#boyd reviews | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

boyd-speaks · 11 months

Text

youtube

I watched Nimona last night, and it got me thinking.

This isn’t really a review.

Nimona is really good and you should watch it.

There that’s your review.

Instead this is where my mind went after watching it.

Spoilers ahead.

When the movie closed and the credits rolled, I initially found myself wishing we got to see how Nimona truly wanted to be seen.

Whenever I see a shapeshifter in fiction I wonder what their “true form” is. And that’s kind of silly.

It makes a certain amount of sense that a shapeshifter needs a “default state” but, l maybe they don’t.

Nimona can be an allegory for whatever you want it to be. It’s race, it’s, trans, it’s neurodivergent, it’s anyone who hides who they are to fit in, so they don’t feel alone.

I think it’s common for generally accepting people to still struggle with non binaries though.

My instinct was to wonder, “if Nimona could be anything what would she be?” But that’s not who Nimona is. She doesn’t hate pretending to be human. She hates staying the same. No matter what that is.

Being ever changing is what’s important. And the fact that my instinct was to define her as one thing, feels very telling.

I mean, I got there, but the idea that she needs a “true form” feels like such an ingrained concept.

For her, change is who she is, and it’s the changing that people don’t accept, not what she changes into.

#boyd vids #boyd reviews #nimona #boyd thinks thoughts #darcybits bits #lgbt #lgbtqia #lgbtq+#Youtube

7 notes · View notes

poltergeistsoup · 6 months

Text

In case you missed it: this season’s issue of Soph drink is out now! Check it out for my reviews of my top 5 campy movies that my friends and family are forced to hear about ad nauseam

And if you like my art and writing, consider leaving me a tip

#Siggy Boyd #my ocs #zine #art and writing zine #movie reviews

16 notes · View notes

kacic1 · 3 months

Text

A todos, boa noite! E hoje a noite é de grande estreia!

Convido vocês a visitarem Os Filmes do Kacic, para conferir minha nova crítica sobre este cativante drama estrelado por Tom Hardy, Austin Butler, Michael Shannon, Norman Reedus e grande elenco, e que estreia nos cinemas brasileiros no dia 20 de junho. Texto imperdível e sem spoilers.

Crítica: CLUBE DOS VÂNDALOS (THE BIKERIDERS) | 2023

6 notes · View notes

filmshady · 5 months

Text

10 things I thought about while watching LOGAN

The retirement plan for mutants involves grumpy facial hair, a penchant for whiskey, and driving a limo. Hugh Jackman's way of saying, "I'm done, but not without some serious side-eye."

Charles Xavier's telepathic powers must be on the fritz. I've never heard so many f-bombs dropped by a man with a British accent. Someone get this guy a mental mute button.

Nothing says quality parenting like raising a mini-Wolverine with an attitude sharper than Logan's claws.

Mutants are going extinct faster than a hipster trend. Logan is like the lone wolf in a world that desperately needs a superhero stylist.

Caliban, the mutant with a cough louder than a metal concert. You'd think someone with enhanced senses would invest in some cough drops.

Logan's healing factor is like a magic eraser for inconvenient wounds. Lost a limb? Give it a minute. It's like Wolverine has Wolverine insurance.

In Logan's world, the X-Men are reduced to comic book characters. It's like Marvel-ception. "Hey, isn't that the guy playing Wolverine?" - Logan, probably.

The Weapon X program went from a high-tech military operation to a shady doctor in a dusty lab. Mutant experimentation on a budget – the struggle is real.

Logan's paternal instincts are as rusty as his claws. Watching him try to be a father figure is like seeing a bull in a china shop – destructive but oddly compelling.

Logan: Because nothing says superhero swan song like a road trip with a kid who's a literal killing machine. It's like Thelma and Louise, but with more adamantium.

