You know, I have never watched anything with David Dastmalchian in it, but I absolutely love him because of everything you've posted on your blog about him lol. He's a hot funky lil' guy and I appreciate seeing him on my dash lol

i'm so proud

legit i adore getting messages like this, like "oh i like this because of you" "i realised this because of you" "i watched this because of you"

i like having a positive impact on people

say what you want about kung fu panda 4 but the fact that po has two dads is incredible and it made me feel so seen and understood. so i can't even imagine the joy little kids must feel when seeing a family dynamic that's similar to their own.

Watched Mutant Mayhem! It's pretty good, didn't re-write my brain chemistry or anything, but it does some novel stuff that I thought was interesting.

My only advice is to not watch it in 3D, lmao, it actively detracts from the experience

Something about the way Ariel’s siren song saved Eric.

Something about the way Eric fell in love with her siren song first.

Something about the way that when Ariel gave up her song, Eric was finally given the chance to love her for her.

(And boy, did he fall hard.)

Something about the way that Eric’s love was finally made whole when Ariel herself became whole.

Something about the way Ariel was able to love him with her whole self after reconciling with her past with her father.

I looked at the songs for the new Mean Girls musical movie and.. why did they leave out all the songs that show Cady's feelings or emotional development?? Like... It Roars? More is better? Do this thing?? These are some of my favorite songs!!

Also I saw that they made a new song that probably replaced It Roars but I listened to it and.. it's really not the same (in a negative way)

I also heard the new version of Stupid With Love and I am so sorry, I'm totally fine if they decide to make changes to the songs but this is just. No. Because this version of the song is so not Cady. She is this little weirdo who for the first time falls in love and has such big emotions and doesn't really know how to handle them but also this crush makes her really happy and the new version just smashes that into tiny pieces and glues them back together with a weird rythm and music that is supposed to be slow and romangic but just really doesn't fit with the lyrics at all. Like I'm sorry but you can't say calcu-lust like that. You just can't

Both of these songs on the new album lack the absolute extatic excitedness Cady has for a lot of the musical which are a big part of what makes her a really lovable character in my opinion and they're also just all around very fun songs!! So to take that away and Also take away two other songs that show her inner world just makes me kinda sad :(

i need him in a way that is concerning to feminism

*puts a photo of me in between two random photos i took of the sky today, not because they go together whatsoever but simply so any poor soul that happens to scroll across this post won’t be jumpscared by one giant image of me taking up their entire dash* :)

also yes those are the Everything Stays shoes that i wear far too often and i thought about Moon and flustered my damn self when i was putting them on today and if you want to know why i thought of him specifically… well, you’re just gonna have to read Ch. 4 of ES when i post it on Thursday and you’ll find out 😊

There is no way I will EVER believe Dean Winchester was supposed to say, "and I you." There's no way they would've written the line that way even if it HAD been written. It's so grammatically awkward out of his mouth that it makes me laugh when I see it. I'm not against the ship, but the delusion about 15x18 is unending.

honestly...yeah. i have to agree with this. it's a strange and somewhat awkward line of dialogue anyway but it is a super strange line of dialogue to attempt to give, of all people, dean winchester.

listen, i am not anti d*stiel. i'm at the point where i have no strong feelings either way for the ship itself. it mostly just makes me feel a bit bored. i believe cas was definitely in love with dean. i believed that long before he said it out loud. it was pretty obvious. i think there are different ways to interpret dean's feelings - and yes, one of those ways is that he was in love with him too. it's very possible. ultimately i just don't care enough to put any real work or feelings into that ship in any way.

but dean would not have said that.

it is so stunningly out of character that i'm genuinely boggled as to how so many people are just like ''oh good. now we have confirmation. this sounds right. this is a fact now.''

if people want to believe dean reciprocates, i get that. of course people prefer their ship to be a mutual thing. i totally understand that. i have zero problem with that. but there's just. no way dean winchester would have said it in that specific way. unless he was very suddenly and momentarily possessed by the ghost of an old english gentleman.

