#:) I love Muse subverting genres <3 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

best-underrated-anime · 4 months

Text

Best Underrated Anime Group C Round 3: #C4 vs #C7

#C4: Lesbians with swords

#C7: Comedy with high school girls with unique personalities

Details and poll under the cut!

#C4: Katana Maidens: Toji no Miko

Summary:

Throughout history, an elite group of shrine maidens known as "Toji" have saved the world from "Aratama," strange and malevolent beings bent on destroying humanity. In modern times, these warriors have been assigned to a special police squad to exterminate Aratama. The government has also set up five elite schools across the country to provide young girls the necessary sword fighting skills to eradicate these monsters and eventually join their fellow Toji in protecting the world.

A student of one of those five schools, Kanami Etou is chosen to represent Minoseki Academy in a sword fighting tournament, where she meets the mysterious Hiyori Juujou. Although Kanami and Hiyori rise to the top of the tournament, their battle takes an unexpected turn, throwing the world of the Toji into chaos. Likely that the Toji are facing betrayal from within, the two are forced to flee the tournament, clashing with former comrades on the way.

Propaganda:

The depth of this show was seriously mindblowing to me. For much of the series it was just a fun romp, with some pretty interesting twists and turns along the way. But as these characters develop, as the plot gets moving, it all comes together in the end. I have not seen a more concentrated concoction of doomed tragic yuri in my life.

Trigger Warnings: Child Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Self-Harm

#C7: Wasteful Days of High School Girls (Joshikousei no Mudazukai)

youtube

Summary:

As she heads off to her entrance ceremony at Sainotama Girls' High School, Akane Kikuchi muses over her grade school dream of becoming a manga artist and the lack of progress that she has made. When she finally arrives at school, she is surprised to learn that she is once again in the same class as her two best friends: the deadpan and emotionless Shiori Saginomiya and the hyperactive and ridiculous Nozomu Tanaka. Tanaka then comes to the obvious realization that she can't achieve her grade school dream of being popular with the boys and getting a boyfriend by going to an all-girls high school.

In desperation, she begins asking the girls in her class to introduce her to their guy friends. Her classmates, however, are anything but ordinary. From a grandmother-loving loli to a reclusive chuunibyou to an overly analytical stalker, each one is given a fitting nickname by Tanaka to accentuate their weirdness. And so begin the wasteful days of these high school girls, each day kicked off with a simple question: "Hey, wanna hear something amazing?"

Propaganda:

Wasteful Days of High School Girls is fast-paced and genre-savvy, subverting a lot of high school anime tropes in ways that are really delightful even if you yourself aren't that familiar with high school animes. But most of all it is cool in a way that only awkward, weird, realistic teenagers can be. It probably won't make you long for your own high school days (if they are in the past), but that is a good thing, because sometimes only a good comedy can really lay bare what life is really like when you're a teenager.

The thing that makes this show so amazing is the characters. These are anime characters with some real Character with a capital C. Everyone is such a real and unique human personality; not just the main trio but all their classmates too AND the teacher and even the nurse that only appears in like one episode!

This is a show with the lowest of stakes and it still manages to feel like something incredibly significant has happened when you get to the end of it. And something incredibly significant has happened! Life happened! An entire year of it!

Trigger Warnings: [Not Stated]

When reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

If you want to criticize one of the shows above to give the one you’re rooting for an advantage, then do so constructively. I do not tolerate groundless hate or slander on this blog. If I catch you doing such a thing in the notes, be it in the tags or reblogs, I will block you.

Know one of the shows above and not satisfied with how it’s presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form, where you can submit revisions for taglines, propaganda, trigger warnings, and/or video.

#anime #best underrated anime #polls #poll tournament #tournament #anime tournament #animation #group stage #group stage round 3 #tournament polls #group c #katana maidens #toji no miko #katana maidens: toji no miko #wasteful days of high school girls #joshikousei no mudazukai

9 notes · View notes

faemoria · 3 years

Text

throws u my url from covid baby jail---

[ ♛ ] send me a url and i'll tell you the following;

my opinion on;

character in general :

nox : has like 3 million muses also nox : doesn’t specify a muse for me to talk about uMMM well okay in a general sense , nox has gotten me to care about a lot of characters that i didn’t care for or , in a few cases , even actively disliked prior . they have a few distinguished types which include knights that subvert genres && garbage men , both of which i can highly appreciate . i am especially fond of jayce , zelgius && sigurd , but that might be because they’re the ones i’ve interacted with the most across my own blogs .

how they play them :

spectacularly ? show-stoppingly ? wonderful ? as i said , nox has managed to make me care about characters i did not care about before or even actively disliked . if you told the ‘ me from 2012 ′ that the newly released jayce was going to become one of my most beloved fictional characters of all time i would have asked how you got into my house && also not believed you . specifically nox has a wonderful way of invoking emotion && introspection , generally favoring that over the more tangible side of things , that really gives you a good look at what their characters are going through && their reactions to the characters they’re interacting with . it’s very tasty .