19 notes · View notes

spookytuesdaypod · 10 months

Text

spooky tuesday is a (now not so new!) podcast where we’re breaking down all of our favorite slashers, thrillers, monster movies and black comedies on the new scariest day of the week.

it's no twilight, but we still need to talk about the host (2013). no, not the bong joon ho horror — we mean the stephenie meyer movie adaptation. that's right, it's time for another fifth tuesday, a.k.a. one of our non-spooky bonus episodes, and given that this film features a bonafide intergalactic invasion, we knew it would be the perfect way to close out alien month. after four weeks of figuring out all the various ways humanity might put a stop to attacks from outer space, it was time to ask the really important questions: what happens when the aliens win? also, what if they're sort of sexy? with saoirse ronan doing her best bad southern accent and diane kruger serving cunt in a ribbed white tank top, our latest installment of spooky tuesday does the work to tackle all the important topics: communism, supernatural love squares, and the true test of any romance.

give spooky tuesday a listen on apple podcasts, spotify, iheart radio, or stitcher

#the host #the host 2013 #stephenie meyer #saoirse ronan #max irons #jake abel #boyd holbrook #diane kruger #emily browning #chandler canterbury #william hurt #alien movie #movie review podcast #horror podcast #gay horror podcast #horror movie podcast #spooky tuesday #new spooky tuesday episode #fifth tuesday

11 notes · View notes

adamwatchesmovies · 2 months

Text

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

It feels like every single fantasy film has been building up to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. This sprawling world of myth and magic is a landmark achievement. The special effects, characters, art direction, score, scale and faithfulness to the source material make it the kind of picture that will shape generations. It’s big, wonderful and epic but also small, intimate and emotional. This is a labor of love and it shows.

In the Second Age of Middle-earth, the Dark Lord Sauron forged the One Ring. With its power, he was poised to conquer all. Defeated through sheer luck, his evil dissipated. 3,000 years later, the One Ring is discovered in the possession of a humble hobbit named Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood). To save the world, from Sauron's return, the ring must be snuck back into the shadowy land of Mordor and thrown into the volcano where it was forged. On this quest, Frodo is accompanied by his friends Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin), Pippin Took (Billy Boyd) and Merry Brandybuck (Dominic Monaghan), his mentor, the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen), and representatives of the free races of Middle-Earth: humans Strider (Viggo Mortensen) and Boromir (Sea Bean), dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) and elf Legolas Greenleaf (Orlando Bloom).

To get us up to speed, the picture begins with a history lesson that’ll knock you off your feet. The armies clashing seem immeasurably large. Sauron effortlessly radiates evil despite having no dialogue. You can feel the thousands of years of culture in the fighting styles, weapons and scenery. Middle-Earth feels real. The scale is immense, which makes director Peter Jackson’s decision to focus the plot on an ordinary hobbit a genius move. In a story with caverns so large our civilization could never dream of carving them, elven cities that seem to grow from the trees that surround them, seamless towers of black stone and all sorts of monsters, it would be easy for audiences to feel alienated. We’d all like to think that when push comes to shove we’d be great heroes but in reality, there’s no way. The best a tiny person like you or me could hope to do is stay brave, which is exactly Frodo’s role.

Several times throughout, we hear that “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.” There couldn’t be anyone smaller than Frodo Baggins - except, perhaps, his friend to the end, Samwise. The hobbits are humble little people who have lived peaceful, simple lives free from adventure and are now thrust into a journey that will be the stuff of legends. Their joys are simple: warm meals, fields of brightly-colored vegetables and parties with friends & family. One particular scene that shows you just how small they are comes towards the end of the story. Sam and Frodo are traveling down a river. In the distance, they spot these enormous statues, the kind that would make the Statue of Liberty blush. Like us, they gaze at them in wonder, wondering who could’ve built them and who they represent. None of the other members of the Fellowship seem to give them more than a passing glance - and yet, these simple people prove themselves just as brave and reliable as the seasoned guardians they are traveling with. It’s awe-inspiring in so many ways.

