fanfic writing is always like:

questionable characterisation (not really familiar yet) => oh this is actually good => questionable characterisation (projecting)

AS YOU WISH

synopsis; in this tale of romance, revenge, and treason, you, a beautiful commoner, are set to become the princess of aobajousai. will your one true love be able to save you in time?

pairing; kuroo tetsurou x reader

content; princess bride au (heavily based on both the movie and novel), medieval au, torture, mild violence, drama, fantasy/adventure, murder, minor character death, fem!reader

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03 ; THE KIDNAPPING

ONE YEAR AFTER YOU agreed to marry Prince Oikawa, the great square of Seijoh City was filled to the brim. The people of Aobajohsai were awaiting the introduction of Prince Oikawa’s bride-to-be. The crowd had begun forming a whole 24 hours before, but at 15 hours before, it was no more than maybe a couple hundred people. But as the moment of introduction neared, people from all across the country gathered.

At noontime, Prince Oikawa appeared on the balcony of his father’s castle and raised his arms. The crowd, which was dangerously large at this point, slowly quieted down. Rumors were flooding the kingdom, that the King was dying, that he was already dead, that he was fine.

“My beloved people, today is a day of greeting. As you’ve probably heard, my father’s health is not what it once was. Now, in three months, our country celebrates its 500th anniversary.”

A few whoops echoed through the crowd, but most remained silent.

“To celebrate that celebration, I shall marry your future princess on that sundown,” Oikawa announced. “She was once a commoner like yourselves, but perhaps you will not find her to be so common anymore. I introduce to you the lady of the hour, (y/n).”

The Prince made a sweeping gesture and the doors swung open behind him, and you stepped out beside him on the balcony. The crowd gasped, and bowed, for their future princess truly was beautiful. A year spent in the castle, and your beauty had doubled, no, tripled.

You waved, looking down at the people fondly, but it was interrupted by Oikawa ushering you away.

“Alright, back inside. Don’t want to risk overexposure.”

“But some of them have waited so long,” you argued. “I’d like to walk among them.”

“We only walk among commoners when we need to,” said the Prince.

“I am a commoner,” you reminded him sharply, and with that you left the balcony before reappearing a few minutes later at the great steps of the castle.

Wherever you went the people parted. Most of them there would certainly never forget that day. The great majority adored you instantly. Sure, there were some that withheld judgement until they could see how fit you were as a queen, and even some who were frankly jealous. But very few hated you.

And only three of them were planning to murder you.

Naturally, you knew none of this. You were smiling. When the people wanted to touch your dress, you let them, and when they wanted to brush their skin against yours, you let them do that too. You studied hard to do things royally, and you wanted to succeed, so you kept your posture erect and your eyes gentle. If someone had told you your death was close, you would have laughed. But—

—in the farthest corner of the square, in the highest building of the land, deep in the deepest shadow, the man in black stood waiting.

His boots were black and leather. His pants were black and his shirt too. His mask was black, blacker than a panther. The only thing that wasn’t black was his flashing eyes; they were the color of centuries-old amber under the Aoban sun.

Flashing and cruel and deadly.

You were more than a little weary after your triumph. Walking the crowds while remaining all royal-appearing was exhausting, so you rested a bit, before deciding around mid afternoon that you would go for a ride on Prince (the horse, of course). Riding was the one aspect of your life that hadn’t changed since agreeing to marry the Prince (the human, of course). You still loved to ride, and almost every afternoon, you rode alone in the wild land behind the castle.

You did your best thinking then. Not that your best thinking expanded any horizons; you weren’t even actually part of the royal family yet. Still, you told yourself, there was no harm in thinking.

Your brain was awhirl as you rode through woods and streams and heather. The walk through the crowds had moved you, and in a way most strange. For even though you had done nothing for a year now but train to be a princess and a queen, today was the first day you actually understood that it was all soon to be a reality.

You just didn’t like Prince Oikawa all that much. It wasn’t that you hated him, not at all. But you never really saw him; he was always off doing princely duties or on a hunting trip.

In your way of thinking, there were two main problems: (1) was it wrong to marry someone you didn’t much like, and (2) if it was, was it too late to do anything about it?

