the way jupe modeled the look of the aliens after the cameras used on the Gordy’s Home set and quite literally names them “The Viewers” in a film about exploiting trauma for the sake of a spectacle

the annie awards giving nimona NINE (the most out of all the nominees) awards and wish absolutely nothing is so fucking beautiful. no notes. 11/10. eat shit disney. breathtaking work.

my multiverse of madness

Just to emphasize how much of a left turn “Saw X” is for the franchise, you need to consider what “Saw” is to most people. Aside from the first movie which has been mostly re-evaluated as a decent thriller that was more focused on story than gore, the series has been criticized for being an excuse to show off people being mutilated in the worst ways possible. The series has been credited as a “pioneer” in the torture porn label, which you can’t really argue due to it being mostly true for the sequels. The series has also never been a critical darling (all the movies before X have all had negative Rotten Tomatoes scores), which I think contributed to the series’ image as low-grade torture porn.

As the story got more convoluted and frustrating, the more the series seemed to focus on killing people. For me, I started noticing this when the 4th movie featured a trap that didn’t really have a purpose in the story (the mausoleum trap with Art Blank). That trap felt more like the makers wanted to do a really brutal scene and didn’t care if it made sense.

Main characters would only last one movie. It was pretty much useless getting attached to any protagonist since they usually got axed off by the end of the movie. Because protagonists kept getting killed off, further sequels tended to focus on characters who played more minor roles. Rigg is probably the best example of this since I’m pretty sure no one was expecting this character to be a protagonist. Point I’m making here is that character development was essentially useless since protagonists were just glorified cannon fodder.

Then there’s the unfortunate existence of “Saw 3D”, which made the series look like it was just trend-chasing.

The series died for a few years. It then tried to come back with “Jigsaw” and “Spiral”, which the makers claimed to be a reinvention of the series that would renew interest in the franchise. Instead, they were both just sorta lackluster and didn’t really convince people that Saw was worth revisiting.

So, “Saw X” clearly had an uphill battle. But lo and behold, the movie gets released and ends up being:

1) A surprisingly good character piece centered around Jigsaw and Amanda. Yes, there are still death traps and gore, but the focus on story and character development is definitely felt more in this installment.

2) The only “Saw” movie with a positive Rotten Tomatoes score. In general, seeing positive critical reception about a “Saw” movie is crazy to me.

3) An actual, successful reinvention of the franchise since it’s centered around Jigsaw instead of having him be the mastermind in the background. Just by being a straightforward thriller instead of a convoluted horror-mystery is enough to distinguish this from the other 9 movies.

Kudos to “Saw”. This is why in one of my posts last night, I called it one of the greatest redemption arcs I’ve seen in horror. It’s the TENTH installment in a series that’s been critically savaged its entire lifetime, it shouldn’t have succeeded. But here we are.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night [دختری در شب تنها به خانه می‌رود] (2014)

Directed by Ana Lily Amirpour

DoP.: Lyle Vincent

(click for quality)

as always, please let me know what you think.

Barbie Oscar discourse is making my headache.

it’s disingenuous to say that Greta and Margot and Barbie were Actually Shit and it’s also indicative of how audiences view comedy as a low brow artform that shouldn’t be held alongside Serious Drama

it’s ALSO disingenuous to say that their lack of nominations is because critics missed the point of the movie because they nominated Ryan Gosling and his song. Yknow, his song *criticising* the patriarchy, written by a woman, Greta Gerwig.

it is ESPECIALLY disingenuous when Barbie scored 8 nominations overall, most of which in categories that they were deserving of! The production design, etc. yeah, absolutely deserved. It *is* getting its flowers. So many deserving films aren’t at all.

Not to mention the fact that the Leading Actress and Best Director category is stacked. Not to mention the fact that most people complaining haven’t even seen the other entries and are using that as a Gotcha. Yes I do think the ‘only one woman is nominated for best director’ pattern is stupid and that Celine Song also deserves a nomination. Which brings me to the fact that Past Lives was absolutely robbed in other categories.