By focusing on Frodo and his part of the journey, the film has a strong emotional core. The Fellowship of the Ring knows it has this time-tested story that’ll enchant audiences but before doing anything else, it made sure to get the basics right. Even if it hadn’t, it would’ve been an impressive production. Surrounding the inspirational battle of good vs. evil are incredible visuals, standout special effects and exciting action scenes. The film contains elements of horror in the form of its shadowy Ring Wraiths and scenes set in the deep mines of Moria. It’s got comedy to lighten the mood when necessary, chases so perfectly paced they should be shown in film school and battles that remain exciting whether they feature millions or a handful of fighters. There are so many great lines and iconic scenes you’ll love to quote it to your friends. The score by Howard Shore is this powerhouse that immediately sets up residence in your mind.

Though it ends in a "to be continued", The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is the kind of movie you need to watch just to be part of the cultural conversation. Don't worry if you're weary of following trends; you would fall in love with this film even if you discovered it on your own. (Theatrical version on Blu-ray, April 26, 2022)

4 notes · View notes

toomuchlovereviews · 10 months

Text

Final Destination 2 (2003)

⭐️⭐️⭐️ .5

I’m aware I am watching these films out of order, I still can’t find the first one on Criterion on Demand, but c’est la vie.

Maybe it’s because I always believe my friends, but I would never have let my friend drive onto the highway after hearing her vision. Wack. Her friends were not there for her.

I can’t help but feel like this whole series is like that text post about Apollo gifting people with Sight.

(Edit: THIS ONE!)

Also very wild to say “have you noticed anything ironic?” to a person that believes they’re going to die. That’s pretty twisted.

Also, sometimes, it’s not fate coming to get you, it’s a lack of kitchen safety and WHIMS knowledge. It all gets us in the end. Regardless, the tension in each death scene is so worth it.

I think that this twist on the original narrative was compelling but sometimes the actors couldn’t sell it. See: “See what? 😐 Pigeons? 🤨” and “😃 Tim! 😐” Other actors were putting their whole pussy into their performance to the point of near camp. But I think that horror movies like this make a person like myself easier to digest the horror.

You should watch this film for:

The yearly reminder that WHIMIS safety is indeed important

Edging. You get it if you have seen a single movie in this franchise.

The mid 00s dialogue, with gems like “Suck my junk, biatch!”

Similar titles:

The rest of the Final Destination Franchise (ig)

Escape Room (2019) (deals with a lot of planned horror, and asks the question ‘who will make it out alive?’)

#movie #movie review #review #horror #horror kick #criterion on demand #criterion #final destination #final destination 2 #david r ellis #enid-raye adams #lynda boyd #terrence carson #jonathan cherry #cam cronin #aaron douglas #andrew downing

8 notes · View notes

twenty-words-or-less · 4 months

Text

Eight for Silver

Summary: A town in rural France is threatened by a mysterious supernatural creature. Pathologist John McBride (Boyd Holbrook) arrives to investigate and help defend the town against it.

Atmospheric slow-burner that wasn’t actually that scary. Excellent gore effects and creature design, decent English accent from Holbrook.

Rating: 3.5/5

Photo credit: Screen Daily

#eight for silver #the cursed 2021 #2021 #sean ellis #horror #gothic horror #Boyd Holbrook #Kelly Reilly #Alistair Petrie #Roxane Duran #3.5 #film reviews #film review #twenty-words-or-less #twol

4 notes · View notes

lokitty-supreme · 1 year

Text

SPOILERS FOR THE FILM THE CURSED (2021)

Just finished watching The Cursed (2021) with Boyd Holbrook.

Thoughts:

This works better as a period piece than a horror movie. Though without context (which the movie gives us little of outside of text flashed across the screen & brief mentions) it falls short. I was only able to follow because I like history and I like werewolf lore.

Holbrooks performance is good. Most of the casts is & it’s one of the things that carry’s the movie.

We get lost in some of the plot & there were some things I felt we could have used more of (Holbrook’s characters backstory), some less (Edwards “story” which we see briefly at the opening & then don’t really have much follow up with).