the mun :

y’all , nox somehow sneakily crept their way into becoming one of my best friends at some point && honestly i’m still reeling over it . they’re hilarious , down-to-earth && delightful to talk to about adored fictional characters && video games && all that jazz . it helps that we are two peas in a pod when it comes to beloved tropes && such . but also i would trust nox with just about anything && know they’re someone i can turn to if i need help or support . i can only hope that i provide the same sense of comfort in our friendship .

do i;

follow them :

i will follow nox on every blog they make until i die .

rp wtth them :

probably more than with anybody else at this point .

want to rp with them :

always , i love our interactions && the relationships we’ve formed between our various muses so far . i admit that sometimes i can get a little melancholy when their brainrot changes from a character i’ve been enjoying interactions with to someone new , but i know that 1 . they’ll return to old muses one day 2 . no matter who they’re writing at the time , it will turn out to be fun && exciting if we squish our muses together .

ship their character with mine :

jayce && tooth breathe life into me , we all already know this . i am very soft for zelgius && aqua , even if it’s not a romantic thing ( although i think they’d make a stellar power couple ) . && i enjoy the little interaction we’ve had between sigurd && tooth so far . that one i definitely don’t see turning romantic at any point , but i think tooth can really come to care strongly about him ( if she has the time ) . viktor && jayce can fucking kill me && i’ll thank them for it . oh and byleth / dimitri is god tier content , sorry i dropped that muse after like a week lol i might return one day .

what is my ;

overall opinion :

**Note: Mun’s answer are all to be completely honest. Don’t send url if you don’t want brutal honesty. i mostly just want an excuse to say nice things about you && your muses . i mostly just want an excuse to say nice things about you && your muses .

@hamartio send me a url .

#[ i hope you are freed from covid jail very soon my friend ]#gif //#» ทั่วไป ; Ask Meme | let me say nice things about you && your muse #» โลกีย์ ; Out of Character

4 notes · View notes

vanishingpod · 4 years

Photo

We took a little break last week from our Podcast Rec Sundays because production stuff took over our lives a bit, but we’re BACK with four shows we think you should check out!

The Amelia Project: With season 3 right around the corner, now is the perfect time to jump into this dark, British comedy headfirst like we have. The show is set at The Amelia Project, an agency where people go to disappear--if their story and reason for disappearing is deemed interesting enough by the staff. Every episode tends to take the format of a client making their plea to be disappeared, including the planning stages...at least, to begin with. The amazing thing about this show is how it slowly escalates and spins out in absurdity, without ever feeling like it’s made a huge leap out of the world it’s set up. It’s a world where a woman wanting revenge for a cheating husband, a cult leader in over his head, an advanced AI, a self-aware fictional character with an existential crisis, and the Loch Ness Monster, all end up seeming pretty much par for the course, and the genre can swerve from comedy to satire to conspiracy to meta-commentary to mystery in the blink of an eye. We couldn’t recommend this more--oh, and you’ll want cocoa on hand. Trust us. (Find them @ameliapodcast)

Seren: If you’re looking for a sci-fi exploration story about the human spirit, this is where you go. We start the story, and spend most of the run time, with Seren, our protagonist, who has been sent on a single-occupancy spacecraft away from her home to join a colony on a distant planet. Not much more is known about the situation than that at the outset, and we are only slowly revealed more through the audio logs of Seren as she makes the journey, cycling through boredom, fear, desperation, loneliness, regret, and hope as she parses through her life up to this point and what she thinks she’ll be heading towards. An incredibly intimate story set in the vast of space. Seren is bold yet subtle, bleak yet hopeful, incredibly lonely yet inspiring immediate connection with the protagonist. The design, production, acting, and writing are all gorgeous, paced beautifully, and deeply felt. This is a show that always feels like it is barreling towards something but isn't afraid to let you live with Seren for a bit, feel what she's feeling, breathe with her, care for her, become her for a moment--it's an incredibly cathartic show in so many ways. (Find them @serenpod)

Valence: Alright, who wants some urban fantasy? We certainly do! Who wants a ragtag bunch of characters? We also do! Who wants to do crimes, but like, for the good of humanity? WE DO! There’s a level of tense glee throughout Valence. You could attribute it to the hyper specific and all-enveloping soundscape that bring the world of New Candler to life or even the excellent vocal performances throughout that make this heightened sci-fi/fantasy world feel grounded and navigated by flawed, 3-dimensional characters. Whatever it is, Valence presents a full experience. Through the story of Liam Alden wrestling with his birthright as a Magic User (‘muse’ in the show) there is a palpable sense of us vs. them, science vs. magic, industry vs. human interest, haves vs. have-nots, that make the story feel relevant and accessible. Honestly I found myself thinking a lot of the Uncanny X-Men and Mr. Robot as I listened to the storylines involving tech heists (HEISTS, we LOVE heists) and assembling a ragtag group of outsiders (again, we LOVE a ragtag bunch!) who are all galvanized to action against a technology conglomerate set on making life easier for some, by jeopardizing it for others. It’s a grand adventure, a call to action, and a fuck you to capitalism, and who doesn’t love that? (Not on tumblr, but you can find them on Twitter here.)