The answers, to your way of thinking, were: (1) no and (2) yes.

It wasn't wrong to marry someone you didn't like, it just wasn't right either. If the whole world did it, that wouldn't be so great, what with everybody kind of grunting at everybody else as the years went by. But, of course, not everybody did it, so it wasn’t a big problem.

The answer to the second question was even easier; you had given your word that you would marry, and that was that.

Since agreeing to marry, you had heard nonstop that you must be the most beautiful woman in the world, and soon you would also be the richest and the most powerful woman in the world too.

With a sigh, you told yourself that you shouldn’t be so ungrateful for all of this. You would have to learn to be satisfied with what you had.

Dusk was closing in, and you were probably a 30 minute ride from the castle, when you suddenly reined in your horse at the hillcrest; for in the dimness beyond stood quite possibly the strangest trio you had ever seen.

The man in front was pale, with a gentle face; his almost white-blonde hair made him appear angelic. He was long-legged and lanky, but when he moved toward you, he took surprisingly small, quick steps. (It reminded you of the way the Queen had trained you to walk, all feminine and princess-like.) The other two men remained rooted.

The second, also pale, appeared as cold and slender as the blade of steel at his side. The third man, broad, with strange two-toned hair, was easily the biggest man you had ever seen.

“Please, a word, miss?” the blonde raised his hand. His smile was almost more angelic than his face.

You nodded for him to go on.

“We are but poor, lost circus performers,” the blonde explained. “We were told there is a village nearby where we could settle for the night.”

“You’re mistaken,” you told him. What poor souls, you thought. “There is nothing nearby, not for many miles.”

“Then there will be no one to hear you scream,” the blonde said. As his angelic smile contorted into a wry, ugly sneer, he jumped with surprising agility toward your face.

That was the last thing you remembered. Perhaps you screamed, perhaps you didn’t, but if you had, it certainly wasn’t from the pain; the blonde man had expertly found a pressure point on your neck and knocked you out cold.

You awoke to the lapping of water. You were wrapped in a blanket, and the giant man was carrying you to place you in a boat. For a moment you almost screamed, but then you thought it might be better to listen. (It was a bit difficult though, considering the increasing pounding of your heart.

The sound of ripping cloth caught your attention first.

“What is that?” the swordsman asked.

“Same as I attached to her saddle,” the blonde replied. “Fabric from the uniform of a Shiratorizawa soldier.”

Suddenly you heard Prince (the horse, you see) squeal slightly, and then his thundering hooves retreating far away.

“Once the horse reaches the castle, the fabric will make everyone suspect that the Shiratorizawans abducted the Prince’s fiance. Once she is found dead at the Shiratorizawa frontier, there’ll be no denying it.”

“Wait, you never said anything about killing anyone,” said the giant, looking a little distraught.

“We’ve been hired to start a war, it’s kind of in the job description,” the blonde bit back.

“Well, I just don’t really think it’s right to kill an innocent girl.”

The blonde’s eyebrows furrowed and face twitched in sudden irritation.

“Have I gone mad, or did the word ‘think’ just escape your lips?” he stood up defiantly, but even with his lanky frame, the giant dwarfed him. “I did not hire you for your brains!”

“I agree with Bokuto. Let’s just make it seem like she was taken for ransom,” the slender swordsman finally spoke up.

“Yes, that sounds like a good idea, Akaashi.”

“It’s too late,” the blonde said. “She’s been awake this whole time, so she already knows our plans.”

You lay under the blanket, unmoving. How could he have known that?

“The Great Tsukishima senses all,” the blonde seemed to answer you. Was he a mind reader? (A conceited one, if he was.)

It didn’t matter if he was or not, for now you were all setting sail. Not once did you speak a word, not when it grew dark, and not when the moon rose high into the night sky.

“We’re making good time, we should be at the cliffs by dawn,” the blonde announced aloud. “Why do you keep looking back?”

The swordsman turned around, shifting uncomfortably.

“Making sure no one is following us.”

“Ha! That would be inconceivable,” laughed the blonde.

The boat went silent again for a few minutes. The swordsman continued to glance back. Something was bothering him.

