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ohmygodtheywereparabatai · 17 days

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i wanted to invite a conversation about this because it’s genuinely been bothering me for a long time. and i in fact wasn’t immune to it either and am just now realizing this is the power of cinematic brainwashing.

but like, tgm is so many bad things. sexist, racist, ageist, to scratch the tip of the iceberg. token characters that meet the bare minimum for diversity, and sidelined women - i’d even say exploited women. a narrative that is so egocentric that it’s miraculous that some characters manage to hold their own instead of being swept under the charismatic magnetism of the reckless bad boy character who can get away with murder because deep down, he’s regretful, and he has a good heart.

what a shallow representation of the military, and what a disservice to those who were inspired to join because they thought the real life experience would mirror even a fraction of what is presented on screen. the reality is that there was never a competition to win a top gun trophy, and in fact today you have to pay 5$ at the top gun school if you even mention the film. that speaks for itself.

tom cruise being a huge part of the production process has made it impossible for me not to hold him responsible for the choices that have been made. to even subtitle the sequel movie with “Maverick”, the same protagonist as in the first one, comes across as insanely egotistical - and honestly a testament to how mav’s story manages to drown out the autonomy and validity of other characters. i’ll explain this terms of ice, penny, carole, and charlie. you’ll notice how i’m gonna be bringing up three women.

ice-

i don’t care that val kilmer gave the okay on using his cancer as a plot point. i care that cancer was not only used as a plot point, but treated like this ^

“i’m dying. you have bigger problems.”

the original script seems to peel back the layers of tgm’s intended messaging, so i’m using several examples. this is what is being communicated. i honestly don’t know what else to add. in or out of context, this is incredibly disturbing - and that it’s played as a self-aware quip from ice, even more so. the bond of wingmen goes both ways, and i just didn’t see that… if anything, that aspect leaned so heavily on the first film (the photo of them smiling at each other) that it just proves my point. it took ice’s death for mav to get up off his ass and do something to keep his career afloat besides get a cop-out from the compacflt. ice in the first movie was a compelling antagonist and voice of reason - now he’s mostly relegated to the role of babysitter, denying mav’s character the growth of accountability by simply erasing his poor choices with a phone call.

it’s why the darkstar scene pisses me off. to stop at mach 10 would have been fine, but to push it just for the sake of it is ridiculous. the fact that earlier mav states “i know what happens to everyone else if i don’t” in regards to his decision only makes this screw-up more laughable, because to me it’s the very contradiction of maverick: his intentions do not balance with his actions. costing the military millions of dollars in a few seconds somehow balances with his heartfelt desire to protect the interests of its workforce.

penny-

shortly before, during, and after this screenshot, i counted a total of 6 times that penny made it clear she would not appreciate mav’s advances. regardless, mav goes on to say “you look good”. this flirtation happens before mav is even aware of her marital status, as he asks amelia “where’s your dad?” in a later scene… which… dear god.

penny also says “it always ends the same with us, so let’s not start this time”, indicating this is a repeated pattern in which her boundaries weren’t respected and moreover, the relationship ended up failing. yet this is framed as the main romance of tgm, a wonderful and nostalgic callback to the original that ends as stereotypically as possible.

i love penny. she’s witty, caring, independent, and of course stunning. so i find her treatment in tgm a disservice to what started out as a rich and compelling character. she later ends up mav’s shoulder to cry on, more or less, comforting him after losing his wingman and his position as instructor. the song “hold my hand” is thematically suited for penny, playing in the background at the bar and in the notes of the score during her scenes - even musically, she is turned into a source of consolation first, and her own woman second. she’s his prize at the end of the film, falling for the promise “i’m never gonna leave you again”, which i don’t buy for a second. they fly into the sunset, presumably signifying a new horizon for their relationship - but i feel so dissatisfied with this arc for her and think she deserved much better.

that mav gets away with this behavior is something i’d like to see more people reflect on. it seems to be a pattern with male protagonists, in which case the function of male and protagonist in hollywood cinema needs an examination.