The Godshead Incidental: It’s tricky to put The Godhead Incidental under any one genre because it juggles a little bit of everything while also subverting a lot of the expectations of the genres it uses. It’s a sitcom, but also a conspiracy drama, a slice of life story that also features a world filled with literal gods, a workplace comedy and an emotional dramedy that deals with stuff like agoraphobia and millennial ennui. Also, there are pigeons, just SO many pigeons. We got sucked in by their amazing cover art and stayed for the instantly lovable, vivid cast of characters. Some of our faves are Em, our protagonist, a perpetually Over This advice columnist at the titular publication; Lorem Ipsum (a particular fave of ours), a mysterious, fast-talking thief that takes over every single conversation; and Tervis, Em’s agoraphobic landlord, who has a backstory that is both incredible and underwhelming all at once. The show is brilliantly produced, beginning to end, and is SO easy to immerse yourself in--we really don’t see any way you wouldn’t like it, to be honest. (Find them @godsheadincidental)

If you love any of these shows, please consider leaving them a review on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, or wherever you listen to podcasts--you can also (depending on when you’re seeing this post) nominate them for Audio Verse Awards!

Previous recs: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

#podcast recommendations #audio drama #podcast #the amelia project #seren podcast #the godshead incidental #valence podcast

38 notes · View notes

hazzabeeforlou · 5 years

Text

11 questions

Yes I did this a bit ago but @helloamhere (thank you, ily, have fun bussing around Europe, did that once, had to follow apple maps to know where to get off ‘cause I speak ZERO German...) tagged me and I’m an anxious mess waiting for medical news today so WHY NOT!

Rules: answer 11 questions then pose 11 of your own.

1. What do you think fanfic does better than published fiction (if anything?)

Okay obvious answer and not very high brow, but SMUT. You will not see me perusing the gay aisles of Barnes and Noble romance novels :) For various reasons :)

2. What do you think it does worse

I think (maybe it’s just this fandom) overall it’s quite a bit more sanitary than novels, both in morality and subject matter. I hate to think what the purity police would say about some of the books I’ve read... especially the old ones? But then I usually come here looking for fluff and happiness too so perhaps that’s just the major draw of fanfic, idk.

3. What’s something another fandom has or does that you wish your fandom had or did?

To be honest I’m not well versed in other fandoms, but I’m going to go with I wish this fandom didn’t have constant infighting. Seriously in all my born days I have never seen a group of people claim such a similar goal and yet devour each other so viciously. Hence I usually avoid anything incredibly explosive or triggering here; I deal with and confront radical people (religious extremists, right wing extremists) in my everyday life and I cannot bring myself to turn my escapism into that same vortex of endless arguing, though I appreciate and support those who fight the fight. I often have very sharp opinions and fall to one side or the other of the fault line, but I draw a personal boundary at a point.

4. Do you consider yourself a “fandom” type of person in general, or committed to only one, and if so, tell me more about what this means to you.

I have been a HUGE fandom person my entire life, though this is the first time I’ve ever been in a community for it. Star Wars and Narnia consumed most of my adolescence, along with Lord of the Rings. I briefly dabbled in Dr. Who and Merlin (as one does) but because I didn't read HP until nearly the end of college, I kindof missed out on that one. Basically anything geeky or fantasy driven I have always loved, and I can’t really explain how I ended up here? But this is the only fandom I’m active in socially. The power of HL I guess...

5. I’m trying to get through writing a first draft right now and it’s a slog. How do you stay motivated for long projects, writing or otherwise?

Ah. A call out question! Like any good Aries, I love starting new things! And then letting them to languish unfinished. I have, however, trained in classical music, and thus I’ve programmed myself to just keep doing the thing because pieces take months and months and months to perfect and if you can’t stick with a project, you go nowhere. I also operate on a reward system, as in writing is the reward for practicing, then when I’m sick of words I go back to music, and so the turn tables. I have learned to ignore (I’m great at ostrich-ing) the crushing self doubt of creativity and just bulldoze ahead and do the thing, which results in very messy first drafts and often bad habits in my musical technique and a tendency to overplay, which wastes energy, but rehearsals wait for no one. I also thrive on last minute deadlines!

6. Tell me about what you read as a kid. Favorite book? Or if you weren’t into reading then, favorite TV show, etc?

I HAVE SO MANY. Narnia was my first love. I also adored George MacDonald (At The Back of the North Wind is a fucking masterpiece). My mom hardly let me read Redwall (see: hints of magic) but when she caved I devoured all of those. Anne of Green Gables. American Girl stuff (lots of it, yes Josefina and Kaya were my faves). I read far too many Star Wars expanded universe novels (New Jedi Order shaped me as a person, esp Traitor). I remember reading all the Eragon series, though these were dubiously approved... and I read various classics, as one is supposed to. In high school I printed out the entire Beowulf in Old English, got a CD of a dude reading it, and proceeded to memorize the first several lines. I can still recite Anglo Saxon but I have no clue what it means (see: I’m a good mimic). Everything non-Christian-magic-related I read during or after college, sigh.