The whole plot point that the victims of the werewolf’s curse weren’t necessarily changed into a werewolf but kept alive within the wolf’s body felt out of place for a movie like this & merely a plot device to keep Edward alive. It was incredibly unnecessary & could have been cut out completely in my opinion, though I did think the practical effects here were good.

I liked it overall excluding the last 10 minute which felt like it came out of nowhere. For such a slow paced movie such a vicious scene crammed into the last 10 minutes felt incredibly unnecessary & just a reason to show off the wolves penchant for violence. The fast pace & bad CGI didn’t help. Especially for a movie which relied so heavily on practical effects which worked.

Despite all this, I really enjoyed the movie. There were a few parts where Holbrooks character had to sacrifice competence for the sake of plot but the first 3/4th of the movie were good in my opinion.

I give it a solid 6.5-7/10 & I’m only going so low because of that last 10 minutes which really took me out of the movie, which is unfortunate.

#boyd holbrook #the cursed movie #horror films #movie reaction #movie review #might make this a thing idk

10 notes · View notes

ratleyland · 8 months

Text

DAMN IT!

I've seen this movie before... so I knew what was going to happen.

That didn't stop the tears flowing by the end credits 😭

#Logan #logan movie #wolverine #comic book movies #drama movies #marvel #hugh jackman #dafne keen #patrick stewart #stephen merchant #boyd holbrook #richard e grant #eriq la salle #movie #movies #movie nerd #movie night #movie review #movie poster

4 notes · View notes

boyd-speaks · 2 years

Photo

I watched NOPE last night.

This movie is simultaneously one of the greatest movies I have ever seen, and one of the absolute worst.

Part of me wishes it was bad so I didn’t have to be conflicted about it, instead it is a masterpiece covered in offal.

No spoilers, except for some discussion about tone and genre.

See, NOPE is a 2 hour film with about 60 minutes of flawless scenes. The rest are kind of slow, and drag on, and don’t go anywhere, and you could argue that that’s okay, it adds to the slow burn, but it overstays it’s welcome, and isn’t even building tension. It’s just arbitrary.

Now there are some great scenes tucked away in these poorly paced segment, but there are also some disturbing and uncomfortable scenes that seem to exist just to upset you.

Going into this movie I heard it was a horror film, so when the movie opens up on a cryptic and upsetting scene I wasn’t surprised, this was just a movie for people who like horror, I’m not the audience, I understood that.

The movie then proceeds to never have that scene be relevant, despite occasionally cutting back to it seemingly randomly, as if it’s going to matter.

Nope. It’s to upset you and nothing else.

Again, there’s this feeling that, maybe this movie just isn’t for me.

Other than these unrelated scenes the movie has not been horror. It’s either been good banter, or poorly paced stretches of nothing happening.

About an hour into the movie something starts happens that looks like it’s moving into horror finally. And not just jumpscares and tension strings, the movie had already been doing that with no pay off. Here things get weird and threatening in a very tangible way.

But despite this, after the scene ends, the movie seems to forget it ever wanted to be horror, and instead shifts into a completely different genre.

That’s the wild thing about this movie. It never was a horror film.

Not to give too much away, this film is a mystery/investigation film. It even dips it’s toes into action, but in this very compelling, down-to-earth way that you don’t get to see very often. The action segments bring with them some scary and disturbing scenes. But their not horror.

The only horror in this film is the series of unnecessary, unrelated gorey scenes in the first half that do not matter, and do not need to be there.

I don’t think I can get into why the latter half of this movie is perfect without giving too much away, but at that 1 hour mark the movie suddenly became so incredibly good that I’m still having a hard time believing it.

I’m focusing a lot more on the negative than the positive, because I’m trying to put into words how frustrating it is, and I don’t really need to explain why it’s amazing, it’s jut a really well made piece of film.

If I wasn’t watching this movie with my girlfriend I almost certainly would have stopped watching before the 30 minute mark.

Nothing is compelling, nothing is interesting, there is no reason I would want to keep watching.

Maybe other people would be curious about where the story was going, but it really didn’t seem like it was going anywhere. And I really don’t think it did go anywhere. The movie that NOPE became, was really just a different movie.

