that on the whole, Anne of the Thousand Days has more inaccuracies in its plot and characterization than The Tudors! Why, then, in spite of its major inaccuracies, does Anne of the Thousand Days retain a reputation for authenticity?

The fact Jonathan Rhys Meyers looks nothing like Henry VIII in The Tudors and has little of the real king’s imposing majesty is surely part of it. More to the point, though, The Tudors’ propensity towards sex and nudity in its first two seasons meant it seemed louche and vulgar compared to the sober and slow-paced Anne of the Thousand Days. If Natalie Dormer’s Anne was criminally overlooked by critics because of her show’s disreputable appearance, then the opposite has occurred with this movie. Genevieve Bujold’s great performance has managed to elevate a quite mediocre and often horribly reductive movie into the hallowed halls of the Period Drama Pantheon. It’s time for a broader reappraisal of this movie: one which dethrones it for good.

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canonically47 · 3 months

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REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW

OF COURSE!!! THANK YOU FOR ASKING I WAS JUST ABOUT TO MAKE A POST LOL

here we go...

DCAS episode 3 thoughts

spoilers!!!

(no duh.)

first of all, somebody spoiled in chat that lake would be the vote, so i’m pissed off enough as it is

patrons... when i catch you patrons...

seriously fuck all of the leakers & patrons that spoil stuff. i hate you guys. hope your pillow is hot on both sides

anyways!!! genuine opinion time

tom, my baby, my love, the light of my life, you did a good job voting for lake. this might be controversial but i think that, out of everyone, she is definitely someone to get out early. maybe there will be some sort of comeback challenge that she’ll win, because i don’t feel like her story is fully over yet, but for now, i’m satisfied she was the one to go.

connor and riya make me more uncomfortable by the day, but thank you to riya for putting an end to their situationship. not looking forward to connor doing pathetic puppy eyes and sighing broken-heartedly throughout the challenges though. and just between you and me, i truly hope one of them is the next vote.

also why did she say "i’m not your daughter" when they’re supposed to be interpreted as a couple/situationship thing... isn’t that a weird writing choice... or is it just me skull emoji fire emoji

on the note of another weird couple, yul is showing his true colors. i told you it was only a matter of time before he showed his true colors... grett, baby, you deserve so much better. i hope when this ship inevitably crashes that grett kicks him in the nuts at one point. she deserves to crush his balls. as a treat :3

love to see a potential alec-fiore-miriam alliance, and miriam back on her gaslighting shit. i have the feeling she might make the merge, but ellie will have her revenge against her and get her out by exposing her somehow. but for this to work, we would need someone dumb enough to vote for her, and i really wonder who- nvm jake is still in the game!! (and tom could probably be manipulated ORRR he could change his priorities and realize that jake and miriam ain’t shit

DEREK AND TREVOR ARE SOOO FUNNY derek’s voice actor is the best of the bunch and i am dead serious. he is sooo funny his deliveries are always so good (compared to many of the others that i would be burnt at the stake for giving the names of lol) derek forgetting THEY are the interns made me laugh so hard i love them

ashley please stop fueling jake’s dumbass fantasies he’s bad and fucking stupid enough as he is

jake can you just accept some people can be friends or are you going to be arophobic this entire series /hj. only a joke because of the arophobia but has this man never heard of platonic male relationships? not to be mean but [CENSORED] [CENSORED EVEN MORE] [CENSORED AS IF IN THE COMMUNIST ERA] [MY LAWYER ADVISED ME TO DELETE THIS ENTIRE SEQUENCE]

fuck jake

fuck riya

fuck connor

fuck jake

fuck yul

fuck jake

fuck yul

oh and how could i forget?

FUCK JAKE

sorry i know he didn’t do much this episode i just hate his ass

tess was really smart with her vote tbh... love that for her. she gets it

aiden and tom alliance PLEASE I CAN FEEL IT BLOOMING I LOVE THEIR FRIENDSHIP SO MUCH ARGHHH

fuck jake

fiore deserves better, she hasn’t even done anything this season, why will nobody give her a damn break lol? ashley and jake when i catch you...

hunter fuck you. you know what you did

ally-hunter-fiore alliance getting out jake WHEN WHEN WHENNNNNN!!!!!!!! not a want but a NEED!!!

fuck yul

fuck jake

FUCK JAKE!!!

also fuck riya and connor and their stupid ass drama

and fuck yul

but how could i forget? fuck jake

that’s all :3

(fuck jake btw)

placing my bets for the next episode...

ally-hunter-fiore alliance blooms but hunter is visibly hesitant about it. thank god he doesn’t have to vote, or he’d have probably already betrayed the alliance...

tom-aiden bonding, tom reluctantly accepts ellie as an ally, and gabby tries to get the two closer to each other, at least to work together if not to be friends

yellow team loses. riya goes home (more of a hope than anything though, realistically i think hunter and/or ally have good chances of leaving...)

alec-miriam-fiore alliance also blooms. throw connor in there too, but only as an ally of alec’s. alec is the one to convince connor to vote for riya.

jake explodes and fucking dies

yul explodes and fucking dies

riya explodes and fucking dies

#disventure camp #disventure camp all stars #dcas #campamento desventura #odd nation cartoons #asks #my asks #anon #anonymous #answered anon #answered ask

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moonymanoush · 5 months

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Barbie Movie Review

Hello everyone and welcome back! Before I give my own thoughts on the movie, I want to acknowledge all the critics that have been primarily focused on calling this film on being “woke, feminist, liberal, etc. etc.” The movie is literally called Barbie — if you expected a conservative trad wife film where the girl is there for sex appeal or in order to further the male protagonist’s story that’s your own fault! Every iteration of Barbie focused on the doll itself and its ability to have literally every career possible while Ken was little more than an accessory. Even when viewers mention Barbie's Life in the Dreamhouse as an example of Barbie and Ken’s romance, they do not acknowledge that Ken has no aspirations, career, or life outside of being Barbie’s boyfriend. This is only to say, that this movie had a very clear trajectory — it just doesn't make sense if I show up to a movie like Fast and Furious and leave complaining that the film didn’t spend enough time on romance.