7. Have your tastes changed?

This sounds bad but not really. I rarely read non fiction, oops. Biographies are a slog for me. I dislike historical fiction and I don’t have a good reason for that. I do love a good mystery, but usually not in book form (audio or visual Agatha Christie is my mana). I do adore socio-policial books, though (The Better Angels of our Nature a good example) or books doing a deep dive into a historical topic. These days I enjoy a good satire more than much else, and since I started on Terry Pratchett in 2016 I haven’t looked back.

8. I’ll steal your question above--tell me about a fic that changed you, or became a “touchstone” fic that you go back to!!

I didn’t read fics period when I entered the fandom, and stubbornly maintained that for a while, but the fic that changed my mind was (Take Me Home) Country Roads by @a-writerwrites (Awriterwrites). I read it during a drive through the very parts of the USA it’s set in, and I couldn’t put it down, spotty internet be damned. From there @horsegirlharry birthed me into the gay 1D world, though I can’t for the life of me remember which of hers I first read! (Does it matter? They’re all so beautiful...)

9. Tell me about a WIP, if applicable. How’s it going?? It sounds great.

I’m plodding along on The Garden, it’s going well, but urgency isn’t a priority. It’s going to be one of those things that I finish and then go in and make matter because right now my ideas are half formed and I know I’ll eventually know where I’m going but it’s a case of blind trust in instinct at this point!

10. What’s your favorite place to read and sitting position?

Like a true gay I cannot sit normally in a chair, coupled with my pain issues means I’m usually draped over the back of something with a cushy lumbar support, massive pillow, or propped sideways lying down. I love reading outside, but have a tendency to attract bugs, also I’m very light sensitive so my eyes hate the sun, especially if I’m reading from a screen.

11. Do you feel like fic reading and writing is social for you? E.g. do you share with friends (in or outside of fandom), or are you a lone wolf seeking out your fics in the dead of night??

I LOVE the social aspect of fic reading and writing within fandom! I have shared PITS with only two real life friends though; I am very tight lipped about the fact that I write fic. People are cruel and musicians are judgmental arseholes and if I prefer to spend my days dreaming up love stories for my OTP instead of pouring over scores, that’s my fucking business.

Alright, 11 from me (I wanted to include artists too so!!):

1. Are you a start small-work larger type creator, or map everything out then attend to detail?

2. What style of art/writing has most influenced your creative choices? (Genre, time period, muse)

3. How long have you been writing/arting? Is this something you knew you’d do your whole life?

4. What is your favorite thing about creating for your fandom? (reception, excitement, newness, etc.)

5. Have you met any recent creative goals that you’re really proud of?

6. What is your creative baby; what work do you want stamped on your proverbial gravestone as I MADE THIS (or have you made it yet?)

7. Do outside forces (politics, culture, hegemonies) play into your creations? Do you intentionally or subconsciously subvert norms or explore ideas?

8. Your creative mind is a garden. Describe what kind it would be and what it would contain (i.e. rock garden, palace garden, wildflowers, rose... etc.)

9. Do you believe that creative art has power and if so, how do you hope yours impacts others?

10. I’m double stealing this question: what’s a fic or fan art that changed your life or was a touchstone for you?

11. If you could pick any hero of yours to read/look at your creations, who would it be and why?

TOTALLY only if you want to, but @13ways-of-looking @twopoppies @alienfuckeronmain @prettytruthsandlies @pattern-pals @newleafover @disgruntledkittenface @lesbianiconharrystyles @lululawrence

#writing stuff #about me

11 notes · View notes

happyprinceling · 5 years

Text

11 questions

The lovely @hazzabeeforlou tagged me in this (and another one weeks ago. Sorry for not answering those questions :( )

1. Are you a start small-work larger type creator, or map everything out then attend to detail? I feel like my writing process is similar to my drawing process: i sketch out something rough and play with different scenarios, then I transfer it to shape it into something worth seeing, and from then on carve out the details.

2. What style of art/writing has most influenced your creative choices? (Genre, time period, muse) ... very obviously Oscar Wilde for writing. And Wolfgang Borchert’s “The Bread”. They’re practically opposite ends of a spectrum and both taught me how to convey emotion. For art, I’d say various trends online rather than a specific artist.

3. How long have you been writing/arting? Is this something you knew you’d do your whole life? I’ve been drawing since I was a wee toddler, when I was 14 I started going to a weekly art school, and now I’m planning on switching my studies to become a special education teacher for art. I’ve been writing since I was 12 I guess? I remember writing a story about a mice circus in 5th grade. The first story I properly thought through was a detective story that i wish i could find somewhere. I go through phases of quality and quantity due to depressive episodes but I thankfully never thought about completely stopping either.