which, to be fair, does sound like the kind of thing that would happen to him, but that would be a weird time for it to happen.

okay since i just read the book i finally got around to watching it (2017) and uuuuh it kind of fucking sucks lol

i’ll have to see how i feel when i watch the 2nd one but… even as a loose adaptation it felt. weak. like even if i just went into it without thinking about the book it was. not as… heavy… as it could have been imo. it all felt a little sloppy… like this was the best you could do? lol idk

i hope the celling fan fall on yall 😒

ok so I put a knight’s tale on because for some reason the plane had it. my first major note is I didn’t know it was a comedy and it was startling to hear we will rock you start playing. second why is chaucer here.

loving your annihilation film reactions. APPARENTLY the movie rights were acquired/film production started BEFORE the book was actually properly published? and the director has said that the adaptation was more of his memory of the manuscript. all this to say that i have tried long and hard to accept and love annihilation the film and annihilation the book as their own things born from the same seed but where lies the strangling fruit that came from the hand of the sinner I shall bring forth the

HAHAHAHA oh yes, this is... very much an issue in Hollywood. Sometimes it works (iirc The Martian was done like that and that movie is phenomenal!) but... often it doesn't, particularly if the author is not involved.

(I have separate thoughts I will not detail here about the increasing interchangeability of authors and screenwriters pushed by Hollywood but like... if you can already craft a story, format and structure can be learned if you're willing. That's not the problem.)

I did set out to watch it for the adaptation choices because I really love the concept and process of adaptation and I thought the book was phenomenal and had very specific opinions on how you could faithfully adapt it, and in this scenario I think every choice that was actually made was wrong.

But also, once I realized that I thought every choice was wrong, I did start looking at it on its own, and... I find that so much of the framing just of the movie on its own is deeply shallow? (Which, I haven't watched Ex Machina since college, but I remember feeling similarly about that one. Ooooh, your robot is a bitter girlboss. We all saw Bladerunner.)

More specific (negative) opinions, and book spoilers, and my thoughts on how to adapt it below the cut, both in case people do really like the movie and cuz it got reeeeal long—

In my opinion, the scientific aspects of it are the absolute most banal possible application of... well, biology, frankly (especially when you're originally dealing with fungus, my absolute beloved, so I was bound to have many opinions here)—the whole like... instant mutation thing? WHAT. It wants to be surrealist without ever selling me on any of the aspects that make it surrealist or even committing to the surrealism, like it doesn't believe or take seriously its own premise so it needs to explain it to make sure you, the audience, do not judge the absurdity of it, and achieves the opposite, where I just feel like the write didn't know how sci-fi or suspense worked as genres. I'm here to suspend some disbelief! I'm not here to have all of the wind cut from the sails because somebody needed to spend $50 million to try to convince people he was clever.

The structure of the film is bizarre and leans way too hard on exposition dumps and just telling both the characters and the viewer exactly what they're looking at, which negates any of the mystery of "The Shimmer" even once you've divorced whatever this is supposed to be from Area X. I really hate the choice to use camera footage rather than journals, especially given they've maintained the radio and satellite interference.

The way the backstories are set up really feels like it chokes out the purpose of the character motivations and then parades the lifeless corpse of that purpose through the streets pretending it's a theme (and, looking at the base level of where the characters are being led, I'm pretty sure an episode of Hannibal did it better). I will say, I do like Josie a lot, and I think she is actually the only one who maintains the concept of the biologist in the original, and her exit should've been the thesis of the film, and the ending with Ventress is genuinely bizarre (and, frankly, gives me end of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull vibes, which is in zero ways a compliment).