It’s annoying that the defeatist ‘awards hate barbie and therefore women, wow feminism is dead’ discourse is so so stark because Lily Gladstone’s nomination is SO deserved and her inevitable win will be too. Supporting Actress is a category for women, the “why did KEN get nominated and not Barbie” discourse is just stupid.

nimona is weird cuz on the one hand:

FUCKING AWESOME that this movie came out. so glad it actually got made in spite of the general fucking shithole which is the film industry. great to see real queer rep thats not exclusively subtext -in a kids movie-! if i was jd stevenson i would be hyped simply at the amount of love and care put into animating nimona's facial expressions, not to mention the beautiful sets and imagery and character design.

on the other hand:

they took a sweet indie webcomic full of blood and guts and bitterness and made its main characters 100% unimpeachable goodie heroes. there's nothing steely abt this ballister blackheart, he's just a wet puppy who never did anything wrong in his life. nimona talks a big game but all she rlly needs is a hug. its too easy. kill the One Bad Actor and all ur troubles will be over. the 1000 YEARS OF FEAR AND HATE are dissolved as soon as the "monster" "dies"

and the worst part is: the movie can only exist bc of these compromises. there's no fuckin way disney or netflix or any major studio would fund a comic-accurate nimona, cuz its too edgy and queer for the family-friendly kiddo audience, and too monkpunk for the mainstream marvel goer.

anyway watch it, its good, but its sad what it had to sacrifice to exist.

Alrighty, went and saw The Little Mermaid.

It was nice to have a theater with NO kids in it, as everyone is seeing Spiderverse so I could enjoy in peace.

Let me tell you. I went into this movie with ground level expectations. In the DUST. And I was pleasantly surprised. It was so enjoyable to watch start to finish, and there were plenty of moments that made me smile or frown.

The marketing of this movie did not do it justice. There were some incredible sequences, textures and CGI work here on background creation and cinematography (that final battle? PHEW I was tense). It’s a colorful film, not dark like I was expecting (though color correction in some areas is still needed)

Halle absolutely shined as Ariel, and I loved the supporting cast (yes, photo realism and all). Ariel and Eric’s dynamic in this movie was ADORABLE and I could actually imagine them falling in love quite quickly. Ariel is shown straight out the gate as curious and fearless, and Halle brings a wonderful, innocent beauty to her that captured my heart at once. Melissa (say what you’d like of her) did wonderful as Ursula — though I am sad that we didn’t get any actual drag queen rep), but you can’t expect to much from Disney in that regard.

NOW. I still stand by what I said before. The CGI movements in this movie are really…off. The tails are beautiful and look great in some shots, but just plain wonky in the next. Hair physics on Ariel looks ok, but on Triton and the daughters? YIKES. I would’ve liked to get more time with Ariel interacting with her siblings, as she does in the original movie/sequels, but I assume that may be open for the future.

Wasn’t impressed with Triton himself. I had a really rough time understanding his accent, seeing as he spoke low and had some echo in his voice which garbled up his lines. He also just wasn’t very likable which makes sense but his sudden change of heart still doesn’t make much sense to me (I think that’s just a story problem).

There were also some song sequences that I wasn’t impressed with, Under the Sea unfortunately being one of them. Obviously it’s hard to capture the atmosphere of the song without the use of traditional animation, but mixing a bunch of random animals all looking much too real together? It was disjointed and somehow still felt so empty. The prince’s song was ok but heavily auto tuned and boring visually. And do I have to say much about…eh, Scuttlebutt? Like I know you have Awkwafina but WHY? It was the worst part of the film in my opinion.

Part of Your World was great, as was Poor Unfortunate Souls and I LOVE Ariel’s song upon first arriving in the kingdom. Kiss the Girl was the same, even with slightly adjusted lyrics which are barely noticeable.