Also NOPE is a terrible name for a movie, but that’s beside the point.

All things said, NOPE is one of the best 90 minute movies I’ve ever seen.

No idea why they insisted on keeping the other 30 minutes in there.

That might sound petty, like isn’t a great 90 minutes worth a bad 30? But it affects everything.

It’s worse pacing, making the good scenes feel so few and far between in the first half, that they don’t feel worth the wait.

It’s irrelevant scenes that feel like they exist just to shock me with gore, when the movie isn’t even gorey otherwise.

And it all comes together to just be a miserable first half of the film.

The second half is somehow completely untouched and perfect. Like actually cinematic genius.

It legitimately upsets me that such a perfect film is buried under such an awful start.

Cut it down to 90 minutes, and it could have been one of the greatest films of all time.

#boyd reviews #nope #nope movie #review #movie review #negative review #positive review

3 notes · View notes

rookie-critic · 1 year

Text

Vengeance (2022, dir. B.J. Novak) - review by Rookie-Critic

Vengeance seemed very well-intentioned. The debut feature from The Office breakout B.J. Novak (who you probably know better as Ryan), Vengeance tells the story of a self-absorbed New York journalist/wannabe podcaster named Ben who, as a result of a misunderstanding, goes to West Texas to attend the funeral of a girl who, outside of hooking up with her a few times in the past, he knows nothing about. After the funeral, the older brother of the girl (played by a fully dedicated Boyd Holbrook), based on nothing but "gut," tells Ben that his sister did not die of an overdose like the reports say, but that she was murdered and they need to avenge her death. So that's the setup.

The family of Abilene, the girl who died, is made up of a cast of borderline-caricatures that are all dislikable, but lovable in their own ways, and each get their moment to shine throughout the movie. I say borderline because, from an insider's perspective they'd seem ridiculously overblown, and from an outsider's perspective they might seem just fine. However, being from Texas (although, according to the film, "Dallas isn't Texas"), and having family members that live in a more rural area of the state (although my family is from East Texas, not West), a lot of the way they're written is 100% right on the money. There are just a couple of moments where they tipped over into straight parody. Outside of the family, there are a large cast of characters, all mostly incompetent and of no help, except for Ashton Kutcher's character, small-town record producer Quentin Sellers, who is the first person to really break Ben's narcissistic and jaded shell. Kutcher excells the movie forward and almost feels like a breath of fresh air from all the "haha funny country" people in the movie.

Some of the jokes land, some of them don't, some of them will make you roll your eyes, and you never really feel a deep, emotional connection with any one particular character until getting close to the end of the movie, and the film never misses a chance to turn a heartwarming moment into one of bleak, grim realism. Again, sometimes this works, other times you wish the moment had just been allowed to be heartwarming. For the most part, the film is good. The parts that work, work well, and again, Novak seems very well-intentioned with what he was trying to say. Sadly, he makes the movie tackle so many different subjects and tries to say so much about them that the messages end up getting muddled by the time the credits start to roll. Novak is a director to watch, though, and I'll be excited to see whatever his second attempt is now that he's got one under his belt.

Score: 7/10

Currently streaming on Peacock.

Worth it for the hilarious cameo scene with John Mayer at the very beginning alone.

#Vengeance #B.J. Novak #B. J. Novak #Boyd Holbrook #Issa Rae #Ashton Kutcher #J. Smith-Cameron #Dove Cameron #Isabella Amara #Eli Bickel #Lio Tipton #Louanne Stephens #Zach Villa #John Mayer #film review #movie review #2022 films

15 notes · View notes

roseshavethoughts · 9 months

Text

Ben-Hur (1959)

My ★★★★★ review of Ben-Hur - Review (1959) #FilmnReview #Cinema #MovieReview

Ben-Hur (1959) Synopsis – After a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge – Ben-Hur Director – William Wyler Starring – Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd. Genre – Historical | Drama | Adventure Released – 1959 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 5 out of 5. If you liked: Gladiator, Troy, Kingdom of Heaven Ben-Hur is so much…

View On WordPress

#1950s Cinema #Adventure #★★★★★#Ben-Hur #Best Picture Winner #Charity Shop #Charlton Heston #cinema #Drama #film review #Film Reviews #Historical #Jack Hawkins #lgbt #movie review #Stephen Boyd #William Wyler

2 notes · View notes

aspiringsophrosyne · 1 year

Text

Episode 7: The Fey Realm.