“Stop doing that!” the blonde sounded more exasperated than before.”You’re overthinking it. No one in Shiratorizawa knows what we’ve done, and no one in Aobajohsai could have gotten here so fast.”

“Are you sure nobody is following us?” insisted the swordsman.

“Like I said, that would be absolutely, totally, and in all other ways inconceivable.”

A long pause.

“Out of curiosity, why do you ask?” he added in.

“No reason,” the swordsman tried to play it off. “It’s only that I happened to look behind us and something is there.”

They all whirled.

There was indeed something there. Just a mile behind them, across the moonlight, was another sailing boat, small, with a giant sail that billowed black in the night, and a single man at the tiller. A man in black.

“Probably just some local fisherman out for a pleasure cruise at night, through eel-infested waters,” the blonde trailed off as he went, each word less confident than the last.

SPLASH!

They all whirled again, this time to see that you had thrown yourself straight into the Aoban Channel and were beginning to swim away.

“Go! Go in after her!” the blonde yelled.

“I can’t swim,” said the swordsman.

“I only doggy paddle,” said the giant.

You continued to leave them behind you. It wasn’t long before your arms began to tire, but you gave them no rest.

“Veer left!” instructed the blonde.

You ignored your kidnappers, but you couldn’t ignore the strange shrieking that began all around you. The sound made you stop and whipped around, looking for the source as you treaded water.

“Do you know what that sound is, your highness?” asked the blonde. The boat was getting closer again. “Those are the shrieking eels. If you don’t believe me, just wait. They always grow louder when they’re about to feed on human flesh!”

The screeching was growing louder, and if you looked closer into the water, you could see slimy tails flicking out the water all around you.

“Come back now,” the blonde went on, “and I promise when I kill you, you’ll die a painless death. I doubt you’ll get such an offer from the eels.”

They were shrieking wildly now, and they were whipping their heads out of the water. Their teeth were razor sharp, glinting in the moonlight, and the sight had you frozen in fear. When one came charging at you, there was quite literally nothing you could do but close your eyes and pray.

Fortunately for you, there was a giant on board of the boat you had just escaped from. He leaned over the edge of the boat, grabbed you by one arm, and hoisted you back to the safety onboard before the eel got you.

“Keep her warm,” the swordsman tossed his cloak to the giant.

“Don’t catch cold, miss,” said the giant, wrapping the cloak around you and holding you tight.

“It doesn’t seem to matter all that much,” your teeth chattered, “considering that you’re killing me at dawn.”

The blonde knelt in front of you and began binding your wrists together. The swordsman was shooting glances back again.

“I think he’s getting closer,” he said, in reference to the boat behind them.

“He’s no concern of ours! Sail on!” the blonde snapped once again. He sure was a grouchy fellow.

“I suppose you think you’re brave, Princess?” he now turned to you.

“Only compared to some,” you bit back.

The boat was approaching the Cliffs of Insanity now. They rose straight and sheer from the water, a thousand feet into the sky. They provided the most direct route between Aobajohsai and Shiratorizawa, but no one ever used them, sailing instead the long way around.

The swordsman maneuvered the watercraft up to the cliff face, and immediately the blonde jumped out and found a giant rope dangling from the cliffs. He tugged, once, twice, and it held firm; it must have been tethered to something at the top.

You watched in confusion as the trio got to work. The giant robed himself in some fancy harness, with loops hanging off every which way; the swordsman cinched you into one of the loops, before cinching himself in another. The blond took the last loop, practically nose-to-nose with the giant.

“All aboard.”

And with that, the giant began climbing the rope.

It was at least a thousand feet and he was carrying the three, but he was not worried. When it came to power, nothing worried him. When it came to reading or writing, he got terrible knots in his stomach, and when addition was mentioned or, worse, long division, he broke out in hives. But strength had never been his enemy. He could take the kick of a horse on his chest and not fall backward. He could take a hundred-pound flour sack between his legs and scissor it open without thinking.

But his real might lay in his arms. There had never, not in a thousand years, been arms to match Bokuto's. His arms were gargantuan and obedient and flashy, but most of all, they were tireless. If you gave him an ax and told him to chop down a forest, his legs might give out or the ax might shatter, but Bokuto's arms would be as fresh tomorrow as today.