Beyond that, I went into the movie expecting a misandrist film because of the amount of feedback I had seen online prior to watching it. But it was honestly so kind to men. The executives at Mattel are treated as comedic characters, the kens are himbos, and Allan is an ally. Even at their most patriarchal, all the men are seen at most as misguided — not as true antagonists or villains of the film. Despite being a funny character whose dialogue I appreciated, Will Ferell is also a perpetrator of the system. Immediately after America Ferrera pitches her average Barbie idea, he shoots it down but only accepts it once it’s backed up by a man who says it's actually a good idea. It mimics reality in that a woman is never respected the same way a man is — ideas are only worthy of praise after validation from a man. Instead of seeing Will Ferrel telling President Barbie to call him mother as insulting to the actual creator and mother of Barbie – the doll and the girl –, it’s played off as a joke. The Kens also get an entire arc of self-discovery and realizing who they are on their own instead of in relation to Barbie. Honestly, I was very unsatisfied with how men were treated in the film because even after taking Barbie’s house and brainwashing her friends, Ken gets the apology and the comfort even though his primary motivation came from unrequited love.

The media continues to push the messages that stalking and coercion are appropriate gestures used to show love to a woman. For instance, in The Notebook Noah (the male lead) hangs off of a Ferris wheel, interrupting Allie’s (the female lead) date with another man, and threatens to kill himself by letting go and falling to his death should she not agree to go on a date with him instead. This is a direct representation of coercion and completely disregards ‘no means no’, making Allie feel as though she has a duty to go out with Noah. It further reinforces the idea that a woman has the responsibility to keep a man happy and her own wishes and desires come secondary to his. In addition, not only do these types of scenes condone behaviour such as rape, harassment, stalking and coercion on a male audience, but they also impact women’s view of what a loving and healthy relationship entails. I hate to go on a tangent about a separate film — but the message being consistently pushed is that persistent behaviour is romantic and men are almost owed a relationship.

Misogyny is an underlying theme in most media, portraying women as stereotypes. Women face the juxtaposition of being “not like other girls” while aiming to be viewed as conventionally attractive. The issue is that media, and particularly films, spread the message of misogyny on a subconscious level and consumers who regularly watch these films will internalize this inherently sexist bias. In the movie She’s All That (1999), the main character Laney undergoes a makeover and exchanges her smock for a tight-fitting dress to be perceived as more conventionally attractive. Suddenly, Zack, the male lead, finds her beautiful because she has adopted a certain level of femininity despite the movie pushing the message that she’s ‘not like other girls’. The propaganda in the film pushes the idea that if a woman is not feminine enough, she will not be desirable. By the end of this film, both of the main leads are classic stereotypes of what their gender demands of them. Many movies follow the same formula, a nerdy girl (who is beautiful by all means) catches the attention of a popular boy and changes herself so he wants her. The defining feature is that she never truly changes her appearance for herself.

Further, this isn’t an isolated incident or a recent trend in the media where women aren’t written as anything other than two-dimensional and vapid. Legends have been told from the beginning of time punishing women for the crime of existing. In “Spiders in the Hairdo”, Jan Harold Brunvand's Encyclopedia of Urban Legends observes that “In a thirteenth-century English exemplum a vain woman who was habitually late for mass because she spent too much time arranging her hair was visited by the devil in the form of a spider that attached itself to her coiffure.” This goes to show that there is a definite religious interpretation of these legends, due to many religions condemning vanity. Self-obsession is seen as a form of idolatry where they compare themselves to the greatness of God, distancing themselves from religion and faith. (Living Faith: Daily Catholic Devotions) The woman is late to mass — a religious showing of faith in God — because of her vanity, ergo that very quality is something to be condemned and punished.

Another interpretation is purity culture and the belief that a woman who takes care of her appearance is doing it to impress men. This ties closely with religion, but it involves the belief that women who are sexually active or are around the opposite gender are something shameful. A man sleeps around and is a stud, a player — a woman doing the same is a whore, a slut, a hussy. The patriarchy reinforces structural violence against women by projecting discriminatory gender roles that often place limitations on how far they can go. In “Curses! Broiled Again!” Jan Harold Brunvand's Encyclopedia of Urban Legends notes, "Besides this technological naïveté, the story comments on youthful vanity and carelessness.” Brunvand states that the woman in this legend, and the one before it, are young, careless girls who care more about their beauty than any internal qualities.

Women aren’t allowed to have their own characteristics, careers, or any aspirations that don’t involve marriage and children. A simple reflection of women existing outside of the scope of being someone’s wife or mother is enough to enrage the simplest of men, which is why Barbie has received so much backlash. I generally find it upsetting that men refuse to engage in media that criticizes them. Women watched this film and analyzed every bit while men focus on mojo dojo casa house and insulting any female leads.

My overall favourite quotes:

“We mothers stand still so our daughters can look back to see how far they’ve come”

“Women hate women, men hate women. It’s the one thing we can all agree on.”

“I’m a man with no power, does that make me a woman?”

Another scene worth commending is the one with Barbie telling the older woman “You’re so beautiful.” her response is “I know it.”

Regardless, this film criticizing the system while being created by a multi-billion dollar corporation is partially hypocritical to me. I would've appreciated seeing the struggles of intersectionality addressed as well as capitalism, but the men in charge are seen as funny little men who aren't actively exploiting the working class and promoting the ideology of consumerism. This movie isn't meant to change your whole reality or provoke a strong hatred because it’s very much a surface level analysis of a woman’s role in society. It could’ve been better but the criticism and backlash strawmans the main point of the movie. Overall, a fun watch! Let me know your thoughts too!

Sorry for being massively inconsistent but hopefully more posts to come soon!

#barbie #margot robbie #margot barbie #im just ken #pink #will ferrell #ryan gosling #movie review #movie analysis

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my-otp-list · 2 years

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Here I am, back to my eternal habit of getting obsessed over obscure stuff whose fandom is either tiny or virtually non-existent...

This manga is probably what I would dub as ‘The spy camaraderie you never knew you needed’ (or that it even existed…)

But this was, in fact, a classic work and was really popular in Japan during its time. Just that for some reasons, the manga never made it to international attention - which is a real pity, because, seriously, this is good. Like really really really good.

And the bromance? 24k gold grade, I rest my case.

From Eroica With Love (Manga) Review

Genre: Shoujo, Adventure, Action, Historical, Comedy

Author: Aoike Yasuko

Running Years: 1976 - 2012

Synopsis (taken from BakaUpdates):

"What happens when a gay art thief and a conservative NATO officer cross paths? Disaster, of course. Dorian is an aristocrat, a thief, and a hedonist; Klaus is a duty-driven espionage agent with no patience for fools.

Follow them as they chase each other across the globe -- from Britain to Baghdad, from Alaska to Alexandria, from Moscow to Madrid. Spectacular locations and non-stop adventures await!"