4. What is your favorite thing about creating for your fandom? (reception, excitement, newness, etc.) My desire to create for the 1d fandom has decreased significantly, it used to be much more fun, mainly because people would actually engange with art or fic. Obviously I’m still really excited about coming up with a new idea and happy when people tag my stuff or comment nice things. Seeing the ways in which Girl Direction fans can recognise themselves in my fics is probably the most rewarding aspect.

5. Have you met any recent creative goals that you’re really proud of? I’m just glad I’m drawing a lot recently. I’m thankful I’m acting on my creativity.

6. What is your creative baby; what work do you want stamped on your proverbial gravestone as I MADE THIS (or have you made it yet?) Into The Meadow’s Dawn or Secrets of Eden. If I’d go back and edit it, straighten our the plotholes, flesh it out at some points and make it about 30k longer, it’d be Secrets of Eden 100%.

7. Do outside forces (politics, culture, hegemonies) play into your creations? Do you intentionally or subconsciously subvert norms or explore ideas? Oh absolutely!! I write to explore my own place in the world, whether that’s personally, politically or culturally (as if they could be seperated lol). Oftentimes I negotiate my own worries through creating fantasy worlds. With Secrets of Eden, it’s of course about feeling alienated and vilified by the world about being lgbt, but it also offered me to write about bi-culturality and body image that white cis boy one direction wouldn’t.

8. Your creative mind is a garden. Describe what kind it would be and what it would contain (i.e. rock garden, palace garden, wildflowers, rose… etc.) It’d start off as an untended front yard with lots of wildflowers and pink roses and too many weeds. And then it’d turn into a forest with very big trees that hide the sun. Everything is dark except for the occasional vibrant flower or shimmering pool. (DRAMA)

9. Do you believe that creative art has power and if so, how do you hope yours impacts others? Of course! I didn’t have to study art history or literature to know that. Feeling understood by fellow humans sometimes is only possible through fiction, so I really hope I can make others feel seen and cared for, whether it’s through my fluffy art and short fics, or through the pain in my longer ones.

10. I’m double stealing this question: what’s a fic or fan art that changed your life or was a touchstone for you? Fic: Young & Beautiful!!!! Y&B!!! YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL!!! It showed me that I can be loved despite even with my fears. Same goes for All the World is Bulletshaped in the inception fandom. (Then there is Fading, which probably damaged me permanently. It kind of set off my coming out process but it also left some horrible thoughts about self-perception in my brain)

For fanart: I regularly scroll through @thrina / @thrinp to have a good cry. I could be completely content and happy then look at this and start sobbing. There’s so much emotion in every line, it makes my heart ache. I know that thrina and @neqx made me want to post my own fanart, so they’re responsible for a lot of beautiful interaction in my life.

11. If you could pick any hero of yours to read/look at your creations, who would it be and why? I’m already lucky in that I have both felix @louhearted (in his case even PROOF READING them like WOW),blake @newleafover and phoenix @alienfuckeronmain reading my fics. Can’t wrap my head around that. I’m way too insecure and ashamed to let my other heroes read my stuff, except maybe Malinda Lo? I feel like she would appreciate my world building and my exploration of wlw girlhood.

1. When do you use memories in your writing and when does that feel too fragile or dangerous? 2. I’ve stopped writing a WIP because I realised that I’m still processing the main theme I’m writing about. Do you find it easier to write about what’s on your mind or about something you’ve already had time to reflect on? 3. Which of the five senses is most important to you to describe in what setting? 4. What scene would you love to go back to and change? 5. What scene are you most proud of? Why? 6. What story of yours would you most like to read as a graphic novel? 7. Is there something you feel like you can’t write into fic? Whether you fear others would find it #problematic or it’d be too personal for you? 8. What have you learned about writing or yourself since starting your latest story? 9. What would I have to read to understand the way you think about love? 10. What fic has made you cry recently? 11. Which fic would you want to write fic of?

I’m tagging @louhearted @mediawhorefics @fondleeds @dreaminghigher @eleanorcaldit @languages-and-else and, i know some of you have done this several times now but I’d love to know your answers, @alienfuckeronmain @hazzabeeforlou @haztobegood @lesbianiconharry @newleafover

#i'm desperately grasping for my passion for fic #@ the universe: GIVE IT BACK TO ME #1d

10 notes · View notes

starwarsnonsense · 6 years

Text

Top 10 Best Films of 2017 - End of Year List

I did a mid-year ‘best of’ list, so it was only fitting that I returned to the format at the end of the year to run down my top 10 favourite films of the year. Only three films from my mid-year list remain here, which is a testament to what an incredible year it has been for film. As far as I’m concerned, 2017 has been a real banner year for cinema and it has seen the release of several all-time greats that I look forward to enjoying for many years to come.

Since I’m based in the UK there will be several notable omissions here (I still eagerly await films like Phantom Thread, I, Tonya and The Post), purely by dint of the fact that they have yet to be released in this country. Do look out for them in my forthcoming most-anticipated of 2018 list!