And so, with the blonde around his neck and both the swordsman and the Princess both wrapped around his waist, Bokuto felt his most confident. It was only when he was requested to use his might did he not feel like a bother to everybody.

Hand over hand, arm over arm, Bokuto climbed. Three hundred feet over the water now, seven hundred left to go.

The blonde man was in fact afraid of heights, more than anything. But right now, he could not allow it.

Where he could not succeed with his body, he relied on his mind. He had fought it, trained it, forced it to heel. In moments like this, when he should have been trembling, it all paid off, because he was not trembling. Instead, he was thinking of the man in black.

There shouldn’t have been any way that someone could have been quick enough to follow them, and yet that billowing black sail had appeared. How? The blonde couldn’t find an answer, no matter how hard he tried. In wild frustration, he took a deep breath and, in spite of his terrible fears, he looked back down toward the dark water.

The man in black was there, tying off his boat at the base of the cliffs. With ease, he then leapt onto the rope and began to climb as well.

“He’s climbing the rope,” the swordsman commented.

“I can feel him,” said the giant.

“And he’s gaining on us.”

“Inconceivable,” the blonde blubbered, for when he looked down again, the man in black seemed to be flying up the rope. “Faster!”

“I thought I was going faster.”

“You were supposed to be this colossus,” the blonde grit his teeth, nose-to-nose with the giant again. “This great legendary thing! And yet, he gains.”

“Well, I’m carrying three people, and he’s only got himself.”

“I’ll just have to find myself a new giant then.”

“Awh, don’t say that Tsukki. Please?”

By now, the man in black had gained maybe 200 feet on them, but they were only maybe 150 feet from the tops of the cliffs.

Bokuto flew. He cleared his mind of everything but ropes and arms and fingers, and his arms pulled and his fingers gripped and the rope held taut as he flew.

“He’s halfway,” remarked the swordsman.

“It doesn’t matter, we’re but 50 feet from safety!”

Bokuto pulled—

Forty feet.

—And pulled—

Fifteen feet.

—And heaved them to the top.

And like that, it was over. Bokuto had done it. They had reached the top of the Cliffs, and first the blonde jumped off and ran to the rock the rope was tethered to. He pulled out a dagger and began slicing as fast as he could. He sliced and sliced, all the while the swordsman and the princess were untying themselves from the giant, until the rope snapped and whipped across the clifftop before disappearing to the depths below.

The other men peered over the cliffside curiously, until the swordsman mumbled, “He’s still there.”

“What?” the blonde came scurrying to the edge of the cliff. The man in black was hanging precariously to the cliff face. “He didn’t fall? Inconceivable!”

“You keep using that word,” the swordsman looked at the blonde. “I do not think it means what you think it means.”

When they looked back, the man in black had begun climbing.

“Whoever he is, he’s clearly seen us with the princess and must therefore die!” cried the blonde. “Bokuto, carry the princess. We’ll head straight for the Shiratorizawa frontier. Akaashi, catch up when he’s dead. If he falls, fine, but if not, the sword.”

The swordsman nodded.

The blonde and the giant began hobbling away with you. Just before he was out of sight, the giant turned and hollered, “Catch up quickly!”

“Don’t I always?” the swordsman waved. “Farewell, Bokuto.”

“Farewell, Akaashi,” the giant replied, and then he was gone, and the swordsman was alone.

Akaashi moved to the cliff edge and knelt with his customary quick grace. One hundred and fifty feet below him now, the man in black continued his painful climb. It was becoming easier to see him, what with the sun starting to break. He was a good learner, so he had to study. Finally, he realized that somehow, by some mystery, the man in black was making fists and jamming them into the rocks, and using them for support as he climbed.

Akaashi marveled. What a truly extraordinary adventurer this man in black must be. He was close enough now for Akaashi to realize that the man was masked. Another outlaw? Perhaps. It was a shame that such a fellow must die though, but he had his orders, so there it was. Sometimes he did not like Tsukishima’s commands, but what could he do? Without the brains of the blonde, he wouldn’t be able to command jobs of this caliber. The blonde was a master planner. Akaashi was a creature of the moment.