Summary: If you go into the movie looking for something to not like? You’ll find it. There are plenty of things wrong or in need of tweaking in this film. It absolutely isn’t perfect. But if you go into it with intent to enjoy, you will. There is nothing outright horrible about this adaptation. It follows the original CLOSELY, and once you get used to the odd cgi you lose sight of it. Most who really complain (oh, this movie is worse than the lion king blah blah blah) are either racist regarding Halle, or are people who lack the capacity for wonder and have the inability to look past flaws to enjoy an experience.

—

Rating:

Enjoyment: 10/10

Quality: 6.5/10

Music: 7/10

so uh me and my family went to go see ghost busters world iceborne today and it was fine kinda??

i do want to talk about it since i have a lot of feelings about it despite only seeing this and the original

but first actual thing that genuinely is awful that i do want to make known: if you’ve seen trailers you might know that the movie got sponsored by booking.com and yes they do shoehorn it in the movie. booking.com has very positive ties to israel because y’know travel agency and is one of several companies the bds suggests pressure boycotting so please please please do not ignore that fact about the movie please please please please do not support booking.com. do boycott booking.com.

uh spoilers below the cut i guess?

ok actual positives because i fucjing loved the ghost designs. cgi wasn’t great at points (main bad guy ghost dude i forget the name of looked best when obscured in shadows and not actually shown in detail) but the designs were at least done well. and phoebe and melody’s relationship was cute yet was done so fucking dirty. the movie did have good jokes and the acting was really solid, the world building is cool, and yeah if you turn your brain off for most of the film it’s fun. only when there’s action and ghosts is it actually compelling i noticed and it’s really sad since a good chunk of the movie is not that.

there’s too much plot ok. it’s your run of the mill family drama with ghosts sometimes there. i’m tired of the family is forever shit when it isn’t found family or paints the parents as “flawed but well meaning” and having the dad be lovingly stupid (gary’s technically not the biological dad but he does do dumb dad—pretty much flanderized homer simpson you know the trope), the mom strict to a fault but is right in the end, and incompetent brother who’s trying his best but needs a little help. most families are not like this. most families are dysfunctional in their own ways. you don’t have to have physically abusive parents or unsupportive parents to have shitty parents. painting families in this very generic way sets a really really unhealthy expectation that if your parents aren’t openly pieces of shit you aren’t allowed to hate them or if you defy them you’re automatically in the wrong.

but then there’s phoebe. oh is there phoebe.

i hate how in movies now to get across female empowerment is just make the girl super smart and be shoved in the spotlight too often. she is not interesting at all i’m sorry. you can tell she’s the smart one because she wears glasses and likes science isn’t that quirky? seriously when are we going to just get a strong female lead who has interests that aren’t tomboyish or *insert school subject here*? filmmakers do know that girls and women are also human beings with a wide range of individual likes and dislikes that can’t be reduced to tropes right??? again creating the unrealistic expectation that women cannot be treated like normal people unless they’re uber smart or uber strong. this is a problem for all minoritized group representation and i really cannot hate anyone who doesn’t like how the film industry is trying to bend over backwards for groups to force in representations that only hurt them.

biggest sin is she is not interesting on her own. she is so tropey it’s a fucking travesty. melody the ghost girl was the only compelling person—the only one who made phoebe somewhat interesting to watch—and of course she’s not safe from being a trope. i don’t like how melody has to have direct ties to bad guy mcbad and the sudden turnaround that, while it paid off for her, was rushed to hell and back for the drama.

and worst of all, there was homoerotic tension between phoebe and melody and nothing ever happens.

please just let them hold hands.

i know this is a mainstream movie so two people of the same sex even brushing up against one another is a crime but.

they were cute together and fueled several ghost au fanfic ideas.

damn you film industry.

i WILL be watching

THREE OF THEM??? 😍😍😍😍😍😍

Mechanical symbolism in Dune

Dune Part 2 (and Part 1) did something I don't notice much of and don't see nearly enough of, and that's characterizing factions and characters through their equipment. I'm not even talking about costumes, I'm talking about the ship baybeee.