Length: Completed with 39 volumes

Translation: Ongoing at about 25 volumes - as of 2022

Note: Some sources may list this manga’s genre as Shounen-ai. Well, yes, “ai” (or romantic interaction) between 2 male characters does get depicted in this manga, but it isn’t between the two male leads. And the amount of “ai” you’ll get to see in the whole series is like… 1%. But before you conclude that this will make you want to / not want to read this manga, hear me out first —

Personal review:

➕ The Characters: Meet Earl Dorian Red Gloria, codenamed “Eroica”, a gorgeous, flamboyant, charismatic British thief with blonde hair so perfectly curled it could rival Candy Candy (this is a classic shoujo, what else do you expect?), whose purpose in life is to steal whatever suits his fancy, and causes a lot of havoc while he’s at it.

Meet also Major Klaus Heinz von dem Eberbach, nicknamed “Iron Klaus”, an equally gorgeous, uptight, formidable German officer with black hair so perfectly straight it probably comes from a L’Oreal ad (have I mentioned this is a classic shoujo?), whose goal is to hunt down Earl Dorian, but somehow never actually catches him(?)

(The 1970s — that period of manga art when guys are 10 times prettier than girls...)

They are both very likeable characters, each with quirks so special that’ll make you remember them in no time. Behind his facade as an art thief, Earl Dorian is an adorable, sympathetic man who values his teammates and has actual sensitivity for beautiful things. Major Klaus might first come off as an arrogant, vulgar man (but his vulgarity is really funny omg), but would you believe that he sings “Mary Has A Little Lamb” to himself in order to sleep? Awwwwww.

Surrounding these two men is a very diverse, colourful cast of supporting characters. With this being a comedy manga, almost every character in From Eroica With Love is funny as hell - so protect your stomach well, because the probability of you hurting it while reading this is transcendently high...

➕ The Story: Set during the Cold War period and against the backdrop of a vibrant Europe, the story tells the extravagant adventures of Earl Dorian and Major Klaus as they tail after top-secret intel, tear down evil conspiracies, take out wicked villains, tumble into life-threatening situations, all while trying to outwit and annoy the f*** out of each other.

With the title clearly inspired by the James Bond novel “From Russia With Love”, this manga, for the most part, is an endearing parody of the spy fiction genre. Do not be fooled by its shoujo label and its relatively strange first volume. The manga started off rather ridiculous (a trio of college-age ultra-geniuses with ESP abilities given to them by a mysterious man in the forest? What again…), but very soon developed into action-packed espionage with, surprisingly enough, a great deal of real-life historical, cultural and political references. Twists and turns await as we tag along with Earl Durian and Major Klaus chasing after each other (for various hilarious reasons) and dealing with international-scale events across the globe.

➕ The Art: Bearing what I would call 'signature 1970s shoujo art', From Eroica With Love’s feminine, old-style art may take some time to get used to, but will certainly grow on you. Yasuko-sensei certainly deserves praise for her masterful control over both character designs, scenery as well as action sequences.

➕ The Bromance: And, of course, the most important part of this review, the bromance.

Though it’s established very early on that Dorian is gay and always ready to woo whichever man that piques his attention, and that the manga is debatably considered shounen-ai, there's no canon romance between the two male leads (or is there?).

Starting out as enemies, and arguably still ending as enemies, these two’s dynamics are a real delight to watch. While they couldn’t stop blocking each other’s business and even occasionally get into physical fights, they also pull each other out of trouble plenty of times. There’s just some sort of undeniable camaraderie that hovers above their constant bickering and throwing curses at each other.

(Why be normal bros when you can point guns and knives at each other?)

But beyond the bromance front, some may sense that Dorian develops feelings for Klaus along the course of the story, and one can’t help but notice that Klaus’ behaviour towards Dorian is, at times, significantly more tender compared to how he treats others. And then there are those yearning intense stares…

(Dorian & Klaus: A tale of unresolved sexual tension that spans almost 40 years…)

The manga never dwells into fan service or has them go lovey-dovey, and even after its supremely long run of almost 4 decades, we never get an answer to the burning question "Will they or won't they fall in love?".

But that certainly doesn't stop the fans from zealously shipping them two together. Because, enemies-to-comrades-to-lovers? We simply devour that trope.

➖ The Negative: To some, the art may look slightly funny in later volumes, but I wouldn’t fault the author much for that. After all, by that time, Yasuko-sensei is already in her 50s-60s.

➖ And what was that first volume really - to deter people from loving this manga too much? (￣▽￣) An entertaining bunch of characters with pretty detailed characterisation (to the point that I almost thought they were the mains!) got introduced, only for them to never appear again after volume 1. Albeit, this may not exactly be a negative thing, since I can tell that most of us would prefer the screentime to be spared for our two lovely male leads.

All in all, I highly recommend this amusing series. So sad that the translation is only about ⅔ completed at the moment (╥_╥), and the English volumes are essentially out of print (I've checked, it costs minimum 400 bucks to obtain 15 volumes, yep, no joke). Talk about falling in love with a niche manga…

#from eroica with love #eroica yori ai o komete #bromance manga #bromance recommendation #dorian red gloria #klaus heinz von dem eberbach #70s manga

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denimbex1986 · 4 months

Text

'An acclaimed director and two rising young actors headline the '2023 new movie All of Us Strangers, a supernatural drama that has already earned a bit of buzz following its screening at various fall film festivals.

Searchlight Pictures is behind All of Us Strangers, which comes from BAFTA-nominated writer/director Andrew Haigh, and features some high-quality talent on screen as well, including Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal and Claire Foy.

Find out everything you need to know about All of Us Strangers right here...

All of Us Strangers plot

Based on a novel by Taichi Yamada, Haigh wrote the script for All of Us Strangers. Here is the official synopsis for the movie:

"One night in his near-empty tower block in contemporary London, Adam has a chance encounter with a mysterious neighbor Harry, which punctures the rhythm of his everyday life. As a relationship develops between them, Adam is preoccupied with memories of the past and finds himself drawn back to the suburban town where he grew up, and the childhood home where his parents, appear to be living, just as they were on the day they died, 30 years before."...

All of Us Strangers reviews

The majority of critics who have already seen the movie are fans, with the movie having a 93% "Fresh" score on Rotten Tomatoes as of December 23. What to Watch is no different, our All of Us Strangers review describes it as "heartbreaking, but essential viewing."

Here is a quick sampling of some of the things other critics have said about the movie:

Maureen Lee Lenker, Entertainment Weekly: "All of Us Strangers will break your heart — but it just might mend it too."

Tomris Laffly, The Wrap: "A sublime masterpiece. A rumination on grief and love, Haigh's poignant and understated ghost story is one of the best films of the year."

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter: "Prepare to be wrecked."

All of Us Strangers cast

The leads of Adam and Harry are played by Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal, respectively.

