#Villains would be nice too and Judd | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rassicas · 1 year

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I think the concept behind Grizz is solid: a Former Bear who inadvertently Ship Of Theseus'd himself into Not Being A Bear Anymore ties neatly into the running theme of Judd and Lil Judd being the Only Mammals left: Mr. Grizz, whatever he is now, no longer counts as a mammal. But in execution... Yeah. They should have focused on the "Ship Of Theseus angle" and the fact that, in his attempts to bring back mammals, he's become more like the organisms that he's trying to destroy.

Ive gotten about a good few dozen comments on YT about this exact thing. but half of them being annoyingly condescending in the process for not bringing up this analysis in my Live (keyword live) reaction of me hating on the bear. i dont think ive really addressed how i feel about this particular thing because of how rude ppl were, but its been a while and youre being nice so long post incoming Anyway yes im very much aware of this 'ship of Theseus angle to grizz, I did see that "in defense of grizz" video. And honestly I do agree it is something about him that has interesting potential if they'd leaned into it more. Much of my distaste with the ending of ROTM is the build up and execution. They made the bear foreshadowing laughably obvious years too early, and then all the poor fools like me who care too much about splatoon's story had faith that "surely the splatoon team, who just made a story as surprising and serious as Octo Expansion, wouldn't handle foreshadowing the identity of their next major villain that badly" took the biggest L. IF the splatoon team had been more blatant that the Judds were the last mammals left throughout the series (the only time it was directly stated that all mammals were extinct before ROTM? in a dev interview. and for years nobody wanted to believe it whenever i tried bringing it up lmao.) if they weren't that on the nose about the bear imagery. if the only solid piece of deception they had about Grizz not being a bear in the entirety of splatoon canon wasn't in a paid artbook... if they were more deceptive about the fact, I'm sure i wouldve been a bit more accepting of the idea of him secretly being a bear from earlier on, and it would've been a cooler reveal. But surface level knowledge should be called into question by looking at the deeper evidence, not the other way around.

The ineffectiveness of the bear reveal is a culmination of Splatoon doing a frankly, bad job at putting whats supposed to be basic, important, worldbuilding knowledge in the game. I think the intended effect of the bear reveal was that the general audience of fans were supposed to have been like "woah, but all mammals are supposed to be all dead holy shit i cant believe hes a bear." and that info was supposed to put a wedge in the bear theories. but when 95% of the player-base anticipating splatoon 3 had no idea that all mammals (except the judds) are supposed to be extinct in the splatoon world and how that's an important part of its worldbuilding up until the announcement of the story mode, if at all...idk man thats pretty bad.

The way the info about mammal extinction was worded in the official news posts sounds like it was supposed to be common knowledge for Splatoon fans, not a surprise like it ended up being.

Anyway back to the execution, it would've been cooler if they'd leaned into that horror element, the fact that he's hardly even a mammal anymore. I think the implication is there. It is cool and fucked up in Splatoon's signature way! But again, I agree it would be better if it was played up or even acknowledged once directly, like in log.exe. Even with all the potential for bear Mr. Grizz to be cool, the years of too-blatant foreshadowing leading to a frustratingly disappointing reveal and the exact annoying plot holes i feared of has permanently soured the concept of him being a bear to me.

#asks #return of the mammalians #i also get a lot of but what about dramatic irony!#soooo many signs point to the intent of it being a serious surprise #doesnt help that the eng dialogue added in a fuckton of goofiness that wasnt even there in the original #it wasnt intended to be dramatic irony period

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bloodyshadow1 · 2 years

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Watched season 5 of big mouth because the show's a guilty pleasure. It was funny and I liked most of it.

Surprisingly I liked how they did Nick's storyline even if I didn't like the storyline itself. I dreaded since the trailer his plot this season since our seemed like they were just going to do a crush storyline again with him pinning over her the whole season, with them maybe getting together in the end or future. But they didn't,they nipped it in the bud quickly, made it clear that it wasnt going to happen, and never rewards nick for his behavior. Jessi finally snaps and gives him a harsh public verbal beatdown of how they'll never be together because he again tries to ambush her with a grand gesture instead of accepting the rejection. Nick becomes a little dick filled with hate towards her and towards everyone, but the show surprisingly never takes his side.