carole-

top gun (1986):

this is an especially crude exploitation to me. not only is carole the one consoling a young maverick (if a full-fledged 24 year old can be called young, in light of the tendency people have to dismiss his choices in ‘86) after his mistake costs her own husband his life… but her stance, even following a tragedy of that magnitude, didn’t change. goose would have flown anyway, and she knows that well enough - on top of that, it’s easy to see she would have supported him.

it came as a surprise to me that she wouldn’t in turn support her own son, who is clearly committed to a career as a pilot. in the end, i see a cheap narrative device that contradicts carole’s character, undermines her strength as a wife and mother, both in order to serve the interests of the plot. maverick in tgm needs a viable reason to hide a secret, to be tortured by his own consequences, to put further strain on his tension with bradley. there were plenty of other ways to do it, but the fact that it was this leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

charlie-

it’s my understanding that tom cruise’s personal reason (his excuse) for not bringing back charlie was that he didn’t like how their relationship ended. if there’s any source confirming or denying this, i’d appreciate a link.

anyways. yeah. this is… a huge problem with hollywood at large, which kelly mcgillis understands, but i’ll break it down. there’s a simpler reason this pisses me off more than anything. tgm’s entire subject matter is about repairing relationships. penny benjamin was dredged out of obscurity to do it. maverick and rooster’s grudge of 30+ years was used to do it. iceman’s character, as warped as he feels, is another way the film made this its theme. but charlie is out of the question?

that val kilmer could be asked to return, and make an insane amount of money for each second he’s on screen, but such an opportunity is never given to kelly mcgillis, who herself centers on the 1986 poster, speaks volumes to me. tom cruise even planted his foot when it came to reprising iceman, saying he wouldn’t do this movie without val in it.

it’s worth mentioning that viper and slider were also present at ice’s funeral, but this scene was cut out. for a film that’s quite heavy-handed with its nostalgic callbacks, this was an odd decision. until realizing, as my friend put it, that even ice’s death couldn’t be about him, whether it had brought in his own teacher or his rio - his goose. it had to revolve around mav, to catalyze a turning point for him in the plot.

also… a shoutout to the erasure of sarah kazansky, pretty much everywhere. that also tells me a lot.

…

this was just a dissection of the various character portrayals (or absences) in tgm that have bothered me since forever. this isn’t even going into how tgm accomplishes everything that propaganda sets out to do. combinations of stunning visuals, soaring music composed by masters like hans zimmer, the charismatic power of a cast packed with stars… all play a role in the blinding awesomeness of tgm, which has taken me this long to break away from.

consider the white/poc duos in the film: maverick and hondo, hangman and coyote, cyclone and warlock. who has more lines? who plays a greater role? why is that?

i don’t see this as real diversity. it masquerades as inclusion, which i find worse. and to cast an actor of asian descent, and give him the callsign yale? … wow.

framing is powerful. its influence in cinematography is unmatched. a story is being constructed and told not only through dialogue, but sound, visuals, editing… really, nothing can be dismissed as insignificant. i’m not asking for a scholarly interrogation of all media you consume, though, that would be so excellent, and so healthy… but i am trying to raise these questions in the community, of what gets lost when a main character is so overwhelmingly main. when someone like tc has so much control over the decision-making process, since it’s sort of a running joke that maverick is a tc self-insert. my focus isn’t the inclusions, but the exclusions.

and finally, since i’ve unfortunately spent a lot of life writing this post… it’s interesting to me that many viewers in hindsight seem to see top gun 1986 so differently. as kids, they sided with mav over the antagonist. an older audience returning to the first film now seem to side with iceman, seeing him as the rational one attempting to raise important points. i wonder if this will be the case with top gun: maverick in the future. in which case, i’m excited to see more cyclone fans. he’s my favorite character… unsurprisingly.

oh. one last thing.

“the man, the myth, the legend” … the word myth has two meanings:

…

happy reading.