It seems like Lena is the last to understand, which makes no sense considering she's the biologist, and this is a biology puzzle (and gives me the impression that this was not someone who understood or appreciated the aspect of the biological intrigue of it). It started with her explaining mitosis, and she should've been the one to understand it best through it all. The scenes with Lena's doppelganger feel... so meaningless, and again, really just negates the ineffability of the whole concept, and the point of the inevitability! Why did the phosphorus burn down the lighthouse this time but not with Kane. Why did the doppelganger let herself be destroyed only for Lena to go back. (And, frankly, they and the treatment of the biological science have an insufferable vibe of edgy film major who just took a philosophy 101 course. And I would absolutely know.)

In terms of my thoughts on adaptation, I think the first mistake was getting rid of the conceit of having stripped them of names. It's the easiest thing to maintain in film, even easier than in prose. You lose some of the effect when they're not calling attention to it all the time, but you don't undercut it at all. (Same with "The Shimmer" instead of Area X.)

As I read the book, I felt the psychologist's hypnosis would be hard to adapt, but actually, I think film editing choices (jarring cuts, jump cuts, lighting effects, etc) could've made it very easy, especially since you then have to simply transition back to a more traditional flow of editing once the biologist stops being effected by it.

I'd have also organized it roughly as it is in the book starting at the tower, and shown the husband's return in flashback, along with the biologist's memories, probably with a lot of jump cuts. Also, just keep the original timeline of Area X! I don't really get the point in changing it, except to add urgency, even though... part of the horror of the original is that the process is slow but it is inevitable.

In general, much of the rest of the aspects of Area X's weirdness and how it affects the biologist are pretty straightforward, even on film. I imagine they were demotivated by the very... intangible aspect of depicting the interaction with the lighthouse keeper at the end, but honestly... A24 could've done it, no sweat. I'm no expert on effects, but I think both The Green Knight and EEAAO had aspects to them that I'd say were comparable to ways to make that scene work.

And really, I do think that this screenplay feels like it was written to make sure the audience knew that the writer understood all of the clever details, and as such so much of the ambiguity that makes the book fascinating and haunting is lost. Even with some of the fucked up horror effects, it feels a lot more like a generic action movie than the suspense thriller it should've been, especially because so much of it is just stated outright.

(Also, oh my god I hate a climactic title drop in a situation in which it did not need to ever be said to have the effect.)

Which is why I return back to, the first mistake was giving them names.

finally watched rottmnt movie! i’ll put my thoughts below the cut lol

so basically, i...just kinda thought it was okay? nothing great, unfortunately? it obviously had some great moments, but i think the arc of the movie as a whole was hindered by a couple key things:

1. it was kinda just Leo: The Movie. and i didnt really dig that. i think it would’ve made a much stronger story if they’d had ALL the turtles grow in some kind of way, but all of them stayed static except for Leo.

2. and even if people WERE clamoring for a Leo-centric movie for some reason, his movie arc is LITERALLY AN OBSTACLE HE’S ALREADY OVERCOME IN THE MAIN SERIES. IT’S LITERALLY A POINT OF GROWTH FOR HIM TO STOP BEING SO ARROGANT ALL THE TIME AND WORK AS A TEAM. THEY ALREADY RESOLVED THIS?!?!?!?! ASJHCFJKNHKGMH. just...why????

3. i’ve heard people saying that the creative team was pressured to make this as appealing as possible even to tmnt fans who maybe didnt actually watch Rise, but in the end it that means we lose a LOT of what made the Rise characterizations and writing so great in the series itself. the writing isn’t as snappy or quirky; maybe these writers are just more suited for writing serialized stories instead of a feature-length story, and that’s fine! or maybe they felt the need/were pressured to tone down some of the more Rise-specific narrative style, if that makes any sense. (small example that i feel reflects this vibe: the moment where they finally call themselves the teenage mutant ninja turtles. it was a running gag in the show to never actually claim that name for themselves in that exact order, and so when they finally do, it feels almost inauthentic, because i think that running gag helped re-inforce the whole theme this series was going for in terms of separating this iteration of the Turtles from the past iterations and really stepping out and making their own way. that’s the joy of the Rise series, honestly, is how unafraid they are to make their OWN world with these characters without diverging completely from the source material.) And i couldn’t help but feel the stark absence of the typical Rise running jokes/catch phrases/references in the movie. that’s something i love so much about the show: the careful attention to detail in maintaining continuity and continuing/resolving past gags. they literally only said “hot soup!” twice in this movie. and i feel like that’s really, really indicative of the whole vibe of it, honestly. it just lacks the explosive energy that makes the show so great. :(