He's constantly blaming jessi for what happened when it's clear it's not about him. She's not leading him on which missy (his current partner in hate) points out that nick ambushed her trying to get her to love him and while harsh she left him have it. He makes her "affair" with Ali blaming her for not telling him that she liked Ali instead of him. I didnt like watching his parts because he's a little asshole, but it's okay because the show makes sure the audience is aware we arent supposed to be on his side. I will say my complaint would be its almost like season 4 taken to an extreme, too the point if redundancy. I almost wish they left nick in a bad place in season 4 because it could have smoothly transitioned into his behavior in this season. They put him in a good place at the end of season 4 only to make him this way in 5, even the end feels them same with him meeting another version of himself and finding some comfort with him.

Andrew didn't do much this season, most of his obsessive and creepy behaviors only last the one so with the teacher. The rest of the time hes trying to be sensitive and comforting but mostly backfires, but does yield some good wholesome moments.

I really liked Missy's storyline. Like nick she becomes full of hate, but unlike him she has more valid reasons. Between jessi taking over her meeting, then blowing her off when she demanded an apology, then having her cool older cousins be mean to her, then having her parents refused to see the problem shes going through leads to a perfect storm where she becomes a malicious monster. The show does a good job of showing that while her anger is justified her behavior isnt. She is wrong for posting untrue insulting rumors about Ali and jessi, but the show makes it clear Jessi and her cousins were also wrong for how they treated her. She starts to get better when she gets genuine apologies and apologizes to ali. She realizes she doesn't like how being hateful makes her feel and it becomes a healing process.WE also got to see a more postive caring side of mona which was nice. She is still a mess and a dumpster fire, but you can see how she does care about Missy, like the other monsters, and doing her best to try and help however she can

Jessi s arc was also great her and Ali were cute and her struggling with her crush and friendship with her and choosing to be a good friend for now. The show does a good job making sure to never endorse her behavior towards missy and samira as anything but shitty, and doesn't make it okay that it's because she's struggling with her new found bi/pan ness. Which the show also does a good job recognizing that, as she still has her crush on Judd, she isnt a lesbian just because she also likes girls. All in all jessi gets to be complicated, she gets to be the hero, the villain, the victim and more growing from it.

The other storylines are fine, Jay is a little freak as always, but he gets put through the timer this season. I think he's cute with Matthew, but I'm just neutral to it since I don't think they're going to last, even if the show keeps them together. Lola is similar, her life stuck and im sympathetic to the little monster, but her behavior is unacceptable and im glad she and Jay didnt get back together. I also liked nicks parents dont and diane got character development. They were always pretty good open parents, but they were advisability always to open. It's okay to be sex positive, but also worry about your kids having sex. It's also hard to be in a relationship with some one likr elliot whois so positive and nice, it becomes stressful because it makes it harder to talk about the difficult stuff as a romantic partner because he seems so calm and stress free.

Overall the season was good, I'm glad they toned down some of the gross humor that they seemed to double down on last season. It was pretty repetitive but good.

#big mouth #big mouth spoilers #nick birch #andrew glouberman #jessi glaser #missy foreman greenwald #jay bilzerian

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heroicadventurists · 4 years

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Robin 80 ***spoilers***

Robin 80 was a wonderful celebration of the first sidekick... the Boy Wonder... Robin. This issue consisted of 10 stories focusing on the different iterations of Robin. While Carrie Kelley received a pinup in the issue, she did not receive her own story. Robin 80 focused on the five canon Robins. While some are upset that Duke was not included in this lineup, he was never an official Robin to Batman. If we count Duke, we have to count all of the "We Are Robin" crew. When given the choice by Batman, Duke chose to pave his own path as his own hero, which is commendable. Dick received 4 out of the 10 stories in this issue, which was fitting considering it is also his 80 year anniversay. My favorite thing about this issue was the acknowledgement that Bruce adopted the male Robins. Below I rank the stories in Robin 80 from my least favorite to my favorite.