Scott is best known for his role as the "hot priest" in Fleabag, but he has been catching people's eyes for a while now, with memorable performances in Sherlock, Oslo and Catherine Called Birdy.

Mescal is one of the biggest rising stars in recent years thanks to his work in Normal People, The Lost Daughter and Aftersun, the latter of which earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination. All of Us Strangers is his second movie coming out in the final months of 2023, as he also stars in Foe.

Playing the ghosts of Adam's parents are Claire Foy and Jamie Bell.

Foy broke out with her as Queen Elizabeth in the first two seasons of The Crown. Since then she has gone on to star in First Man, A Very British Scandal and Women Talking.

Bell has been appearing in movies since he was a kid in Billy Elliott. Some of his more recent notable work includes Turn: Washington's Spies, Rocketman, Without Remorse and Shining Girls.

All of Us Strangers trailer

The talents of the four actors leading All of Us Strangers are on full display in the movie’s trailer...

All of Us Strangers awards

We're keeping track of all the major end-of-year nominations and awards that All of Us Strangers earns. Check out what the movie has racked up so far below:

BAFTA Film Awards

Outstanding British Film (nominee) Best Supporting Actor — Paul Mescal (nominee) Best Supporting Actress — Claire Foy (nominee) Best Director — Andrew Haigh (nominee) Best Adapted Screenplay (nominee) Best Casting (nominee)

Golden Globes

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture Drama — Andrew Scott (nominee)

Gotham Awards

Outstanding Lead Performance — Andrew Scott (nominee) Outstanding Supporting Performance — Claire Foy (nominee) Best Screenplay — Andrew Haigh (nominee) Best International Feature (nominee)

British Independent Film Awards

Best British Independent Film (winner) Best Director — Andrew Haigh (winner) Best Lead Performance — Andrew Scott (nominee) Best Supporting Performance — Paul Mescal (co-winner) Best Supporting Performance — Jamie Bell (nominee) Best Supporting Performance — Claire Foy (nominee) Best Screenplay — Andrew Haigh (winner) Best Casting (nominee) Best Cinematography (winner) Best Editing (winner) Best Makeup & Hair Design (nominee) Best Music Supervision (winner) Best Production Design (nominee) Best Sound (nominee)

Film Independent Spirit Awards

Best Feature (nominee) Best Director — Andrew Haigh (nominee) Best Lead Performance — Andrew Scott (nominee)

London Critics' Circle Awards

Film of the Year (nominee) Screenwriter of the Year — Andrew Haigh (nominee) Actor of the Year — Andrew Scott (nominee) Supporting Actress of the Year — Claire Foy (nominee) Supporting Actor of the Year — Paul Mescal (nominee) The Attenborough Award: British/Irish Film of the Year (nominee) British/Irish Performer of the Year — Paul Mescal (nominee) British/Irish Performer of the Year — Andrew Scott (nominee) Technical Achievement Award, Casting (nominee)

Los Angeles Film Critics Awards

Best Leading Performance — Andrew Scott (runner-up) Best Screenplay (winner) Best Editing (runner-up)

Andrew Haigh movies

British director Andrew Haigh may not be a household name with audiences, but his work has been some of the most lauded amongst cinephiles in recent years. Here is a look at his list of previous credits for feature movies:

Greek Pete (2009) Weekend (2011) 45 Years (2015) Lean on Pete (2017)

He has also directed episodes of the acclaimed TV series Looking, as well as its TV movie, and The OA.'

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foxymoxynoona · 8 months

Note

I loved that recent reader's review of Amended. I love this story so much and she did such a great job of highlighting so many of the reasons why and my favorite scenes too.

I have reread Amended dozens of times now because it is my ultimate comfort story, and I will note that one of my favorite parts about rereading it is that on second read, my perspective of Isabella's behavior in those early chapters totally changed.

On first read, I definitely struggled to understand why she was being so thorny and reluctant and why Jungkook was so patient through all of that. But after understanding the story completely and reading the two flashback chapters towards the end of the book, my mindset totally changed and I was 100% supportive of her early doubts about Jungkook and about him needing to really work to earn back her trust and love.

I also think it made me question some of my own internalized misogyny. There were definite moments at the beginning of Amended when I first read it where I was like why is she being such a bitch? Why is he putting up with this? And it's interesting that when the shoe was on the other foot in some of your other stories like Meadow and Lowlander, I thought Jungkook was being a huge dick, but it felt like okay that's a normal journey for a man to have to learn how to process his emotions and I was more forgiving and patient with his character growth. I love a story that makes me think twice about why I react to characters in certain ways too!

I definitely recommend anyone who is a fan of Amended to come back and reread the story a second time, it truly puts a fresh perspective on the story.

I love this so much because that was completely a thing I was exploring within myself when I started the story! I wanted to write a woman who I felt some discomfort with, or disagreement with about her choices, and explore that double standard with male behavior/expectations. I don't say that to mean this story is some profound ANSWER, but it was really valuable to me as a person and as a writer to not set out to make her "likeable" --but then over time she became extremely likeable to me, and it was interesting to see at what point that changed for me AND for readers, or for some readers it never did!

After I finished, I think I had put a post on here talking more in-depth about that exploration into internalized misogyny and how it played a role in Amended, and how I shifted further away from that as time went on and she became so more of a person than an idea. My own critique is that if I had really wanted that to be a defining theme of the story, I would have given her less "reason" to be the way she was, because it makes it too easy to "explain away" her struggles or the things viewed as unacceptable, rather than recognizing her as a person with her own views and beliefs and behaviors that may just not conform to society's expectation of proper behavior for a woman. But watching people compare JK's behavior and growth (which largely happened pre-story) and Isabella's was incredibly interesting for me.

Your comment comparing her to male characters in my other stories is just so astute, and it's something I have watched with interest behind the scenes. The reader response to Isabella was so interestingly different in many ways from reader response to Meadow JK or Sugar Fairy JK or Lowlander JK or even prickly puppy Sea of Indigo JK. There's overlap of course, it's not like anyone was ever like "wow Meadow JK what an angel in those early days, huh?" LOL. And also response to her was different compared to other female characters who struggle with trauma or self-doubt or prickliness, like Mishka and Sasha and even Y/N in Sea of Indigo! In a way, the growth of those jK's was all very simple and straight-forward and readers accepted it much more quickly than they did Isabella's, which was more emotional and muddled.

I just have really enjoyed watching it all, but also writing it and exploring it in myself, and I hope to continue to force myself to confront my own biases and hangup to grow both as a writer and a person.