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miscellaneousjay · 8 months

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“I THINK THEY WENT AND CLOOOONNNEEEDDD TYROOOONNNNNEEEEE! CLOOOONNNEEDDD HIM!”🎶 When I tell y’all this movie had me like 😳😬😭🤣😭, I MEAN it, okay?! Like, Slick Charles, Fontaine, and Yo-Yo had me rolling THE ENTIRE TIME! But also, on a deeper level, I like how the fate of the Black community was left on those who everyone would’ve counted out and/or deemed problematic: the pimp, the drug-dealer, and the sex worker. Most of the time, depending on the lens, these people are deemed community miscreants and are heavily side-eyed. However, no one ever takes into account these people’s lives; the people and events that make up their everyday experiences in order for them to have ended up where they are in their lives and in society. They weren’t dealt the best of life’s cards and they were making due like everyone else in their community. It wasn’t until Fontaine seemingly came back from the dead that they knew more sinister-than-usual things were at work. If you enjoyed Jordan Peele’s “Get Out,” you will definitely enjoy “They Cloned Tyrone”!

P.S. I really loved how the time setting was 1970s x early 2000s! The costume department did their thing and I want me-sized replicas of Slick Charles’ coat and Yo-Yo’s entire outfit in this scene!

#miscellaneous #jay #they cloned tyrone #they cloned tyrone spoilers #black tumblr #black girls who blog #black girls of tumblr #doaom #blackgirlbloggers #film critic #film critique #blerd #erykah badu #black fashion #black fandom

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cyberantiquities · 3 months

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"I enjoyed watching Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn (2023), for the most part. It was fun. It’s the sort of film which if, say, four years ago you’d described its existence to me – I would have been amazed that such a cultural artifact could really exist. It is so intensely saturated, oversaturated, with images and dynamics which evoke the GIFs and the screencaps, the quotations, the ‘what if there was a movie like this’ posts which, by scrapbooking the fragments of less-satisfying wholes, paint pictures of ideal and longed for pieces of media on platforms like Tumblr."

I wrote about my impressions of Saltburn and the way in which it works as a satire, in comparison to The Secret History.

Subscribe here if you want to receive my blog as a newsletter!

#saltburn #saltburn 2023 #emerald fennell #the secret history #donna tartt #writers on tumblr #writing #blog post #essay #film review #film critique #book review #writeblr #filmblr #bookblr #I don't really want to be mean and bait people so I hope my tagline makes it clear #I don't like d*rk ac*demia.

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the-entity-down-the-street · 3 months

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"Splice" is a better Frankenstein adaptation than "Poor Things" because:

SPOILERS FOR BOTH FILMS

A) the mad scientists face consequences for their unethical genetic fuckery instead of dying peacefully. Elsa is left traumatized, with her loved ones dead as a result of this experiment. Sure, she's getting a lot of money, but that's not going to undo the mental scars that will no doubt haunt her to the grave.

B) The female monster is actually fucking monstrous. Dren does have some typically attractive traits like symmetrical features, smooth skin, etc, but still. If you're going to make an abomination against science, MAKE THE ABOMINATION. Don't give me some pretty girl in a frilly dress and call that a monster, okay? Cowards.

C) They don't frame the dubious consent/noncon as liberating. Elsa is disgusted with Clive for sleeping with Dren, and when Dren assaults Elsa in her male form, it's a traumatic experience. Bella's assaults (because that's what they are. She has the mind of a literal toddler. I don't care if she is enthusastic about it if she doesn't have the cognitive capacity to understand what's happening.) are framed as sexual liberation and it makes me want to hurl a chair at somebody. Calling sex "furious jumping" because she's not mature enough to fully understand sex. The fact that her fiancé wants to marry her when she's a fucking toddler. Gross. Disgusting. I hate it.

D) Splice is a true gender swap of the Frankenstein narrative, because both the scientist and the creature are female. Clive helps, but let's be real, Elsa is pulling the strings and convincing him to go along with it. Splice doesn't claim to be a feminist retelling like Poor Things does, but it's more narratively driven by women who are allowed moral complexity and agency. There's no bullshit girlboss moment either (the goat brain swap).