Honourable mentions: Custody, Brimstone, The Disaster Artist, Professor Marston & the Wonder Women, Call Me By Your Name

1. Star Wars: The Last Jedi, dir. Rian Johnson

While the placement of this film on my list may be resoundingly predictable (check out the total lack of bias signalled by my username!), the thrilling thing is that the film itself is anything but. The Last Jedi shatters the Star Wars mould to entertain new forms of storytelling and question long-held assumptions. It’s a shockingly meta story in how it questions the conventions of Star Wars - particularly those concerning lineage and its implications - but it is never meta in an ironic sense. There are no wink, wink moments, and while the past is investigated and questioned it is never mocked. Instead of descending into irreverence, The Last Jedi is meta in a way that feels absolutely necessary and justified if Star Wars is to remain fresh and vital as it moves forward. Bloodline and history do not have to dictate destiny in this new version of Star Wars - the heroes are those who understand this, and the villains are the ones who fail to grasp the same lesson. It’s a beautiful and intellectually rigorous movie, and I’m thrilled by how it elevates and re-contextualises the stories that came before it while pushing the characters and their relationships forward. I have no idea of where Episode IX will take this story, and that is incredibly exciting to me. Bring it on.

2. Blade Runner 2049, dir. Denis Villeneuve

There are a million and one reasons why this movie shouldn’t have worked, but Villeneueve proved his genius by making a sublime sci-fi picture that actually surpasses its predecessor. I have always admired the original Blade Runner more than I’ve enjoyed it, and that’s because I have always found it emotionally distant. Deckard struck me as a mumbling arse and his romance with Rachael always felt obligatory, not organic. The genius of Blade Runner 2049 lies in how it made me care - it made me care about the love between Deckard and Rachael (which was something of a miracle in itself), and it made me care about the love between K and his holographic girlfriend Joi. With these emotional hooks in place, everything worked as a thrilling symphony. The cinematography is easily the best of any film in 2017 (sorry, Dunkirk - I still love you) and this film has an astonishing number of scenes that still linger in my mind after many months - the very modern threesome, the shootout in the gaudy pleasure palace, the fight in the rain, the father seeing his child for the first time. It’s a breathtaking film and I couldn’t be more excited to see what Villeneuve does next.

3. Dunkirk, dir. Christopher Nolan

Dunkirk is such a striking and effective piece of cinema that it actually made me overcome my innate bias against war movies (I blame too many tedious Sunday afternoons wasted on mandatory viewings of The Great Escape at my grandparents’ house). With Dunkirk, Nolan has probably made his most accomplished and sophisticated movie - it starts off unbearably tense and doesn’t release its grip on your pulse until the final scene, when its hero finally drops off to the blessed peace of sleep. Nolan employs a tricksy converging structure with multiple plot strands to ramp up the tension and provide different perspectives on the evacuation, masterfully playing them off each other to assemble the big picture. While criticised by some for its apparent lack of character, I can’t really agree with that assessment - Dunkirk is probably the most powerfully humanistic war film I’ve ever seen, and by stripping its characters down to their rawest selves it reveals some uncomfortable yet powerful truths about all of us. The characters are somewhat distant from us - we never hear them pine for lovers or miss their mothers - but the removal of these storytelling shorthands leaves us with soldiers who behave exactly as you would expect frightened, stranded children to. And there’s something terrifyingly poignant about that.

4. mother!, dir. Darren Aronofsky

mother! is the work of a madman with no fucks to give, and it is what I choose to refer to as ‘peak Aronofsky’. He made what is clearly an allegory, and while he had his own intentions with said allegory (which he has been very loud about declaring) the film is so cleverly constructed that it can simultaneously be about the entire history of the world and the plight of the tortured artist’s muse - either reading is perfectly correct and supported by the text. mother! is a piece of art that has provoked a lively and frequently heated debate, and while it needs to be read as an allegory to make any kind of sense as a narrative I also don’t want to undersell this movie as an emotional experience. If you go into mother! willing to be challenged and content to be swept up in a bold artistic vision, it has the potential to be a really absorbing and engrossing film - it is anchored by Jennifer Lawrence’s remarkably brave and unrestrained performance. She is not playing a grounded character, but her performance is palpably real and frequently painful to witness - she portrays the whole spectrum of emotions, from mild bemusement to shrieking horror, and the whole film soars on the strength of her efforts. This is a uniquely strength and esoteric film, and I am incredibly happy that it exists.

5. Get Out, dir. Jordan Peele

This film really knocked me for six, to such an extent that I simply had to see it twice in the cinema. It got even better upon a re-watch, when I was able to watch it with full knowledge of the characters’ underlying motives and the things to come. It’s a terrifying concept (the racism of an all-white suburb is taken to a horrifying extreme) executed with incredible panache, and you feel every emotion that Chris goes through thanks to Daniel Kaluuya’s excellent performance. Get Out also represents one of the most brilliantly communal experiences I’ve ever had at the cinema - I won’t spoil it, but let’s just say that the audience erupted into spontaneous applause at a key moment in the climax. Simply fantastic.