#amended #asks #anonymous

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widenyourworlds · 10 months

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Review I wrote for school back in 2021.

Maurice.

Written between 1913-1914 (first published in 1975, five years after the author’s death), the book MAURICE is about the titular character of Maurice Hall in the Edwardian era of England (1901-1910). The novel is written in the third person and follows him from a young boy to a young man. The main centre of the story is Maurice and his internal struggles with personality and sexuality. Maurice is homosexual but it is never outright stated- words such as ‘queer’ are used to describe it and at one point Maurice describes himself as one of the ‘unspeakables of the Oscar Wilde sort.’ Oscar Wilde was a gay writer who was sentenced to hard labour for ‘gross indecency’ in 1895 after his love affair and letters to another man (Lord Alfred Douglas who himself was a poet; “the love that dare not speak its name.”) was exposed to the public. For more about this, I recommend the 1997 movie Wilde starring Stephen Fry.

The main focus of the book is Maurice’s sexuality. It opens with a school teacher explaining missionary sex to Maurice and the anatomy of the vagina; drawing it on the sands of the beach on which they had been walking, as Maurice’s father had died and it would be ‘inappropriate for his mother to have such a talk with him. But it all is something that comes to have little meaning for Maurice as he grows up and finds himself lacking any interest in women; even coming to hate them. Not in a typical way you’d expect of an Edwardian man- the hate seems to stem more from his sexuality and attraction to men. As a well-to-do man in the 1910s, he is expected to marry a woman and have children; something which Maurice absolutely does not want or have any interest in. So the heavy societal expectations put on his shoulders makes him hate and detest the women he is forced to love. The women in his life never become more than familial and distant, even the women he lives with (his mother and two sisters) are someone he grows to hate, and they him. He had a fleeting relationship with a woman with prospects of engagement and marriage but it never comes to that; possibly because the woman senses Maurice’s veiled disinterest.

(“Both were misogynists, Clive especially. In the grip of their temperaments, they had not developed the imagination to do duty instead, and during their love women had become as remote as horses or cats; all that the creatures did seemed silly.”)

Maurice plays the role of a well-liked, well-off, English man well. He detests the society he lives in and hates the role he has to play, but it doesn’t show. He wishes to lose himself to the desires of male love but can’t risk the fall it would take; male homosexuality is illegal. He could face financial and social ruin and at the start of the book, when he first discovers his sexuality, the thought frightens him. But then he meets Clive Durham- who introduces him to ancient Greek writings through which Clives eludes to his love of men and the two fall in love and spend the next few years of their lives together in love as they get their degrees from Cambridge. But they have a falling out after Clive declares that he has become ‘normal’, that he is no longer attracted to or in love with Maurice and that he is to be married. (“Against my will I have become normal. I cannot help it.”). And though they get into a physical altercation, and Maurice threatens to kill himself, they remain friends- though that is something that is hard for Maurice, who still is in love with Clive.

(“While he had love he had kept reason.”

“He hadn’t a God, he hadn’t a lover—the two usual incentives to virtue.”)

The book moves on to follow Maurice’s struggles with his love for Clive, lust for men, and the growing desperate to be ‘normal’ too- and the fateful meeting Maurice comes to have with Clive’s under-gamekeeper Alec Scudder.

(“O for the night that was ending, for the sleep and the wakefulness, the toughness and tenderness mixed, the sweet temper, the safety in darkness. Would such a night ever return?”)

The author of this book, E.M. Forster, lived in a time where male homosexuality was illegal. Where it was viewed as a mental illness and a crime- a great sin once done could never be righted. It would be absolutely life-ruining (as seen with Oscar Wilde) if it came out that you even had the inclination of affection for your own sex. Forster himself was gay, but not publicly so, and he never married (how could he?) but instead had a series of lovers during his life. He was friends with other authors and writers, including other gay men such as Christopher Isherwood known for his novel ‘A Single Man’, and it was through his friendship with poet and philosopher Edward Carpenter and his partner George Merrill that he got the inspiration to write Maurice. In 1987 a film adaptation of the novel was released, directed by James Ivory and starring James Wilby as Maurice. It was made by the same production company (Merchant Ivory Productions) that in 1985 had adapted A Room With a View, another of E.M. Forster’s works.

I can easily say that I absolutely fell in love with this book. Though I have never been much into romantic novels or works centred around a relationship; I am a sucker for historical pieces, especially if it revolves around LGBT+ characters. It makes it so much more interesting (and relatable) than your ordinary, run-of-the-mill, heterosexual nonsense. The book (and movie) moved me and pierced my heart several times in the span of however long it took me to read it. The subject matter was delivered both bluntly and eloquently; Forster wrote beautifully and bravely about male homosexuality and sensuality- treating it as normally as you could in the time and setting of the Edwardian era. Maurice was the first book of Forster’s that I have read but now, after this, I am buzzing with excitement to read his other works.

[E.M. Forster- “Dedicated to a happier year”]

#my writings #review #maurice #em forster #e m forster #oscar wilde #wilde #stephen fry #a room with a view #i think i actually wrote it on my own for fun #and then i met my new english teacher and desperately wanted to impress her #i also wrote a review for giovannis room

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blbookhorde · 9 months

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Scum Villain's Self-Saving System Book Review

Title: The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System.

Author: Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Genres: Fantasy, Xianxia, Comedy, Romance, Action

Main Tags: System, Isekai, Cultivation

Chapters Read at Time of Review: All.

Translated: Complete Official Translation

Length: Around 350,000 words (published into 4 volumes in English)

Smut Level: For most of book 1.5, last few chapters do contain a sex scene but it’s a 3.5 smutty.

Warnings: mild homophobia, a few semi-sexual scenes are dubious consent at best, a man kisses a corpse, a teenager has dirty thoughts but no sexual action is taken, the single full sex scene is a bit r*pe-y (I have seen good arguments for both sides (one that its r*pe, the other that the MC’s dark thoughts are because of his internalized homophobia), either way its violent and painful sex.)

.

Scum Villain is Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s first work, and it tends to get often overlooked by the two novels that followed it. And while her later works are beautiful works of art, its Scum Villain that I’ve read the most times. Because it’s funny.

This is not a book that takes itself seriously and it carries a pretty lighthearted tone and script throughout most of the novel. (One of the biggest jokes about Scum Villian, is that from any other character’s perspective, this novel is a dark fantasy-borderline horror. It is a great example of how MC’s are the ones who set the tone of a work).