E) This one is just a personal gripe, but the whole "bringing back a dead woman with the brain of an infant she was forced to carry" thing? And somehow, this is a feminist retelling? Hate. Get it away from me. Not saying Dren was created ethically (Clive didn't even have fully informed consent because he didn't know it was Elsa's DNA), but goddamn, at least the mother of the child had agency in the child's creation. There is absolutely nothing feminist about using an unwilling woman's body as a vessel for the baby she didn't want. What in the pro-life bullshit is this? Ew. Ew. Ew.

Rant over. Thanks for coming to my Tedtalk.

#rant post #poor things #poor things spoilers #splice 2009 #splice 2009 spoilers #dren splice #bella baxter #tw sex assault #tw rap3 #unethical science #frankenstein #feminist retelling my ass #hate #hate hate hate #splice is better y'all #film critique #criticism #discourse #mad science

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clarinartiste · 3 months

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Let’s talk about “A Guy Like You”

This might be an unpopular opinion(??) but I genuinely think that “A Guy like You” is a really sweet song, but it was put in the worst possible place that it could have been. I also want to say, I believe that part of appreciating a piece of media is also exploring criticism of it, and I love this movie a lot. I say this with all the love in my heart.

Thoughts and suggestions below!!

I feel like it has merit as an encouraging song for Quasimodo and his self-esteem. I think it’s well written, well composed, and the voices sound great. It definitely has good intentions for Quasi. But it’s in the wrong place at the wrong time, and like I’ve said before, it absolutely kills the momentum of “Hellfire” and the burning of Paris.

“Heaven’s Light” leading into “Hellfire” is SO masterfully done, I absolutely love how it contrasts Quasimodo and Frollo, and the music and animation is phenomenal. And keeping up the frightening visuals and motives expressed in “Hellfire,” Frollo and his obsessive hunt for Esmeralda is also amazingly executed, with the Latin background singing and the fiery imagery really adding to the terror of the scenes.

This is the pivoting point in the film where Stuff Gets Extra Serious, and if we went directly from the hunt through Paris to the part where Esmeralda brings an injured Phoebus to Quasimodo, it would have kept up that tension so well. Combine that with the brilliantly done—and very tense—scene with Frollo visiting Quasimodo with grapes, the urgency to warn Esmeralda in the Court of Miracles, the Court of Miracles scene, and the stellar climax of the film, and you get a second half of the movie that feels faster and even more dramatically intense than the first half, a natural movement of the story pushing forward.

I feel like it would make more sense if it was placed before “Heaven’s Light” and “Hellfire,” after Quasimodo helps Esmeralda escape. Like, after Quasimodo makes Phoebus leave, the gargoyles congratulate him, “Way to go, lover boy!” Quasimodo bashfully protests, “Lover boy? Oh, no, no. Look, I appreciate what you’re all trying to do, but let’s not fool ourselves. Ugliest face in all of Paris, remember? I don’t think I’m her type.” To which the gargoyles respond by trying to raise his hopes up, encouraging him by singing “A Guy Like You” (of course, adjusting the lyrics with Paris being on fire, which are not fitting for the plot right now)

Have “A Guy Like You” as this fun, bombastic song hyping up Quasimodo. Then, in a quiet aside, Quasimodo inwardly continues to express some doubts about his chances of being with Esmeralda, while still holding on to his wistful and innocent hope. He sings about his romantic desires in a more soft and gentle way with “Heaven’s Light.” And cut out the gargoyle parts during “Heaven’s Light” so we can have a greater emphasis on Quasimodo singing, focusing on his affection and appreciation for Esmeralda. Which then, in turn, is sharply contrasted with “Hellfire” and Frollo’s emotional torment and obsessive lust.