10. Dick Grayson, Nightwing in Aftershocks

Writer: Chuck Dixon

Starting off my list is Aftershocks. This story follows Dick after he has quit being Robin, and has assumed his new identity, Nightwing. This story highlights perfectly how Dick operates as a solo hero. He is brave, quick on his feet, witty, and of course, he saves the day. This was a good one-shot but it didn’t have the impact that some of the other stories in this issue had. However, it did serve it’s purpose of showing Dick coming into his own.

9. Nightwing and The Titans in Team Building

Writer: Devin Grayson

Like Aftershocks, this story serves to show how Dick operates as a team leader. He was smart, strategic, capable and decisive. He was everything you want in a team lead. As before, this was a good one-shot, but it also lacked the emotional impact that other stories on this list had.

8. Dick Grayson, Agent 37 in The Lesson Plan

Writers: Tim Seely and Tom King

Like Aftershocks and Team Building, this story follows Dick as Agent 37. In this story he is a mentor to a young recruit named Paris. He gives her lessons throughout the story that contradict every lesson Batman ever taught him. When he gets to the final lesson, he tells her the one thing that he agreed with Batman on “Ignore Your Mentor. Do What You Do Best”. One thing I really appreciate about the stories focusing on Dick is that each story is a progression in his vigilante career. He has an actual arc in Robin 80.

7. The Supersons in My Best Friend

Writer: Peter J Tomasi

This was an adorable story about how Jon views his friendship with Damian. Damian is a lot more vulnerable when he is with Jon, and honestly, he acts like the kid that he is. This was a lighthearted and sweet story that shows a different side to our current Robin.

6. Tim Drake, Robin III in Extra Credit

Writer: Adam Beechen

This was a wonderful piece that highlighted how awesome Tim is. For so many, Tim is their Robin, and it was nice to see him getting recognition in this comic.

5. Stephanie Brown, Robin IV in Fitting In

Writer: Amy Wolfram

Out of all of the stories in this issue, Stephanie’s story made me think the most. There was a very deep meaning behind this story once you get past the surface level. So let’s breakdown this story. The story begins with Stephanie showing up late to a training session. She suits up in one of Tim’s old costumes. Of course there are issues with this and Stephanie is busting out of the seams (not because she’s overweight but because she has breast, butt and thighs to contend with). She complains about her hand-me-down costume while Bruce focuses on training. Even with her top busted, Bruce is still training. He even has the nerve to tell Stephanie she is distracted. Alfred shows up with Dick’s old costume as a replacement, and Steph asks for something “without a cup”. Bruce FINALLY makes Stephanie a suit fit for a young lady, but when she puts on her new costume, Bruce tells her “no more excuses”. Let that sink in. He saw her complaints about wearing a male costume as an excuse not to train. Let’s carry on. They go to Western Town to take on Firefly. The villain du jour does not take Stephanie seriously and calls her “Cosplay Girl”. Stephanie is rash during the fight and does not follow Batman’s orders, resulting in her capture by Firefly. She is able to avert disaster (barely) and saves the day, but Batman still chides her.

Batman: “Tim would have waited outside”

Robin (Stephanie): “I’m not Tim!”

Batman: “I know”

Stephanie tells Bruce that she wants to be her own Robin and to stop trying to make her into something she’s not. Bruce hears her and makes her a special closet in the batcave with her own costumes. This seems like a step in the right direction but we know how her Robin story ends.

At no point in this story did I feel like Stephanie was being sexualized. it was more awkward and embarrassing than anything else. Neither Bruce nor Alfred said anything inappropriate to Steph, and no skin or nipples were shown thru her shirt. She was just in a predicament where her costume was too tight because Bruce was making her wear Tim’s old costume. And that was the point of the story (at least for me). Bruce wasn’t trying to find a replacement Robin, he was trying to find a replacement Tim, and eventually get Tim back.