There was nothing to do but wait for the man in black now. He was still a ways away, but Akaashi didn’t particularly like waiting. So to make the time more pleasant, he pulled from the scabbard his prized possession:

A six-fingered sword.

Oh, how it danced in the rising sun. Akaashi inspected it fondly, with all the fervor in his Fukurodanian heart, awaiting the arrival of the man in black.

April 13, 2018

Lana Parrilla interview pre 7.17

For this Friday’s episode of Once Upon a Time (ABC, 8/7c), original cast member Lana Parrilla found herself behind as well as in front of the camera.

Making her directorial debut, Parrilla helped bring to life a revamped tale of Hansel and Gretel, the former of which we now know to be Hyperion Heights’ Candy Killer. Her first foray into directing also of course came in the nick of time, with just six episodes left in the fantasy drama’s run.

Once Upon a Time: 10 Questions for the Series FinaleLaunch Gallery

Here, in TVLine’s last of so many Q&As over the years with Parrilla, she details how directing played right into her personal wheelhouse, before reflecting — Kleenex alert! — on the end of her reign as Regina fka the Evil Queen.

TVLINE | I have every faith that you went into this so incredibly prepared, but even so, was there anything that surprised you about your directing debut experience? I mean, I guess what surprised me was I had no idea how much actually goes into making a television show, or a movie, or any sort of production in our industry. I didn’t realize how many times we were going to read the script every single day, with every department, and go through every single detail of it. And I actually really enjoyed that part of it, because I am so detail oriented, and breaking stuff down on that level was a good percentage of the homework. I really, really appreciated how thorough every department was and how detailed everything was. I’d been wearing the actor’s hat for so long, I had no idea there was so much that went into it. Now having worn the director’s hat, I love it. It’s right up my alley. Prep is one of my favorite things to do, so it was really aligned with my process.

TVLINE | What’s a specific level of detail that the director gets involved in that we regular folk might not even consider? It varies because, as they say, film is the director’s medium, TV is a producer’s medium and stage is the actor’s medium. But what really surprised me was how open my producers were to my ideas — and I came with a lot of ’em. Especially with the gingerbread house and how I wanted the children to look, ideas for Rebecca [Mader]’s look and what happens at the midpoint in the script, and the energy and vibe I was looking for. And also visually what I wanted — color schemes, etcetera, the ambiance and the feel of a place, working with the art department…. I didn’t think that I was going to have as much input, but on Once Upon a Time they trusted me with the creative process more than I thought they would, and I was really taken by that. And very grateful.

TVLINE | Were there any specific directing challenges for this episode? Any stunt work or effects-driven scenes? Chilton Crane, who plays our Blind Witch, is an older woman, and there was a stunt that she had to perform. I was a bit concerned about her athleticism, whether this was something she had ever done before…. I envisioned the Blind Witch leaping into the air and landing in front of the Wicked Witch and holding a candy cane, threatening to stab her, and I wasn’t sure if Chilton could actually do that. I designed this whole stunt in my head and worked with the coordinator, and while there were a few little things we had to shift, at the end of the day it came together really, really well. I was very pleased, and very impressed with Chilton. She did an incredible job and really hung in there. A total trouper!

TVLINE | As we saw last week, “it’s personal” between Hansel and Zelena. Is that what these flashbacks are about? Yes, yes. There is a history there which you will see, while we also flash forward to Hansel seeking his revenge.

TVLINE | Henry of course has been abducted. Who all gets involved in that rescue operation? Well, there’s a few things happening there. The audience knows who the Candy Killer is, but a lot of us still don’t. Regina/Roni and Zelena/Kelly are working together to stop the Candy Killer, and then you also have the other side of it — our detectives are also on the hunt. Rebecca and I have teamed up like Lucy and Ethel. [Laughs] Or maybe we’re a little more Cagney and Lacey!

TVLINE | When I was on set, to hear Rose Reynolds say “Candy Killah” in her English accent, you almost want to meet the guy. She makes it sound adorable. She’s such a cutie! I love the girls.