I watched the Director’s Commentary and I definitely get where they were coming from—setting up this song for Quasimodo right before he sees Esmeralda and Phoebus kissing, and gets his heart broken—and making that whiplash all the more stinging. But I still feel like that set up for the fall could have been accomplished without a tone-breaking song. Maybe instead of the gargoyles singing a cheery, upbeat song in this very dark and heavy moment, we have Quasimodo look out worriedly at the city on fire, talking to the gargoyles about how concerned he is about Esmeralda, explaining just how much he cares about her and loves her.

Continue the film as normal with Esmeralda coming to the bell tower and asking Quasimodo to help hide Phoebus, then Esmeralda and Phoebus kiss and the reprise of “Heaven’s Light” plays over the sight of a heartbroken Quasimodo so we still get the emotions of the scene, his hopes dashed.

At the end of the film, Quasimodo finds acceptance, kindness, and companionship. And this concludes this plot thread of the movie :)

What do you think? Do any of you have different opinions? (I’d love to hear your thoughts!)

#the hunchback of notre dame #thond #quasimodo #victor #hugo #laverne #gargoyles #film critique

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absolutebl · 2 years

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I loved your beautiful ode to A Beautiful Man. (Even as someone pretty new to BL and unfamiliar with Yaoi I felt the power of that show.)

In it you wrote in passing, "Semantic Error is about perfection and ignoring all ugliness." If you have further thoughts on that I'm curious to hear them.

Thanks!

Semantic Error vs Utsukushii Kare how two BL’s tell us A LOT about Korean vs Japanese approaches to cinema

"Semantic Error is about perfection and ignoring all ugliness." (from this post)

Ah I was referring to the KBL inclination to create a perfect bubble in which being queer is not just irrelevant and unspoken, but ironically untouchable.

As characters, JaeYoung and SangWoo can only exist within this bubble.

It renders their perfection unmoored and somewhat etherial feeling to viewers. As if they are the gods on pedestals that Hira is trying to turn Kiyoi into. There is no attempt to address the impossible nature of their existence. JaeYoung and SangWoo aren’t meant to be REAL in any way, they are meant to be fantastical - almost like mythical caricatures.

I say this not as criticism, Semantic Error is one of my favorite BLs of all time. But it is almost too perfect, as if we are watching the fae perform for us - ageless and immortal. It has no real grounding, no tether at all to reality. It is the ultimate escapism.

This is fine, I watch BL for the escapism. It’s why it got a 10/10 from me. But it’s also why it’s never whipped me into a verbal frenzy. It’s exactly as perfect as I always expected Korean BL to get to. It is the pinnacle of the mountain they have been climbing - but they never faltered on that path to perfection. They were always gonna make it. It’s what Hallyu does. They did it with music (Kpop). They did it with horror (Parasite, Squid Games). They’re doing it with romance.

But Semantic Error’s innately KBL nature renders it, in a strange way, almost the polar opposite to something like My Beautiful Man, for all they share some really stunning visual similarities in filming techniques, manga framing and staging, uses of color and light, etc...

The very perfect beauty of Semantic Error (both in visuals, execution, production, script, story arc, tropes and archetypes) is like the BL on the pedestal that A Beautiful Man is challenging within itself.

Ironically of course, My Beautiful Man, is about the harsh honest ugliness of really loving someone, Semantic Error not only has no thought to address this, by it’s very nature it could never do so, since it sits on that pedestal with nothing to tip it off (yet) and nothing to pull it down to ground (yet) because KBL is still (mostly) at the pedestal state of it’s BL journey.

Korea is focused on producing perfect BL. Which I might argue they did with Semantic Error. But as nothing more than a perfect BL. Classic. Typical. The opposite of challenging. Easy. Easily enthralling and riveting.

Utsukushii Kare is work. Work to watch. Work to tolerate. Work to understand. But it’s work I enjoy.

Japan has always farted around with that kind of thing. Japan doesn't have anything to prove. But Japan has also always been one to use film to examine itself, it’s that uncompromising point of view thing I talk about and the reason people get frustrated with Japanese cinema. It’s not about anyone but Japan.