Bruce has a bad habit of trying to replace people in his life. He did this with Jason and he did it with Stephanie, and the results where dang near the same. Bruce replaced Dick with a direct copy, down to the hair color, race and costume. Bruce was trying to do the same with Stephanie, however it was unsuccessful for obvious reasons. This story really made me think about all the extra pressure Bruce put on Steph and Jason by trying to have them live up to Tim and Dick respectively. Instead of playing up their strengths and letting them define what type of Robin they wanted to be, he wanted them to be replicas of their predecessors. Both results turned out in disaster with Jason dying and Stephanie nearly being killed after she was fired. To me this story highlights how badly Bruce tried to use Stephanie to get to Tim. It makes absolutely no sense that he wouldn’t make her a costume to fit her body. But is it surprising b/c he did the same thing to Jason. To me this story was a lot deeper than Stephanie busting out of her top. It was about 1. Bruce’s need to get Tim back 2. Bruce’s lack of respect for Stephanie and 3. Stephanie’s disastrous run as Robin. Say what you will but she held the mantle for less than 3 months and almost died trying to prove herself to Bruce. Stephanie never got a fair shake at being Robin, and this story highlights that perfectly. She was literally setup to fail. Maybe I have overthought this story, but those are the points I got from it, and they are important points to be made, which is why it takes the # 5 spot.

4. Dick Grayson, Robin in A Little Nudge

Writer: Marv Wolfman

This is a story about a boy becoming a man and setting off on his own journey. In this story, we see Batman and Robin clashing on patrol, as Batman wants Robin to fall in line and Robin wants to make his own decisions. The issue ends with Dick thanking Bruce for everything he has done for him but leaving the nest to become his own hero. Bruce knew this day was coming, and instead of talking to Dick, he purposely picked small fights with him so he could make that step on his own.

3. Damian Wayne, Robin: Son of Batman in Bat and Mouse

Writer Robbie Thompson

This story lands in my #3 spot This story focuses on the fundamental differences between Damian and Bruce. Bruce knows that something is going on with Damian, he just can't figure out what it is. He wants to fix it but he doesn't know how. He can't rely on Alfred, as this story takes place after his death. On Damian's part, he is blaming everything on Bruce instead of taking responsibility for his own actions. While some see Damian's current storyline as a regression, I see a lost kid with no guidance. Alfred is dead, Dick is Ric and Bruce is emotionally inept. Jason tried to step-up, but that relationship soured quickly. Damian has no one to guide him, and is making bad decisions as a result. This story sets up the eventual showdown in the upcoming Teen Titans annual.

2. Jason Todd, Red Hood in More Time

Writer: Judd Winick

I was not expecting Jason to have the most heartfelt story in this issue. This story was beautiful and now I want Judd Winick to write another Red Hood miniseries or ongoing. This story highlighted the complicated relationship between Jason and Bruce in the most purest way I've ever seen. Even the artwork had an innocence to it. The story goes back and forth between a young Jason, who loves Bruce wholeheartedly, and an older Jason, whose relationship with Bruce is way more complicated and strained. This story highlights why Jason will always be a part of the Batfamily, because even with their complicated relationship, they love each other. This story just adds to the wonderful stories featuring Jason in 2020.

1. Tim Drake, Red Robin in Boy Wonders

Writer: James Tynion IV

The brotherly bonding in this story is what landed it in the # 1 spot. This story takes place prior to Detective Comics # 934. In this story, Tim cannot decide if he wants to attend college or join Bruce in forming the Gotham Knights. He seeks advice from Dick, Jason and Damian, with each one telling him something different. Dick tells Tim that he's a hero that the next generation can look up to. Jason essentially tells Tim that Bruce is stuck in his ways and he has the opportunity to be better than Bruce. The best advice however came from the little Gremlin in Tim's life. After some well placed insults, Damian tells Tim that he has accomplished everything he has set out to do, and has been successful in his endeavors. At the end of the day "You do anything you damn well please". The confirmations Tim received from his brothers was much needed for him and helped him make the decision to form the Gotham Knights with Bruce. I loved getting a "behind the scenes" look at how The Gotham Knights protocol was formed. Because of these factors, Boy Wonders has my #1 spot.

What is your favorite story from Robin 80?