House Atreides has ships, aircraft, and armor that are very angular and square-ish. Their spice harvesters look like NASA crawler carriers, very mundane, very mechanical. Their ships aren't the biggest or most powerful, but still dwarf all the locals when coming in for a landing. Their interior design is likewise fairly minimalist. Their aircraft are ornithopters, which stay aloft using good-ol-fashioned aerodynamics and hard-working nature-mimicking flapping rotors (albiet twice as many rotors as the dragonflys they're based on). If we think of a square as a perfectly "ordered" shape, and nature's methods of flight as the 'ideal', we can see House Atreides, with their endless trapezoids, as the closest this world has to the "good guys." An unassuming, honorable, humble dukedom, though still mired in politics and corruption, still a little (maybe a lot, maybe not enough) too big for their britches. All that communicated by their vehicles.

House Harkonnen is their contrast in every way. The book gave their baron a 'suspension rig' to float around because he was so fat, but the movie ingeniously gave that same tech to their troops as well. They float around effortlessly, climbing mountains with a thought, not even engaging with the terrain, perfectly mirroring their attitude and the superior power they represent. They wear black, the categorically worst color for the desert, and their soldier's faces are obscured, almost inhumanly. Their ships are round, bulbous, shaped like rolls of fat, and so darkly-colored and confusingly-shaped that it's hard to even make out their intricate and crowded details except that they're bristling with guns. Their aircraft use lifting gas balloons. Their spice harvesters are so huge and tall and fat with machinery that they need silly legs just to stay upright. Now of course from all this, we can tell that the Harkonnen are so proud that they consider themselves too good for the ground itself, so rich that they don't have to touch it, so powerful they don't think they need to, so disconnected that it's made them weak.

The Fremen are the simplest and most obvious of course; they have nothing. Their technology is simple. We don't see much of it. I wish their thumpers and compasses looked a little more obviously mechanical, but I can forgive that because they look very simple. The only aircraft we see them using are tiny 2-seater ornithopters with only 4 rotors; a copy of nature's dragonfly, no frills. The instruments onboard look like something out of WWII. Just perfect.

But my favorite of all is the scene where the emperor arrives. The movie shows him going through the flames of reentry, which isn't something movies often show; the director put it in deliberately, because the very fact that he's entering the atmosphere, that he's coming down to the planet at all, is a thing of much importance, spectacle, and monument. And then his ship itself is an enormous shiny chrome sphere. Because of course it is! What symbolism could possibly be better? When you look at him, you can't even see him without just seeing yourself smaller. But as the ship comes in for a landing (and it doesn't even land, it just perpetually hovers) you can see that the mirror isn't perfect. You can see the seams between the mirrors, see it's just square paneling. The emperor is a powerful and proud and magnificent invisible god, except he's NOT, you can see all that splendor and hubris and pride, and see that beneath it all he's just a mortal man, just by looking at his ship. I have never seen that done in quite this way before. Spectacular.

And then and THEN the next time we see the emperor's ship, it's after it's unpacked all its cargo, into this huge palace, complete with a complement of battleships and thousands of ground troops. My first thought was "hey how did all that fit onboard? That should be a literally impossible construction. Oh well, it's just a movie, who cares." But then the Fremen attack happens. A nuclear strike destroys the defenses, and then the sandworms come in, and something hits the palace, and the entire thing shakes and rattles! Because of COURSE it's not an actual building! Of COURSE all that could fit onboard, because it's just a shaky, fragile house-of cards! Sheet metal held together by rivets and a prayer, because he wanted to appear magnificent on his visit! The imperial rule makes a big talk, but it's all bark and no bite and it's fragile enough to be done in by a stiff breeze, and you can tell all that from the mechanical design alone!

GOSH these movies are good.

Past lives (2023)

Direction: Celine Song

Cinematography: Shabier Kirchner

pov its december 1988 and the party is tipsy in the wheelers' basement

hello team! it is ella (formerly @nancysglock) here again with another script.

thank you to quinn for sending that ask yesterday. this was incredibly fun to write, and is my longest stranger things script to date (as well as the first one im releasing under my new url! exciting!

anyway. happy holidays gang <3