as for a couple key things i did like:

the animation was obviously gorgeous, just as it is in the main series, too. seriously, rottmnt has forever spoiled me for tv series animation. and i did really like what they did with the Krang! THIS part certainly felt like how the series normally runs—taking a traditional TMNT concept and breathing fresh, new life into it, making it take on a different form so it’s unique to THIS tmnt universe. i love it!!

they went out of their way to devote time to donnie’s softshell! ahhhhhh!!!!!!! i love it!!!!!! (tho i think a majority of donnie’s dialogue was missing a little.... je ne sais quois. the donnie-ness, if you will. his snark often felt either too dry, or not quite witty enough—never in the sweet spot that it’d hit in the show. but maybe im just being nitpicky and other fans didn’t really find a problem with it!)

the escape pods just as a general concept were fucking GREAT. (tho here’s another negative, oops: i feel like donnie’s tech didn’t feature in the movie NEARLY as much as it does in the show, precisely because of how this was trying to still have watch value even for non-Rise fans. i mean, the number of times donnie’s been without a battle shell and just called one to him remotely, and yet somehow that couldn’t happen this time? am i missing something here or.....?)

all in all, it was definitely enjoyable, but i’d say it has MUCH lower re-watch value than the show does for me. i think what’s the most telling, though, is how i teared up and had goose-bumps for the entire final fifteen minutes during the Rise series finale, during the absolutely GORGEOUS Shredder fight scene—which was even better than the final battle in the movie, imo (though the fight scenes in the film still looked fucking amazing). i truly loved the emotional catharsis at the end of the movie, and mikey’s big savior moment was well-executed, too (huge shout out to the movie soundtrack which really helped drive the tension and emotion in critical scenes like this!), but all in all, i guess i’ve just got one thing to say to sum up how i’m feeling:

i never thought i’d prefer leo’s odachi over his katana.

Guess who just watched legally blonde again :)

Also have a phoenix from the trials and tribulations manual cuz he's cute :)

spoilers for the movie under read more

thank you loren for confirming my headcanon of louise reading during recess (yes it was a manga but that still counts)

i don’t think louise was upset about being called a baby, it was more so the fact that chloe was calling her a baby because of her ears

no because louise being scared of height, the dark and small spaces means so much to me

also why they have to make her choke on the dead guys teeth what the fuck was that!! AND THEN SHE BRAGGED ABOUT IT THE NEXT DAY LIKE IT WAS NOTHING.

the way the louise was visibly annoyed anytime someone said the word ‘baby’ or when someone tried babying her

amazing songs. all of them. i can’t wait for the movie’s soundtrack

no because why is mr fischoeder’s family always trying to kill the belchers. his cousin literally shoved the family into the hole and BURIED THEM ALIVE WHAT THE FUCK

FUCKING!! LOUISE REMINDS BOB OF HIS MOM IM CRYING!! NO WONDER SHE’S HIS FAVORITE /j

i’m also really pleased with louise’s character growth here, like the whole time she thought she had gotten the ears because she assumed she was scared her first day of pre school and it turned out that wasn’t even the case! she was fine her first day! it was just her relying so much on the ears when things got scary. i think she still relies on them it’s just less. it’s not a big deal if she’s not wearing them and i love that (i’ll talk more about this later because ahh!! i loved her arc so much)

also im really relieved they didn’t show us louise without her ears, i was worried they were gonna pull that

THE KID’S BAND PLAYING ON THE BANDSHELL HAD ME CRYING!! IT WAS SO CUTE

Watched kfp 4 and it’s definitely the weakest of the kfp movies but I still liked it.