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gothify1 · 5 years

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Before Allison Williams became known as TV’s cringiest hipster you love to hate, Marnie Michaels on Girls ; or the most spine-chilling on-screen sociopath of 2018, Rose in Get Out ; or the quasi-homicidal Charlotte in Netflix’s brand-new psychological thriller The Perfection , she was just a smiley-faced kid who loved to perform. “I was definitely a ham when I was younger,” Williams tells me as a server in crisp linens refills our iced teas at the Sunset Tower in West Hollywood, California . “Everyone around me was like, ‘Yep, that’s an actress. We are screwed.’” That enthusiastic little kid, rather than the painfully self-serious Marnie (and certainly Williams’s other deranged characters), feels very present today, especially as Williams places her lunch order: a plate of gluten-free avocado toast topped with childlike slices of melted cheddar cheese. “Gluten-free because I’m an actress in Los Angeles, but I love dairy. Dairy keeps me alive,” Williams says with a heaping spoonful of the self-awareness her infamous Girls character sorely lacked. Williams never aspired to play evil, and as she sits before me in a humble gray Uniqlo sweater , skinny jeans , and flats (her self-proclaimed uniform), all accessorized by a genuine and charismatic smile, it’s easy to forget that her infamous on-screen presences have earned her media headlines like “scary,” “the most terrifying villain,” and, quite simply, “the worst.” “I swear to god it just was a sequence of scripts that were interesting to me,” Williams answers when I ask if playing the Ursulas rather than the Ariels of the world was a conscious career decision. Though she promises it wasn’t, it’s no coincidence that the most interesting female characters that crossed Williams’s desk were also the least nice . “I think the pressure to play someone likable is definitely gendered ,” she comments, adding that one of the most common questions journalists posed during peak Girls hype was why none of the characters were more likable. “And then we were like, excuse me, Walter White? Marnie never killed anyone,” Williams says with a laugh. “I mean, is anyone you know likable 100% of the time? That would be the most boring character ever. So I’m definitely drawn to the polar opposite of that.” The trajectory of every actor’s career is somewhat shaped by their first big gig: For Allison Williams, this was her first job out of college. Williams was 22 and a fresh alum of the Yale English department when big-time producer Judd Apatow stumbled upon a (now-famous) YouTube video of her singing the Mad Men theme song. Williams originally made and uploaded the video, crossing her fingers it might help her book a gig one day. She didn’t expect it to happen so soon—only 11 days after relocating to Los Angeles to start her career, Apatow cast her in Girls and flew her back east. It was the break of a lifetime; but as soon as Girls hit the air, strangers couldn’t help but associate Williams with her uptight character. “It feels kind of meta,” she says. “Actresses used to be able to live their lives privately, to disappear, and then show up transformed on screen. That is not a reality anymore.” So when it came time to select her next projects, Get Out and now The Perfection , Williams actively wanted to screw with audiences’ expectations. “Get Out was all about using people’s assumptions of me against them. As a weapon,” she says with a grin. “Like, fuck you guys for pigeonholing me. That made picking the next role really fun, too.” Williams owes much of her fearlessness when choosing roles and performing to the many awkward sexual encounters, squirmy musical performances, and makeup-free scenes she was asked to do for Girls . “I was young and self-conscious when I got that job ,” she says. “I didn’t know it would require so much sex. But by the end, I was totally desensitized to all that, and it really freed me up.” As proof, Williams tells me she just watched The Perfection , in which there too many sordid scenes to count (spoiler: one of them suggests sexual assault by way of an amputated limb), with her middle-aged parents. The diverse interests Williams cultivated in college (which her parents, journalism bigwigs Brian and Jane Williams, forced her to attend before heading to Hollywood) have also helped her career feel lower-stakes. That's made taking risks feel easier. Williams acknowledges that the immense privilege she’s been awarded in life has had undeniably positive effects on her self-worth. “Thanks to the circumstances under which I grew up, I had a ton of breathing space to fill in my life and become interested in other things,” she explains. “I feel so fortunate because my identity doesn’t come from my career.” Williams has a few other tangible techniques for handling the undue flack she sometimes receives from audiences who can’t help but associate her with the villains she plays—and the general stress of a career in volatile Hollywood. Massages, for one, and a collection of cozy pajamas (Rails and Gap are her favorites) that she'll let herself stay in for 24 hours straight on a rare day off. "Bad at sleeping but good at pajamas," she smiles. And, most importantly, for years, Williams has dedicated her time to a handful of charities—mainly Horizons National , an education nonprofit for low-income families, and (Red) , an organization aimed at raising awareness and funds to eliminate AIDS in Africa. This is the work Williams talks about most passionately. “It just fills my life in and helps keep everything in perspective,” she explains. “I have a weird job where you are spending all your time all the way up your own ass and thinking that the world revolves around you. Nothing helps balance your life out more than spending your time around people who are in totally different circumstances and asking yourself, how can I be of service?” It’s around the kids she works with at Horizons that Williams feels like her most authentic self —when the expectations to be this poised, gluten-free, profoundly “unlikable” cinema star melt away and that ham of a child reappears. “Why do you think I played Peter Pan?” Williams says with a twinkle in her eye, referencing the lead role she played in NBC's live televised version of the classic musical five years ago. “It’s an excellent excuse to be a little kid. Because it’s your job. What’s better than that?" Photographer: Silja Magg Stylist: Sarah Gore Reeves Hairstylist: Stefano Greco Makeup Artist: Maki H. Manicurist: Pattie Yankee Next: Booksmart's Beanie Feldstein on Body Confidence and Dressing "Nerd-Chic"