If high fantasy's your thing, have we got a show for you today. Cursed swordsman, mysterious faerie realms, and grappling with destiny. Just make sure to get your seat before the lights go down.

The Good.

I appreciate Keyleth's freak-out after they realized they were separated from the gnomes and Grog. Too often, when characters don't get a moment to be distraught, it makes the stakes feel lower than they should. Or makes it feel like the cast doesn't care about each other all that much. So that was refreshing.

Also, good call to split up the group. That makes it easier for the show CRew; no need to figure out how to write and animate seven characters at once. Plus, that divides the audience's attention, making the plot easier to follow. And in smaller groups, it gives individual characters more time to shine.

Serious kudos is deserved for the design of the Fey Wild itself. Young Heller, episode director, and guest for the watch along, nailed it on the head when he described the Realm of the Fey as a character unto itself. Honestly, it comes across as even more alien and other here than it can in the game. Unless the DM wants to change things up, the game mechanics don't vary that much when you hang out there. So it can feel like only another weird area among many, depending on the story you're trying to tell.

Watching Craven Edge soak up Pike's blood from a distance while she's trying to heal, without even a wielder, is disturbing. It gives the impression that if left unchecked, this thing could turn into something even more dangerous than it already is.

Getting rid of Craven Edge was more involved in the stream, so they knew they had to make its destruction here brutal enough that it felt like death for the sword. For my money, they managed it; Grog breaking the sword had the visceral impact of a bone breaking in half. And the small ocean of blood it expels is like all its power and evil being released back into the world.

Holy shit Billy Boyd as Garmelie. He is perfect; the design and Billy's performance are just spot on what I would imagine a native fey creature to act like. Whimsical, self-interested, sort of smart ass, charming as all hell....everything about it is fantastic. I only wish we could've seen more of him. No notes.

Well, except for Garmelie's notes which....yeah, exactly right. Absolutely accurate to the stream. What a fabulously gross, cheeky little gremlin man.

My reactions to Pike and Scanlan's song, in order:

Oh, is this the song Sam hinted at during the pre-season interviews?

Wow, Ashley and Sam sound great together. They should do more duets.

...Wait, what are those lyrics?

These ridiculous little shits. (<-affectionate)

If you know, you know. But if you don't, it's just a good song.

Don't think we didn't pick up on those nine eyes Vex saw when she was sliding into a bad trip. It's weird and ominous to think that, in this universe, that's still around. And that the person who will trigger the confrontation with that whole thing....technically isn't even born yet.

I can't say enough about how pretty the Fey Realm is. Just....so gorgeous at every point.

And, of course, Cheech Marin is Trinket. Of course, he is.

The Bad. (Or at least not great.)

One thing that bothers me is that there are two angles they tried to hit in this episode that, due to poor execution, just...don't work. One is Percy being a more ineffective guide to the Fey Realm than he thinks he is, and the other is that the Realm Does Not Like the Matron's Champion in general on life vs. death principles.

When Percy warned the half-elves that the forest they were traveling through could pick up on a poor mood, we all knew what would happen. Vax has, understandably, been in a funk for days. So it wasn't hard for the audience to guess that the negativity-detecting plants would take one look at this boy and collectively go: get his ass.

Percy wasn't wrong about the vines; Vax was never going to be able to pass through them unscathed.

Likewise, when the rest of the group seems to think Percy doesn't know where he's leading them or is lost, that idea is undercut by the fact they've just reached the upside-down waterfall. The very same waterfall from Scanlan's vision of where Fenthras was. So the visual tells the audience Percy is actually on the right track, no matter how skeptical of him the group is in-universe.