Korea is a the opposite, it’s producing its pop culture these days explicitly with an expansion agenda. It’s all about how perfectly can they hit it so they can GET us. Like, capture us. Make us watch. Make us happy. Dazzle us with their brilliance and beauty. Lure us into the fae realm, under the green hill where time passes differently.

Often I think Japan wants us to be uncomfortable. Ironically, that’s why I have such faith and confidence in them.

But that’s also how they can surprise so beautifully. (Old Fashion Cupcake. Minato’s Laundromat. Gah.) They stay BL without shying away from difficult content, sometimes I think they stay BL so they can directly tackle it.

Korea is doing everything they can to keep themselves safe and idealized, or to keep up the appearance of that. It comes off as disingenuous at worse, unfixed and fantastical at best. Semantic Error was all this, but correct, almost mathematical. I admire the precision art of it and the targeted intent.

They are both master manipulators and I like watching manipulators at work.

But with Korea there’s always a part of me that’s like, “I see you doing it. I see what you did there. Very good.” I’m noticing how good they are.

And with Japan, occasionally, I forget to notice. I’m still surprised. Even knowing what they are capable of. Even living in the shadow of 15 years of BLs. They can still surprise.

(source)

#korean film industry #hallyu #hallyu wave #japanese fil industry #Kdrama #Jdrama #Japanese BL #Korean BL #live action yaoi #adapted from a manga #adapted from a manwha #film critique #Semantic Error #Old Fashion Cupcake #Minato’s Laundromat #Utsukushii Kare #My Beautiful Man #rakutan viki #gagaoolala

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anarchistfrogposting · 8 months

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The level of media comprehension of Oppenheimer is so ridiculously terrible.

#oppenheimer #film #movies #film critic #film critique

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fitrahgolden · 10 months

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So, I really liked the Disney The Little Mermaid remake. My biggest gripe by far is that they minimized the role of the sisters, which is saying a lot because they already had next to nothing do in the original. They spent so much time and money developing gorgeous, individual character design for each of them in the new one and then you barely see them on screen enough to know what they even look like.

"Daughters of Triton" was cut (you know Simone would have nailed her vocal run, considering her opera background), and they literally don't speak (!) in the replacement scene that introduces them. The writers made progress in making them the rulers of the seven seas, but then didn't give them anything to do with that. Why not have each of them give their father a brief report of what was happening in their domains during that introduction scene? They cut Ariel's line where she acknowledges sadly that becoming human would mean she would never see her father or sisters again. And why not have one scene in which Ariel has an actual conversation with her sisters? Part of the reason for this onslaught of Disney remakes, besides the business if making money, is supposedly to add/remove things from the story to make it reflect the values of current society.

Anyway, today I found this book, based on the movie. The Little Mermaid: Guide to Merfolk. First of all, it's a really good book for merfolk world building in general, Disney or not. I definitely plan to use it for tabletop roleplaying. Additionally, they actually go into each sister's domain in detail. It's very cool.

(Please keep in mind that all of this is referring to Disney's version of the The Little Mermaid story, not the original folklore.)

#simone ashley #the little mermaid 2023 #the little mermaid #disney princesses #disney princess #princess indira #movie critique #film critique #books #book recommendations

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sagechan · 4 months

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"Wes Anderson's style is his substance and the substance is the style and all the deadpan delivery to create distance is how he and the audience can heal from this or that or these or blah blah blah" it's Brecht. Wes Anderson movies are Brechtian. he's using Brecht's theories of theater and alienation:

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I'd love to see a contemporary film critic actually mention Brecht or look into how Anderson' films utilize this effect, but I never have. I feel like we've forgotten theory as a form of criticism and analysis lol

#wes anderson #asteroid city #bertolt brecht #theater #film #film theory #film critique #if anyone HAS seen any mention of Brecht I'd love to see what you found!!#I just watched Asteroid City last night for the first time and I've been thinking about Anderson and Brecht for a while anyway #I'd love to think that somewhere out there someone else is writing about them!