It is an isekai story that follows one Shen Yuan, who wakes up in the body of Shen Qingqiu, a peak lord, and a powerful cultivator, (Who also happens to be the first major villain from a webnovel Shen Yuan likes to read, who meets a violent and horrible death at the end of the novel). Shen Yuan is accompanied to his new life by a System who gives him missions and ensures he stays in line (and doesn’t act in a way that’s out of character for the original Shen Qingqiu).

A large part of the novel is Shen Yuan trying to not fangirl at the new situation he is in, while also roasting the author for all the plot holes he now has to fix if he wants to survive. But his main mission is “taking care” (read bully) the main lead. And this is where things start to go wrong, because Shen Yuan is fond of the male lead and bends over backwards to make sure he’s alright. (I could list all the things Shen Yuan does to help Lou Binghe (the main lead), and trust me it is a LIST, but that would be fairly spoiler-y, so I will not do that.) Of course, Lou Binghe sees all this caring behavior and falls head over heels in love, and thus begins the start of “Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System”.

There's a lot more I can say about this book, but I don't want to get into too much detail and spoil the read. (Maybe later I will post a longer and spoiler-filled review.)

In conclusion, I would say, that if you like more fantasy/comedy based BL this is pretty good one, also if you are just starting to read Cultivation and Xianxia works, this book dose a good job of explaining all the terms and getting you caught up in a lot of the lingo used in BL and webnovel communities. A long, but good read for beginners to the genres.

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See a term/word you don’t know? Or is there a rating scale you are confused about? You can find a masterlist of all the terms, ratings, and definitions used in reviews here -> BL Book Horde — Dictionary (tumblr.com)

#scum villian self saving system #scum villain #svsss #webnovel #webnovel reveiw #mo xiang tong xiu #wuxia #xianxia #cultivation novel #isekai #book reveiw

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ojcobsessed · 2 years

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Sorry about this mini-rant but I'm getting so tired of seeing Oliver being the "bad guy". Sure, he does a nice guy role once on a blue moon, but everytime I've tried to get my friends into this gorgeous creature they make comments like: "his playing an arsehole partner AGAIN?!"

I didn't really realise that his been typecast (a lot) until they said it. You should've saw my face when I saw the first episode of Surface haha, I had no idea he would play another "dark" character! Then again, I didn't do my homework on that show.

I would quite like him to do a MCU movie—in that retrospect—just because we'll see a more light hearted side to him (like when filming Malcolm's List). IMAGINE A NON-PERIOD/DARK MOVIE STARRING OJC LASTING LONGER THAN 2 MINUTES! Even if he is eyeing up a villian role, they still aren't that serious in nature compared to his other works (everyone was pleasantly suprised with Jake Gyllenhaal in the Spider-Man movie). I know that not everyone likes those movies, and series', but they are really great for promotion and becoming a bigger star! It would be nice to see Oliver getting recognition (in that retrospect again).

Sorry about the rant, I'm sitting here watching The Lost Daughter again and wondering why the f*ck movies and shows would waste his FULL potential.

hello, so i actually have 5 other inboxes from people about the oliver/mcu discussion that i want to round up in a single post because i realise people have very strong opinions on this and i kind of don't want to clog up everyone's feeds with post after post of me blogging my thoughts about oliver jackson-cohen and superhero movies : )

i get a fair amount of "why does oliver always play an asshole" messages. i don't mind them don't get me wrong! and it's validating to hear that other people want to see more of oliver tbh. i would also love to see him in a leading role playing someone who isn't, to quote oliver, "a toxic piece of shit." like most ollie fans, i would in fact love to see him in any leading role, period.

the good news is that several major reviews for mr. malcolm's list called his performance "a revelation" and said they hoped he'd do more comedy. and he does play the romantic lead in emily which comes out in a few weeks and has very good early buzz. depending on how well its reception is in a couple of weeks at the toronto international film festival premiere, it could even start to get oscar buzz. so even though he is apparently playing yet another toxic partner in wilderness, who knows what the future holds once people see more of his very broad range.

having said that, i think it's important to note that oliver himself does not seem unhappy about or disinterested in "asshole" roles per se. he has said repeatedly that he's picky about his projects, and has found all of his roles that were post-emerald city/the healer personally interesting as an actor/artist because they allow him to explore themes of trauma, identity, power, and toxic masculinity from a variety of angles and intersections - and of course that is okay!

he has also said in recent interviews that he actually doesn't agree that adrian griffin, peter quint, toni in the lost daughter and james ellis in surface are one kind of character. they are all very different people with different backgrounds and motives.

it's also luke crain and michael berryman erasure and those are probably the 2 things he's most known for aside from adrian! : )

finally, of course i also wish there had been more of oliver in the lost daughter but it was a story where the male characters were deliberately in the background/supporting roles in order to centre the female narratives within the film. however, while oliver's role was a hostile thug, he recently said that he originally tried out for the role of jessie buckley's character's husband. . . talk about having dodged the toxic husband bullet!

#the lost daughter #peter quint #adrian griffin #the invisible man #the haunting of bly manor #the haunting of hill house

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firstyok · 1 year

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Zenra Meshi ( Naked Dinner ) Review on Ep 1-2

I've been quite a watcher of Japanese BL shows, especially since I'm intrigued by their language ( also an anime fan ), their soft yet appealing storylines and charming acting. Eventhough the stories don't dig deep much for their less number of episodes, I still find them quite interesting.

This time, I've started watching Naked Dinner, especially because of Goto Yutaro, who has also played in The Man who Defies the World of BL, and Cherry Magic. But, overall, I was excited due to the plot and their first encounter snippet from the official trailer.

Below, I've addressed the things I've liked and disliked about the show so far.

LIKES

1. Cinematography

So, when I watched the first episode, that one thing that significantly caught my eye was the cinematography of this show. Needless to say, you'd realize that it's beautiful and relaxing aesthetically, and the setting of the show is artistic. Starting from the scenarios of the old town of grandma's house, to the wonderful visual feast of the cooking of various recipes; it was oddly satisfying to watch, as if I've been travelling and eating like Ichijou, vicariously ( not by being naked, not thAt tho )

The soft tone of the show is truly appealing - I'd recommend this show if you're up for a full visual sensationalism, and that's it. From the food, grocery stores, to the office and the furnishings at home - I adored the way the cinematic effects were added here, portraying the Japanese or Global cuisine, topped with Japanese culture. The house at grandma's is like nostalgia, which brings out a poignant warmth in the show, as well.

2. Familial Bond

I really adored how the relationship of Ichijou and his grandma was being portrayed. From what I've seen so far - the invisible thread that is connecting all the plot holes, is Ichijou's grandma. Eventhough she has passed away, her role is the most prominent one in the entire show, atleast till these 2 episodes. It was a creative shot to bring back memories of Ichijou's childhood, when he opened the boxes of his kid days, and saw so many stuff. It felt sweet and it hit home, reminding me of my childhood toys, books and other things.