As for Vax, the encounter with the mood forest muddles the idea that the Fey Realm is against him because it doesn't like death-aligned individuals in general.

Because Vax was initially attacked due to his emotional state, the potential takeaway was that the Fey Realm doesn't like bad vibes. And Vax is nothing but bad vibes right now.

It's another case of the script and the dialogue telling us one thing while what's actually happening tells us something contradictory. It's frustrating.

More Grog nerfing....eh. Makes a little more sense than some of the Season 1 moments, and it makes the fight in Episode 10 go even harder, but it still feels a little cheap to me. If I'm going to be nitpicky.

And that's about it. Next is a good one folks. See you there.

6 notes · View notes

abookishshade · 9 months

Text

What I liked in Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi, tr. by David Boyd and Lucy North (spoilers)

1) Theme of gender roles in workplaces. Shibata is the only woman in her section at the office, and all menial work like getting tea or coffee for others, cleaning up the fridge, etc. falls on her. It makes it difficult for her to focus on her actual work for which she was hired. It also gives her less time to herself at home as she almost daily ends up leaving for home from work past her time. So, one day in annoyance she comes up with the lie of her pregnancy. That solves all of the above issues for her in addition to gaining her the maternity leave that gives her a break from her annoying workplace.

2) Theme of loneliness. Shibata seeks solitude but she is also alone at times. She considers herself less miserable than the married women who despite being drained and tired themselves do the housework for their family, while she can spend her time doing what she likes. She does not like talking to people who do not care for her but would ask intruding questions about her private life and comment on what she isn't doing right according to them. Talking to those people makes her feel very alone. And it is not even as simple as avoiding the people she finds annoying because perhaps the vibrancy in those interactions makes her solitary apartment more darker: But why do I have to deal with these people who try to act like they care about me or my pregnancy while they ask the most inane, prying questions? Why is it up to me to produce answers that please them? And why is the way home so much darker and colder on nights like that? More than that, why is my apartment so dark when I come home alone from aerobics, after talking with the others about nothing in particular, snacking on whatever sweets are spread out on the table? There is also the fact that not everyone she finds annoying is so merely because they have nothing better to do or because they are inconsiderate. I think this was particularly emphasized through Higashinakano's character. He seemed annoying at the beginning, but later we find out that he has his own emotional reasons related to pregnancy and babies. At one point she also talks about family: Maybe that’s what making a family is all about: creating an environment in which people make space for one another— maybe without even trying, just naturally, to make sure that nobody’s forgotten.

3)Theme of lies. She is a 34 year old unmarried single woman living alone. But her lie turns her into an unmarried single mother, and she dedicates herself completely to this lie doing everything exactly as a pregnant woman would do for the entire period of a normal pregnancy. She does this because she doesn't care about lying to those intruding people and this lie enables her to maintain her privacy while still interacting with them: Even if it’s a lie, it’s a place of my own.

4)Theme of religion and motherhood. She talks to Mary, the Virgin Mother, in her head at parts. She sympathises with the role thrust upon Mary and the circumstances of her becoming the Virgin Mother and being eternally known as such, her personhood entirely ignored. Shibata too, after all, could get out of her uncompensated for extra duties only after she turned herself into a would-be mother through her lie. She finds solace in talking to this famous mother who must not have had it easy either, especially in those times, eons ago.

5) Theme of body. I liked how relatable Shibata's self-consciousness was: It was the bottom part of me that was different. I quickly dried myself off and tried on some skirts and jeans. Nothing looked right. My thighs were jutting out. And the way I looked from behind was . . . Well, it was just too painful to behold. This. I have felt this too. And I was happy for her when she felt better about her body after her walks and aerobics: It hadn’t even been three weeks since I’d signed up, but my body was already changing, little by little. Whenever I got out of the bath and looked at my backside in the mirror, I could see a real difference in my hips and thighs. My core felt stronger, and I didn’t feel like I was about to fall over all the time. My belly was getting bigger, and sometimes I felt a pain in my back, but it wasn’t unbearable. Honestly, I was feeling better than I ever had in my life.