TVLINE | I saw the video (embedded above) where you gave a speech to the fans gathered in Steveston watching filming [of Storybrooke scenes], and it was so wonderful. What specifically moved you to do that? It was my last scene in Steveston [British Columbia], and I was walking over to the green room when I saw this wall of fans. I just stood there for a minute to take it all in, and I felt so thankful and blessed that over the years we’ve had them follow us and be there to love and support us. Sometimes it can be an issue when we’re filming — sometimes we have to shift them around, etcetera — but to have a following like that is really special. I don’t know when that will happen again in my career, so I really wanted to take the time to acknowledge them and thank them. There are a lot of people who come from out of town, from all over the world, they’ve been saving all year to be there and get a glimpse of one of us…. I just thought it was really important to show my gratitude.

TVLINE | Regina has been such a hallmark role for you. Has there been a moment over the past couple of weeks where it really hit you that this was coming to an end? There have been several. Several, several. In fact, there was one just a few hours ago when I called [co-showrunner] Eddy [Kitsis] at the office on the lot, and on my phone it says “Once,” so I thought, “I’m going to have to delete this number at some point!” — and it hit me again. It has come in waves, and it has been very strange, because it’s so unknown. This has been such a huge part of my life for seven years — Vancouver, the show, the character – so it feels like a big, big loss, a big shift and change. It’s going to take some time to adjust.

I’ve had moments where I was really, really, really down, super-sad and emotional about it, and really felt like, “Oh my God, what’s next? What happens after this?” And I still have moments where I feel that way, but now I’m focused on the positive, which is: How lucky are we to have a show 22 episodes, sometimes 23, run for seven years? That doesn’t happen anymore, and I’m just really grateful.