The character of Mahiro is okay-ish, eventhough I felt awkward and was freaking out about what was he doing in Ichijou's grandma's house. Slowly, the show cleared up that Mahiro is the grocery guy and the one who taught his grandma different international recipes, so she can travel through tasting, similar to the promise she made with Ichijou. However, I still find it quite suspicious about their development in the show, but again maybe it will get better as the show proceeds.

DISLIKES

1. The Chemistry

The acting of the male leads is pretty decent, I agree. However, when it comes to the chemistry between those two, I find something's off. I don't know what it is, or how it is but I kind of find that they might be a little too stiff with one another. Okay, not that but eventhough we have just started on the show - the rapport between the leads are not in synchronicity. However, let's hope that this will improve more as the show progresses, because there's 12 episodes in total - so plenty of room to cover up with elegance.

So, eventhough there's a few flaws already coming up, I'm curious about what these actors would surprise us with next, especially with such a plotline. Eventhough I'm not very impressed initially, I'd try to watch the entire thing, unless it gets worse for any reason. But, I hope the story and their chemistry would take a nice turn, because the plot and the cinematography has a lot of potential.

#zenra meshi #naked dinner #Ichijou fouta #miki mahiro #goto yutaro #bl dramas #bl actors #Japanese bl #kondou shouri #bl review #zenra meshi review #bl romance

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agentnico · 1 year

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Ghosted (2023) Review

Adrien Brody’s crappy French accent in this movie I could have forgiven, if only I haven’t seen John Wick: Chapter 4 a couple of weeks ago where I experienced the most delightful Parisian mouthing of Bill Skarsgard’s villain, so now Brody’s French-ish slur sticks out like a sore thumb. And boy is this one sore thumb. Everything is not j’aime up in this joint.

Plot: Cole falls head over heels for enigmatic Sadie, but then makes the shocking discovery that she's a secret agent. Before they can decide on a second date, Cole and Sadie are swept away on an international adventure to save the world.

This is the third time Chris Evans and Ana de Armas are co-starring in a film together, following the fantastic murder mystery Knives Out and the Netflix action film The Gray Man. As such this pairing on paper seems like a natural one, however upon seeing the new Ghosted film on Apple TV+ I have made quite the peculiar discovery - these two have absolutely zero chemistry. I mean none whatsoever. All their flirting comes of as cringeworthy, the romance is none existent and I didn’t buy into their relationship whatsoever. Their kissing scenes reminded me of that Andrew Garfield/Emma Stone SNL sketch where they don’t know how to kiss on camera. It was just awkward. And when in a rom-com your central couple have no chemistry, well then the movie is doomed to fail as is. Also, talk about a miscast! Chris Evans is supposed to play a farmer boy with an inhaler having an innocent outlook on life, yet it’s so hard not to see him as the alpha male, as such making his casting very questionable. Ana de Armas is usually a likeable presence, however, again, here is very bland and forgettable. And wears a wig. A very obvious wig, made the more obvious by the Twitter community, so thank you guys. It’s a shame really, as one could have easily done a trashy silly spy rom-com with A-list actors. Just look at Mr & Mrs Smith - an absolutely stupid movie but its hard to deny the sex appeal of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie together... though obviously that hasn’t aged too well but back then they were fire!

There’s a lot of talent involved behind the camera here. Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick who are known as the writers of the very successful and entertaining Deadpool movies have story credits here, and Dexter Fletcher is in the director’s chair. Evidently all three must have been undergoing some kind of collective erectile dysfunction causing their creative juices to dry out like water in a desert, as this movie consists of all the possible Hollywood plot cliches imaginable, with a painfully unfunny script, boring direction and general nonsense. Fletcher is fresh off the heels of his previous directorial outing with the Elton John biopic Rocketman that was visually filled with colour and charm, yet here the directing is so shallow and plain. So uninspired. As for the action sequences, they are there I guess. There’s a somewhat passable fight/chase on a bus, but even then, all those stunts you would have seen before.

Ghosted would have been a perfectly acceptable affair back in the early 2000s, however in 2023 it is simply ticking off every generic cliché of a Hollywood action film, only not anywhere as good as the movies its ripping off, nor that funny either. There’s even a few pointless cameos thrown in, and I do mean pointless. So in a nutshell, not worth getting Apple TV+ for anyway, however if you’re wondering about that streaming service, there is a delightful movie about the backstory of Tetris that came out on there recently starring Taron Egerton, and that’s actually much more interesting.

Overall score: 3/10

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man-reading · 2 years

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‘What Belongs to You,’ by Garth Greenwell

In a controversial 1999 New Yorker review of Alan Hollinghurst’s novel “The Spell,” John Updike summed up a common prejudice about gay stories: namely, that they have nothing to interest straight readers.

Updike, the author of the sex romp “Couples” (among other sexually frank novels), complained that Hollinghurst’s “relentlessly gay” fiction bored him because in gay stories “nothing is at stake but self-gratification.” In contrast, stories with heterosexual characters “involve perpetuation of the species and the ancient, sacralized structures of the family.”

Essentially, Updike is asking: What’s the big deal? It’s just sex.

Garth Greenwell’s masterly debut novel, “What Belongs to You,” provides a ringing answer to Updike’s willfully dense question. The book is set in contemporary Bulgaria, still struggling to move on from its Communist past. Here, gay desire remains a cultural taboo, so that expressing one of the most basic of human emotions is quite a big deal, with plenty at stake beyond “self-gratification.”

Because the novel opens with a man cruising for sex in a public bathroom, some readers may initially be tempted to write off “What Belongs to You” as gay fiction. The cruising man in question, Greenwell’s unnamed narrator, resembles the author: a gay American poet teaching abroad at a college in Sofia.

Looking for sex and maybe companionship in a land where gays find one another in the shadows, the narrator encounters a small-time hustler named Mitko. Their relationship begins as sexual, then turns to something more mysterious, fraught and destabilizing to them both.

It’s a compliment to Greenwell’s writing that the vividly written sex scenes are the least compelling aspect of this wonderful book, which is divided into three sections. The first section, “Mitko,” was published as a stand-alone novella in 2011. It follows the two main characters as they go through the initial paces of their unequal relationship, complicated by the relative financial privilege of the narrator and the elusive personality of the charismatic Mitko. A 21st-century answer to Christopher Isherwood’s shabbily charming Sally Bowles, Mitko veers between attracting as many male admirers as possible, in person and online, and then plaintively professing a desire to “live a normal life.”