6) The writing. I liked all the descriptions of the mundane day-to-day life activities. And her thoughts. Her overthinking tendency was also very relatable to me.

What I didn't like:

The visit to the doctor. It made zero sense to me. I was confused af.

3 notes · View notes

mywifeleftme · 10 months

Text

139: Richard & Linda Thompson // Shoot Out the Lights

Shoot Out the Lights Richard & Linda Thompson 1982, Hannibal

Richard Thompson has a reputation as a songwriter’s songwriter despite not having much flair as a lyricist, and he’s the sort of guitarist’s guitarist whose solos don’t necessarily jump out at listeners raised on raunchy blues licks and widdly neoclassical runs. Like his vastly wealthier guitar god contemporary Eric Clapton, he has a thin, nasal voice that is only occasionally roused to genuine passion, and many of his finest moments have been as a versatile sideman non pareil on his friends’ records. (There are differences though: for example, Thompson is a practicing Sufi Muslim, while Clapton believes Muslims should be driven into the English Channel.) Despite the relative subtlety of his gifts, and because of it, Thompson is one of the finest musicians to emerge from the English folk revival, and I’ll join the consensus that Shoot Out the Lights is his masterpiece.

youtube

The last of his excellent series of albums with first wife Linda Thompson, Shoot Out the Lights was recorded during a period of intense stress. By the late ‘70s, the couple had lost their record deal following a series of commercial failures and an interlude living on a Sufi commune. Admirer Gerry Rafferty fronted (and lost) a significant amount of his own money recording the Thompsons, but his sensibilities clashed with Richard’s and he was unable to interest any labels in the results. Eventually the legendary folk producer Joe Boyd, who’d helped give Richard and his band Fairport Convention their start in the late ‘60s, bailed the duo out and signed them to his own label. For financial reasons, the Thompsons’ second stab at recording these songs had to be banged out in a few days. Recording quickly suited Richard’s predilections, but matters were complicated by the fact that the very pregnant Linda, expecting their third child, was experiencing breathing difficulties that limited her singing, forcing Richard to take on a greater than usual share of the lead vocal duties. (It’s worth comparing Linda’s original lead vocal on “Don’t Renege on Our Love” from the Rafferty sessions to Richard’s from the final LP.)

By the end of the subsequent (reportedly hellish) American tour for Shoot Out the Lights, the Thompsons’ marriage was over. Given the circumstances, it’s hard to read a record with titles like “Don’t Renege on Our Live,” “Man in Need,” and “Did She Jump or Was She Pushed?” as anything other than a loose concept album about a decaying relationship. Although many of these songs predated the worst of their infighting, the album is undoubtedly a more affecting listen with this narrative in mind, and it does seem to capture the wild range of conflicting emotions when love goes bad: the desire to offer your partner some promise of comfort (“Just the Motion”), juxtaposed with the spiteful urge to make them feel terrible (“Back Street Slide”); morbid fascination at how bad things have gotten (“Did She Jump or Was She Pushed?”) versus fatalistic abandon (“Wall of Death”).

youtube

Reviews of Shoot Out the Lights have a tendency to paint it as a gloomy listen, but if anything the stress manifests itself musically as a nervy energy that charges the performances. Boyd surrounded the Thompsons with Richard’s old Fairport running mates David Mattacks, Simon Nicol, and Dave Pegg, and even the Watersons on backing vocals. The ease of playing with musicians they knew so well helps the Thompsons return to the form that made their early work together like I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight and Pour Down Like Silver such vital listens. The call and response vocals and reflective jangle of “Wall of Death” make it feel like the song is playing over a TV series’ final moments, and as far as the Thompsons’ career together went, it was. Brawling and infidelity aside, there are worse ways to go out.

139/365

#richard and linda thompson #linda thompson #richard thompson #folk rock #'80s music #folk #vinyl record #music review #divorce #joe boyd #my wife literally left me

3 notes · View notes