6. The Handmaiden, dir. Park Chan-wook

This film is exquisite - it’s first and foremost a beautiful boundary-smashing love story, and an absolutely marvellous tale of female defiance. It transplants Sarah Waters’ novel Fingersmith to 1930s Korea, and the story is effortlessly adapted to become intrinsically interwoven with its new setting. Sookee is a talented pickpocket plucked from a thieves den and sent as a handmaiden to trick a rich heiress into falling for a conman. To say any more would spoil the twists, but this film is just a masterwork of suspense, keeping you guessing throughout a series of interlocking pieces that take their time to reveal their secrets. I’ve seen the theatrical cut and the extended version, and they’re both great - you’re in for a treat with either.

7. The Florida Project, dir. Sean Baker

This is one of the best screen depictions of childhood I’ve ever seen. Our hero here is Moonee, a smart-tongued and cheeky six-year-old. Moonee lives in a motel room with her abrasive but loving mother, but since she’s a child she doesn’t mope or lament her poverty - she takes her surroundings for granted and makes the tacky shops and hotels that form her world her very own theme park. The Florida Project is firmly committed to adopting a child’s eye perspective, and while it can feel a bit meandering to begin with it gradually accumulates pace and purpose, building to an utterly heartbreaking and unforgettable climax. The performances here are extraordinary, and Brooklynn Prince is so palpably real as Moonee that she’ll own your heart by the end of the movie (having squeezed it to bursting point on several occasions).

8. The Shape of Water, dir. Guillermo del Toro

I’ve long been a huge del Toro cheerleader, and this movie is perhaps best described as ‘peak del Toro’ - it has the mannered, detail-oriented set design, the charming quirkiness, the subverted horror, and the woozily strange romance that he has employed again and again in his films. This story, however, is unusual for del Toro in that it is ultimately optimistic and hopeful - it’s the daddy of all supernatural romances in that it is a full-blown love story between a mute human woman and a fishman, and it is characterised by total commitment and self-belief. Think Creature from the Black Lagoon done with the creature as the romantic hero. The Shape of Water has a certain playfulness that means it never feels ponderous or silly, but it affords its characters real respect and dignity and makes you care for them deeply. This movie makes me excited to see where genre filmmaking can go next (hint: I hope it only gets weirder).

9. Thelma, dir. Joachim Trier

Who knew something like this could come out of Norway? This was probably my biggest pleasant surprise of 2017 in terms of film - I went in with no expectations at all, and came out wowed. This is an intensely strange and effective supernatural horror that follows a girl with strange repressed powers that manifest whenever she experiences desire. It could be a hackneyed or exploitative premise in the hands of a lesser filmmaker, but Trier shows a deft hand and a remarkable talent for building tension and creating a sense of heightened reality. There is one scene set to ‘Mountaineers’ by Susanne Sundfor that is one of the most transporting experiences I have ever had in the cinema - the combination of the ethereal music and the mounting suspense makes for real film magic. This was a great reminder of how important it is to take chances and try out films outside your comfort zone.

10. Jackie, dir. Pablo Larrain

This is a film that soars on the strength of Natalie Portman’s incredible performance, which is complemented by Mica Levi’s haunting score. Portman’s performance is painfully vivid, with her agony and wretchedness coming through so intensely that it’s often uncomfortable to watch. Jackie is probably the best portrait of grief I’ve ever seen, and it sucks you into a famous historic event by providing an incredibly intimate perspective on it. This is great cinema, but be prepared for suffering.

#best of the year #film #cinema #the last jedi #blade runner 2049 #dunkirk #mother!#get out #the handmaiden #the florida project #the shape of water #thelma #jackie

207 notes · View notes

aion-rsa · 4 years

Text

How Welcome to the Blumhouse Explores the Horror of Family

https://ift.tt/3d5mgDQ

In terms of dealing with the pandemic and how to release existing or finished films without having movie theaters available until recently, Blumhouse has been one of the leaders. The company — in conjunction with its primary distributor, Universal Pictures — shifted the arrival of its summer horror movie, You Should Have Left, from theaters to VOD seamlessly, while movies that came out in theaters right before the coronavirus shut everything down — like The Invisible Man and The Hunt — also made the transition quickly and smoothly, extending their shelf life and possibly their audiences.

Now, with many theaters reopened around the country but not pulling in a lot of customers (and some closing again soon), Blumhouse has another surprise up its sleeve: the company has partnered with Amazon Prime to release eight new films through the platform, as part of an anthology series called Welcome to the Blumhouse. Two of the films, The Lie and Black Box, premiere Tuesday (October 6), with two more, Nocturne and Evil Eye, arriving a week later on October 13. The remaining four are yet to be announced but will surface in 2021.

“Jen Salke, who runs (Prime Video), and I were doing a conference somewhere, and she said, ‘What about doing an anthology?’” says Blum when we connect with him via Zoom to discuss the project. “We had our Into The Dark series on Hulu, and it was winding up. I said, ‘I would love to do that.’ I love doing an anthology of movies, but there were things that I would do differently if I had the chance to do it again. So I really took her up on the proposal.”