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giveamadeuschohisownmovie · 6 months

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I’ve watched the 2004 Van Helsing movie multiple times, and it’s only occurred to me now that Dracula and his wives were being really stupid in not wiping out the Valerious bloodline as soon as possible. Because at the start of the movie, it’s clear that Velkan and Anna can’t do shit without Van Helsing and Carl. Velkan got wrecked by the werewolf and there were so many moments where Anna was about to get killed by the wives. The only reason the wives stopped short of killing Anna was that Van Helsing and Carl showed up. In fact, there’s a moment in the village square fight where Anna was about to fall to her death and the only reason why she survived was that one of the wives caught her.

All of this just tells me that Dracula and his wives could’ve just invaded the village and ended the Valerious bloodline for good. In fact, the alien-bat-vampire babies could’ve wiped the village out on their own! Instead, Dracula and his wives just…let the Valerious siblings roam freely? And even when they’re actively trying to kill her, they act so stupid that Anna survives by sheer luck (which the movie does point out).

Still a fun movie, but as soon as I realized this, it changed how I saw the plot.

#van helsing #van helsing 2004 #gabriel van helsing #anna valerious #Velkan Valerious #Dracula #Dracula’s wives #count dracula #hugh jackman #kate beckinsale #frankenstein #werewolf #vladislaus dracula #movies #films #film critique #movie critique #plot holes #movie spoilers

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creamiumsplendor · 4 months

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I tried to find good critiques about Mandy (2018) on YouTube, because I think it’s a hauntingly beautiful film and I wanted to see who else felt this way, and was instead greeted with a wall of videos with “ENDING EXPLAINED” plastered all over the thumbnails, and this drives me up the wall for two reasons.

Spoilers for Mandy I guess, but if you’re at these tags you already know.

First, the film is really not that complex, the plot is incredibly straight forward and it’s not shy about the primary theme being loss of both someone you love and the stability that comes with that person. If the actual series of events seems confusing, you had to really not be paying attention, like not just occasionally checking your phone, but just missing an entire chunk of the film, in which case you should just start over and not resort to content mill garbage to find out what you missed.

Second, the idea that the ending, an unapologetically abstract and evocative set of images as Red loses himself to The Darkness while still holding the pure image of Mandy in his memory, NEEDS explanation just feels so incurious as a way to engage with media, especially this film. Whatever ending you think happened (Red is just tripping super hard, Red has actually transported to a demonic realm, Red has been dead the whole time), or that there explicitly ISN’T a clear ending, are all completely valid readings of the ending, because it’s not meant to concrete, it’s not supposed to make sense, THAT’S THE POINT. Red has become unmoored from his reality by the shock, the trauma of having his whole life ripped from him, and the line dividing the fantastical and the “real” has blurred even further than it already was at the start of the film. Trying to assign a quantitative solution to “Red + Drugs + Murder=“ misses the point because the emotionality, the way Red is feeling, the way YOU are feeling as you watch the scene, is the important bit. The act of watching and experiencing IS the explanation.

I don’t mean to malign this entire genre of videos, there are definitely movies with complex plots where having someone who does understand it give you a quick breakdown can help one’s own understanding and therefore enjoyment of a film or series. If you watch these kinds of videos, or even one of them for this movie, that’s not a bad thing. I just don’t think it was necessary for this film, where I get a lot of joy just thinking about how it made me feel, and I want to hear how it made other people feel, not just providing a bland explanation to get views.

Anyways if you haven’t yet, watch Mandy and then DON’T go to YouTube to find other takes.

#mandy 2018 #mandy #nicolas cage #nic cage #andrea riseborough #mandy spoilers #mandy crit #horror film #film critique #don’t get me started on Ridley Scott straight up saying Deckard is a replicant #the fun was in not knowing and thinking about it from both sides #i honestly pretend he didn’t say it whenever I watch Blade Runner #if there is a good video out there please DM it to me #film #panos cosmatos #cult movies

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