// Google search Lainey Gossip The Best Films of the Decade (2010s): Part I December 19, 2019 at 6:24 PM by Sarah John Wick movie poster 352687 After months of consideration, and getting so deep in the weeds that the words “best”, “film”, and “decade” have lost all meaning, here it is: my list of the best films of the decade. This list, which was supposed to be 20 films and ended up at 32, is a combination of quality, influence, and gut feeling, but all are films that stand out when looking back on the cinema of the 2010s. As always, this list is alphabetical, not ranked. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) An Iranian-Western-vampire genre mashup, Girl is strange, creepy, feminist, and at times, achingly romantic. This is also the first film on the list that marks a decade trend of women claiming genre spaces to do brilliant, inventive work. A Hidden Life (2019) Terrence Malick has wrestled with themes of human suffering, perseverance, and religious fervor throughout his career, and A Hidden Life is his most perfect expression of beatific suffering yet. It’s also a timely story about standing up to Nazis, which gives Life an immediate resonance Malick’s films don’t usually carry. A Simple Favor (2018) Satirizing everything from Cool Girl thrillers to the true crime craze to mommy bloggers, A Simple Favor is a black comedy that also works as a (completely batsh-t) mystery. This movie has everything: secret twins, incest, a series of increasingly insane plot twists, and some of the best contemporary artistic design of the decade. The Act of Killing (2012) Co-directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn, and an anonymous Indonesian, The Act of Killing is a portrait, made terrifying by the relative mundanity of these men’s lives today, of some of the men who led death squads during the Indonesian killings of 1965-66. The men recreate their atrocities as classic film scenes, until one man pretends to be a victim in a scene and then simply cannot go on. It is a testament to the power of cinema, and of stories to evoke empathy, even where you believe no feeling can exist. The Avengers (2012) I can hear you, Black Panther hive, and believe me, I thought about it. But the fact is, there is no Black Panther without The Avengers. This is the film that started it all, and it had an immeasurable impact on Hollywood, setting records previously thought impossible, giving audiences a once-in-a-generation experience, and popularizing the blockbuster cinematic universe. That it holds up as an entertaining, thrilling adventure is almost just a bonus. The Babadook (2014) Jennifer Kent’s debut feature film is either a horror movie about a haunting, or it’s a domestic drama about grief and mental illness. Either way, this is one of the creepiest, most unsettling genre films of the decade, and it also gave us one of the most memorable sound effects since a tyrannosaurus rex roared. Blue Ruin (2013) This is not the sleek, sexy revenge of typical Hollywood thrillers. Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin is bleak, brutal, and spare, with a protagonist shattered by trauma and whose revenge is uncoordinated, sloppy, and carries an inter-generational price. This is the best case against backwoods justice since Reba McEntire sang, “That’s the night the lights went out in Georgia”. Carol (2015) A romance that is at once universal and achingly specific to the roadblocks and repressions of queer women in the middle 20th century, Carol typifies Todd Haynes’ rich, detailed style and intimate sense of drama. Romantic, intimate, and infuriating, Carol captures how simple it is to fall in love and how hard it is to be in love, especially when society does not accept you. Compliance (2012) A gut-wrenching, almost impossible to watch psychological thriller/horror movie, Compliance begs you to fact-check its “based on a true story” narrative (it’s terribly, awfully true). No film this decade better captures both the ease with which people surrender their civil liberties to authoritarians, and the ease with which people will stand by and do nothing as a woman is abused. Compliance is as infuriating as it is chilling. The Duke of Burgundy (2015) An erotic S&M fantasy set in a world with no men, The Duke of Burgundy is a lavish exploration of sex, intimacy, and power exchange. Writer/director Peter Strickland uses fetishism to examine a deteriorating relationship and the particular poignancy of a love affair coming to an end. There have been a lot of breakup movies this decade, but none as unique as The Duke of Burgundy. Get Out (2017) A horror comedy that works equally well in either genre, and works even better on second viewing, Get Out is an immediate genre classic. It gave us a new way of thinking of the black experience in America, and also the insidious supremacy of white liberalism. This is one of the sharpest social observations of the decade, and also a really damn good horror movie. The Guest (2014) Stylish, sexy, and violent, The Guest mashes up horror and superhero tropes into a story about a super-soldier gone rogue, who will stop at nothing to cover his tracks. It’s easy to get lost in the aesthetics, but The Guest has something to say about the toll of America’s endless war, and bad men who only pass as good because we’re socially conditioned to accept them. The Handmaiden (2016) Park Chan-wook adapts Sarah Waters’ novel, Fingersmith, into an erotic thriller set in colonial Korea. Using shifting perspective and a twisty, layered crime plot, Park tells a story of colonialism, class, gender, and love that is sexy, smart, romantic, and surprisingly funny. Inherent Vice (2014) Any one of Paul Thomas Anderson’s three feature films this decade could have made this list, but in the end, I chose the film that is the MOST Paul Thomas Anderson. Like if you asked me what PTA’s whole deal is, I would point you to Inherent Vice. Shaggy, strange, and risky, Inherent Vice is a cinematic psychedelic trip that invites multiple viewings. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) The Coen Brothers also had a couple contenders this decade, but Inside Llewyn Davis is exceptional for the prickliness of its lead character (played by a breakout Oscar Isaac) and the mundane lyricism of his story. This is not a tale of transformational genius, this is a tale of mediocrity and near misses featuring Llewyn Davis, one of contemporary cinema’s greatest cynics. John Wick (2014) Keanu Reeves experienced another career renaissance with John Wick, giving us an immediately indelible, impossibly cool character with the titular John Wick. Sleek, stylish, and with a laughably, yet incredibly effective, streamlined story, John Wick is a high-water mark for American action cinema. Part 2 coming soon…  Tags: Movie Reviews and Previews PS I Still Love You trailer stills 352677 PS. I Still Love You Peter Kavinsk…oh HI John Ambrose! It’s here! The first trailer for PS I Still Love You, the sequel to To All The Boys I’ve Loved Befor December 19, 2019 at 5:27 PM by Lainey Sebastian Stan on the set of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in Atlanta, December 19, 2019 352688 Sebastian Stan Year In Review: Hotness Maintained Sebastian Stan caps off his Year In Hot by appearing in Men’s Health. He is there, ostensibly, to ta December 19, 2019 at 8:02 PM by Sarah Related on LaineyGossip No Related Articles Need a Distraction? by TaboolaSponsored LinksYou May Like Bushmans River Mouth Woman Was Playing on This Free Slot Machine App, When All Of A Sudden She Won Big Download on the App Store | Neverland Casino How South Africans Make A Fortune With Online Trading in 2019. Read Now homefinancetoday South Africans Are Making A Fortune With Online Trading. Read How ThinkBig 4 Reasons To Invest Online! Convert Trading into Constant Income. 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