streetqueenofmars

[streetqueenofmars]

So, I rewatched Joel Schumacher's 'Phantom of the Opera', a movie I was obsessed with as a teenager and new adult.

And I had THOUGHTS.

Being in a committed relationship has given me (someone who doesn't always do much rewatching) the chance to revisit and reappraise art from my childhood and adolescence.

And I'm working on being kind to my younger self.

There was a time when I was obsessed with this movie, if you had asked me as a 15 to 18 years old to name my favorite movies this would have been one of them. Now I'm a few years shy of thirty, I've studied film at the Masters level, I've studied and written on musical theater and opera. Importantly I've seen Phantom live and I've seen the Royal Albert Hall recording. All this to say that I'm very aware of this films shortcomings as an adaptation, as a musical, and even as a film.

But I think it's still a 'good' film.

Because, despite this films shortcomings, understanding why I liked it at a teenager helped me appreciate it.

I don't know if this is a hot take, but in the original show, the Phantom is not only the antagonist but his relationship with Christine is creepy. He is older than her by enough that she at first thinks he is the ghost of her father and his more sexual feelings toward her coincide with the increasing body count and other factors that reveal him as an increasingly malevolent force. It's one of the things that makes the show so good.

The film makes the Phantom's position as antagonist much more complicated by aging him down. Gerard Butler plays the phantom as a young man and the rewrites make his and Christina's ages closer. The idea of him as the spirit of her father is downplayed, and the sexual tension between Christina and Phantom is played up.

It's important to note that while this is an adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical that he is producing made by his production company, Joel Schumacher not only directs the film but is credited as the co-writer.

So I will credit him with the changes between the stage show and the film.

This makes sense when you look at Schumacher's body of work. Sexual tension (be it heterosexual or homosexual), physical beauty, and young people discovering themselves and the world are ideas that appear in his work again and again. Film phantom is a Schumacher protagonist, an alienated young person trying to figure out where he fits in the world. A man who understands love as something good that he wants but is clumsy about how to actual go about pursuing it. A man of restrained passions and feelings he can't express. In the song 'No One Would Listen' (a film original song that didn't make it into the film beyond the credits) the phantom sings about how his love of Christine and his love of music both came about from feeling profoundly lonely following his escape from the carnival and being drawn to something beautiful.

Webber's phantom is a predatory man, Schumacher's phantom is a lonely boy.

And this profoundly changes the work, it's a subtle change that flew over the heads of most critics, both professional or pop culture (looking at the Lindsey Ellis squad) but it's a changes that fundamentally changes the work. It becomes a work of art meant for lonely young men who feel hated by the world for reasons beyond their understanding. And for those men and boys it shows them how destructive their actions have the potentially to really be when they lash out from their loneliness.

"The tears I shed for your sad fate, grow cold and turn to tears of hate."

It's a messy work, but one that has value as a work of transitional adolescent media. Similar to the first Twilight where it gives adolescents a space to feel certain emotions and should be given some grace for that good.

#cinema #art #film #art appreciation #phantom of the opera #adolescence #revisiting #teenagers #musical movies #joel schumacher #gerard butler #emo #2000s emo #emotions #andrew lloyd webber

[streetqueenofmars]

sometimes i say things on twitter and then make a little graph about it

[streetqueenofmars]

So I'm a dumbass

I'm 27, and it wasn't until THIS WEEK that I realized the Final Fantasy series ISN'T one big series set in the same world, but a meta series where each game in the mainline series is a separate adventure with a completely different cast of character, world and plot?

The MAIN REASON I never played a Final Fantasy game was because trying to start the series felt super overwhelming 😭😭😭

But then I started to get suspicious when I saw content from 16 and I was like "Wait a minute, this seems kind of different from the 15 game was playing..."

And I found a series retrospective and learned the full truth 😭😭😭

And the movie! 'The Spirits Within' isn't connected or related to A SINGLE ONE of the games!?!?

MY LIFE IS A LIE!!!

#Final Fantasy #final fantasy xv #final fantasy xvi #today i learned #i was today years old #revelation

[streetqueenofmars]

Globally and historically, a discomfort and dislike for melodrama (to the extent of being unable to engage with it or 'take it seriously') is actually a minority position.

And (given how much melodrama is based on the principal of an affective emotional experience) I see little evidence that an inability to engage with melodrama doesn't make an individual or a culture poorer.

#melodrama #cinema #film #art #art appreciation #1 am thoughts #culture #opera

[streetqueenofmars]

All of this.

Also, I'm seeing people starting to play a 'Barbie vs. Oppenheimer' thing and...maybe don't? Just how about we not?

seeing discourse online about the lack of women in oppenheimer is so unserious. this is a movie about creating the atomic bomb that killed hundreds of thousands of people and how this type of weapon should have never made its way into the hands of man and people online are like “well why didn’t they hire more women?”

i don’t think this is the feminist take you think it is

EDIT: and since people are saying that the critique is that the female characters aren’t fully fleshed out. none of the side characters in this movie really are. it’s a biopic about oppenheimer and seen through the prism of his life, that’s the focus

[streetqueenofmars]

#mood #current mood #tired #im so tired #mentally im here

[streetqueenofmars]

The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959)  - Dir.  Ranald MacDougall

[streetqueenofmars]

I love this show so damn much...

Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967)

[streetqueenofmars]

She's so small but her laughs take up her whole body 💜💜💜

Julien Baker's full body laugh 🥰

[streetqueenofmars]

Update: This was so disappointing it reminded me how much I love Ray Harryhausen and I completed my collection.

Watch "65 – Official Trailer (HD)" on YouTube

I did not know that the Quiet Place writers were transitioning to writing and directing.

I did not know that it was about space shit and dinosaurs.

I did not know it was starring Adam Driver.

I was completely unaware until this trailer and I am INSTANTLY hyped!!! I love dinosaurs and I've long wanted some pulpier dinosaur blockbusters and this looks like it.

[streetqueenofmars]

sometimes i say things on twitter and then make a little graph about it

[streetqueenofmars]

Still the best gaming fact.

[streetqueenofmars]

I find the online film space so perplexing. Somehow I see people complaining both about movies being too complex and not meant to be intellectual and people complaining about all of film being boring and dry.

There are so many movies out there you guys. There are so many "art films" that don't ask you to write essays about them. There are TONS of schlocky fun brainless action comedies. You don't have to settle for whatever is the most popular right now. You can watch whatever you want. There are no movie rules y'all.

#film #cinema #cinephilia #cinephile #movies #film rant #watch more movies

[streetqueenofmars]

I highly doubt this applies to anyone but if you casually follow girlfriend reviews on YouTube and you're not on Twitter anymore like me, they steamed the new h*rry p*tter game and reacted really poorly to criticism about it.

Just wanted to share the info in case anyone else needs to unsubscribe from their YouTube.

[streetqueenofmars]

[streetqueenofmars]

That line from the trailer just...stuck with me.

#dave bautista #rupert grint #m night shyamalan #knock at the cabin #tumblr humor #film #cinema #new release #humor

[streetqueenofmars]

It's unreal that the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie came out in July of 2014 and the last one is coming out in May of 2023.

Almost nine years? It's so insane how much has happened in nine years. That was one bachelor's and a master's degree ago for me.

#guardians of the galaxy #guardians of the galaxy vol. 3 #guardians of the galaxy vol. 2 #blockbuster #superhero #sci fi #science fiction #time flies