There are differences between Into the Dark and Welcome to the Blumhouse. The former was formatted as a TV series, with the stories structured as episodes. Every episode of the monthly series was based around a holiday occurring that month. But with Welcome to the Blumhouse, Jason Blum says that the entire run of all eight movies are tied together by an overarching concept.

“I think that the thing that really crystallized it was, when you’re doing an anthology of movies, you’ve got to think of a framework that makes the movies feel individual enough so that you don’t feel like you’re watching the same movie over and over again,” he explains. “But then you need a thread to hold it all together. I think together we came up with this idea of doing all underrepresented filmmakers. That was exciting for me, not because it was a good — I mean, it was a good thing to do, but that wasn’t why we did it. It was more because I thought that would be a great thread to hold all these stories together.”

Blum chose filmmakers “from voices that we don’t hear enough from” to make sure they felt different enough from each other.

“I’m really proud of the first four movies. I like the back four, too. We’re not talking about those yet, but I like them for a lot of reasons,” he says. “One of the reasons I like them is because they feel unique. They feel slightly different. They’re not told from people who look like me and you, and I think that’ll be a good thing for the audience, because I think the movies are better for it.”

Movies

The Thing Remake Reportedly in the Works at Blumhouse

By Kirsten Howard

Movies

Best Horror Movies on Amazon Prime Right Now

By Alec Bojalad and 3 others

There are also thematic threads running through all eight movies, although the theme itself is related to the movies’ relatively low budget.

“When you task filmmakers with doing something unsettling, or scary, or genre, if you give them a lot of money, they build a monster, right? They build some scary creature,” Blum says. “But when you don’t have the money for a creature, you’ve got to figure out another way to scare people. What all our filmmakers saw on their own, without talking to each other, is that the best way to do that is to take what’s most sacred to us, which is our relationship with our family, our children, our parents, our wife, our husband, our brother, our sister, and have some outside event threaten that. Then watch what happens, watch how people react.”

The theme of family — and what happens to that family unit when put to the test — is very present in the first four films. The Lie, directed by Veena Sud (The Killing), follows two parents (Peter Sarsgaard and Mireille Enos) who desperately try to cover up their daughter’s impulsive murder of her friend. In Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr.’s Black Box, a single father (Mamoudue Athie) loses his memory in a car accident and begins to question his own identity after undergoing an experimental treatment.

Blumhouse

Nocturne, written and directed by Zu Quirke, follows twin sisters in a music school whose relationship turns destructive when one of them finds a notebook from a deceased classmate. And finally (for now), Evil Eye, directed by Elan and Rajeev Dassani, focuses on a mother who is convinced that her daughter’s new boyfriend has a dark connection to her own past.

“I think, in a certain way, all four movies fit to some degree into what I just described,” says Blum. “I think that’s very fun to watch. I think it’s fun to say, ‘I would do this. I wouldn’t do this.’ I love the way that they also subvert expectations. In The Lie, you think these parents are great protecting their kid, and they turn out to be not so great. Or you think the mother in Evil Eye is overbearing, and it turns out she’s right. I like that the filmmakers subvert our expectations, and all to a certain degree are commenting on family, those relationships, and what happens when those relationships get threatened.”

While there isn’t really a Blumhouse “house style” of filmmaking — aside from keeping costs down and filmmakers resourceful — some of the Welcome to the Blumhouse titles like The Lie go into uncharted territory. The Lie, for example, is based on a German film called Wir Monster and — even though it’s made by a Canadian filmmaker — has a decidedly European tone and atmosphere to it.

“I think that’s related to the distribution,” muses Blum. “I think when you’re making movies for streaming, you have more freedom to experiment in the form. When you’re making theatrical movies, you have to have X amount of jump scares. If the audience doesn’t jump out of their seat a handful of times during the run of the film in a theatrical scary movie, you didn’t do your job. Chances are the movies didn’t work. When you’re doing a movie for streaming, it gives us the opportunity to make movies with more moments that are just creepy or uncomfortable.”

Blum says that giving filmmakers the widest latitude possible — whether for a drama like the HBO series Sharp Objects, the latest entry in the Halloween franchise, or a collection of eight horror-adjacent movies on a budget — is one of his prime motivations in the projects his company produces. When those films are coming out through a streaming platform, without the costs associated with a theatrical release, the range of possibilities gets even broader.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

“We allow our filmmakers to have more freedom in terms of the kind of storytelling they do when they’re doing a horror movie directly for streaming, as opposed to theatrical,” says Blum. “It’s always been important to me that the TV shows and the movies that I do find a broad audience. They don’t always find one, but I intend to make things that find a broad audience. They don’t always, but I’m always going out the door hoping that they do. That’s what I love horror for. You can do crazy stuff, and it can still find a broad audience.”

The first two Welcome to the Blumhouse movies — The Lie and Black Box — premiere Tuesday (October 6) on Amazon Prime Video.

The post How Welcome to the Blumhouse Explores the Horror of Family appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/30DRVY9

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

0 notes