Despite this dynamic character and Greenwell’s dexterous prose, the plot of “Mitko” feels slightly thin. Readers may want to pull an Updike and tell the narrator: Hey, it’s just sex. What’s the big deal?

The resounding answer comes in the next section, “A Grave,” in which Greenwell powerfully expands the book’s scope. Sparked by news of his estranged father’s impending death, the narrator recounts several evocative vignettes of his own youthful attempts to grapple with his sexual identity in red-state Kentucky.

Taken in succession, these two sections expose the process of gay shame: how a traditional upbringing conditions a sweet, innocent kid to link desire with humiliation and hiding, and then how that kid transforms into a man addicted to that connection. Why would any contemporary American gay man in his right mind move to of all places Bulgaria? Perhaps in this case because it reminds the book’s hero of his old Kentucky home.

In the novel’s final section, “Pox,” the narrator has overcome some of his internal hurdles and formed a healthier relationship with a man from Portugal called R. At the same time, he can’t quite let go of Mitko — or is it that Mitko will not let go of him? Greenwell poignantly evokes the narrator’s inability to resist the draw of Mitko’s erratic neediness. Much (but not all) of the sexual charge of their relationship has dissipated for the narrator, yet a mysterious feeling of responsibility for Mitko’s increasingly grim fate remains.

Greenwell is one of several contemporary writers working in an “all over” prose style, similar to that of a Jackson Pollock abstract expressionist painting, in which all compositional details seem to be given equal weight. (Other current all-over practitioners include the literary darlings — and presumed heterosexuals — Ben Lerner and Karl Ove Knausgaard.) In these works, even the stories themselves seem barely shaped, merely lifted from the authors’ lives and flung directly onto the page like paint on a Pollock canvas.

Though this style has roots in the works of European writers like W. G. Sebald, Thomas Bernhard and (further back) Marcel Proust, its recent resurgence feels born out of a new and different impulse, perhaps an eerie echo of the relentless, formless “I, I, I” of social media.

Yet Greenwell’s writing stands out from that of his “all over” contemporaries, whose language sometimes slides into blandness or cliché. By contrast, Greenwell takes more consistent care with his finely wrought words and sentences. His prose regularly delivers dazzling treasures:

“How helpless desire is outside its little theater of heat.”

“Three long walkways extended from the beach into the sea, branching out at their ends into three separate promenades, like the arms, it seemed to me, of a snowflake as drawn by a child.”

“At the very moment we come into full consciousness of ourselves what we experience is leave-taking and a loss we seek the rest of our lives to restore.”

And he is equally memorable on up-to-the-minute concerns like online communication — on, for instance, the “symbols and abbreviations of Internet chat that make such language seem so much like a process of decay.”

While other writers use the all-over style somewhat indiscriminately, lavishing the same degree of attention on descriptions of morning coffee or a joint as on Big Thoughts about art or mortality, Greenwell has an instinctual feel for sharpening his focus at key moments to create depth of feeling. For instance, in the bravura opening to “A Grave,” the narrator’s reaction to learning that his father is dying becomes an object lesson in suffusing description of setting with a character’s emotions.

Perhaps for readers who share Updike’s point of view on the subject, the fact of Greenwell’s narrator’s gayness makes his story less “universal” — as if the job of fiction were to act as a mirror, rather than a lens that can introduce readers to characters of all stripes. Yet, objectively speaking, the hazards of being gay for Greenwell’s characters make their plot at least as dramatic as (say) that of Knausgaard’s socially awkward teenager trying to sneak alcohol into a party in Book 1 of “My Struggle,” or Lerner’s expatriate poet adrift on a haze of hash in “Leaving the Atocha Station” — or either of these writer-protagonists’ vainglorious preoccupations with their literary reputations. In Greenwell’s book, the stakes are higher.

It’s a shame, then, that “What Belongs to You” is burdened with such a vague and unmemorable title. And the emphasis on Bulgaria’s history and culture could have been stronger, to help solidify its choice as backdrop. Likewise, even if the country’s thematic role is clear, it might have been nice from a straightforward narrative perspective to understand more about how the protagonist ended up there. Of course, an amiable laxness with story structure is a hazard of the all-over style — at first, the pace lags — but in a short book like this, a little slowness is not fatal. None of these quibbles are. “What Belongs to You” is a rich, important debut, an instant classic to be savored by all lovers of serious fiction because of, not despite, its subject: a gay man’s endeavor to fathom his own heart.

WHAT BELONGS TO YOU

By Garth Greenwell

194 pp. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $23.

#Garth Greenwell #writer #author #What Belongs to You #books worth reading #gay fiction #contemporary novels

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sweetfirebird · 2 years

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I read a romance novel last night by the author of the one I reviewed a while back, which, it turns out, was vaguely a prequel or just set in the same universe. Anyway. it worked, in a romance novel way, but it shouldn't have, and wouldn't have, if it had only been from the woman's point of view. The inside of the male lead's head made him more obviously likeable and a little sad, but really there was very little going on with actual actions or words to demonstrate that.

But anyway ignoring THAT, this was, I think accidentally, one of the few Regencies I've read where while they obviously wanted the 'spirited' and 'more obviously horny--er... passionate' modern heroine, the male characters did actually seem to live in an entirely different world than the women.

I think this was accidental, based on the author's other books, where like, men have it easy and women just suffer and that's how it is and all that. But even the well-meaning gentlemen types in these books just... do not stop to think about the woman's point of view much.

Which, like, is some men now also I know but generally not how romance novel heroes operate. They are either brooding and forceful (and sometimes rapey and cruel) or heroic and kind (and capable of listening and empathy.) These ones are... well meaning but genuinely oblivious because of course they would be. This is not a world where the two groups spent a lot of time together premarriage.

Thinking about it because my brain is rewriting it, as it does. Which I used to do with fanfic sometimes, but I have not read fanfic in such a long time. Sigh. I don't have a fandom that appeals to me. And the purity fic and the x reader fic really do not appeal to me. Boo.

It wasn't only the male lead, btw. The female lead did some weird "cries when the man doesn't read her mind to know what she wants, and what she wants is to be pursued despite not knowing saying so and kind of strongly hinting the opposite" and the vibe was very "you know how women are"

UGH

But mostly I just wanted the story to do what it implied but didn't actually DO with all the internal churning and no proof in action

and yes I know that this is a very silly demand coming from me of all people, with pages and pages of internal churn, but shush. Shussshhhah.

I suspect this will bother me until I Story about it. That's what usually happens.

OH AND ALSO--that fucking monkey was still there.

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