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katieistotallywrite · 7 years

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Binge-Watching: Week 1

This Christmas(or is it last Christmas because it was last year, even though it was only a month ago?), I got this really cool thing called a Roku. It’s this thing you stick to your TV and it gives you easy access to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video, Crunchyroll, and all the other major streaming services out there, as well as tons of free channels that you don’t need an account to use. One of the reasons I wanted to get this was so I can finally get around to some shows I’ve been meaning to watch. This includes many anime and other animated series, as well as live action shows, which I’ve decided to watch more of since Stranger Things made me see the light.

I think keeping a weekly track of it would be a good way to make sure this blog has regular content. So here’s a list of things I’m watching right now, and a couple of things I finished recently.

Completed Series:

One-Punch Man: I was very late to the hype train on this anime, and honestly, I think the hype might have made me enjoy the show a little less than I should have. Don’t get me wrong though, OPM is a good show and a funny parody of the superhero genre. Saitama and Genos are wonderful characters, it has a fun supporting cast as well, it’s really funny sometimes, and of course, the animation is fucking stellar. But I dunno, I guess it wasn’t as EPIC as the hype made it seem. It was a fun show to watch and I have high hopes for season 2, but the first season didn’t live up to the high praise it got to me. But don’t let what I have to say deter you, whoever is reading this. Watch it and see for yourself.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable: Now this show lived up to the hype for me. Not just this particular season, but this entire fucking show. A lot of my friends were really into this show and earlier last year, I decided to watch it and see for myself and I was not disappointed. Simply put, this show is fucking fun and fucking weird. JJBA isn’t a show for anyone, but if you love over-the-top action and silliness and fun, lovable characters, you’ll love this show. And while I enjoyed the previous seasons of this show(particularly Battle Tendency, the second part), Diamond is Unbreakable is by far my favorite, and evidently, it’s the favorite of many Jojo fans. In the currently eight parts of the manga, I always heard praise towards this part and the seventh part, Steel Ball Run. Since it takes me much longer to read manga, it’ll probably be a while before I get to part 7, but as of right now, Diamond is Unbreakable is the best of the anime adaptations. More than any other part so far, it has incredibly lovable characters and awesome action scenes. Not to mention an AMAZING villain in Yoshikage Kira and so far the best of the titular Jojos, Josuke Higashikata. With this season, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure has cemented itself as one of my favorite anime series of all time and I highly recommend everyone to at least give it a try. Just start with part 1, Phantom Blood, and go from there. It starts out slow, but it becomes amazing once Battle Tendency starts.

Currently Watching:

Note that I’m not putting my complete thoughts on these until I finish them

Sailor Moon: I don’t know why it took me so long to watch this series considering I’m a gay person and this has quite a few gay characters, not to mention it being a classic. I’m really early on and the episodes are currently pretty same-y, Monster of the Week type stuff, but I heard there’s less of that as it goes. I like it so far, and holy shit y’all, the new redub is AMAZING.

Yuri on Ice: I’m also a little late on the hype train on this show, but hey, I still see it on my dash on my primary account all the time, so it definitely has some staying power! This show has lived up to the hype for me so far. I love the characters especially, not to mention the gayness of the two mains. Also my gay ass cried the first episode because the animation is so darn purty.

Voltron: Legendary Defender: Started watching this right on time since the second season is coming out this month. I’m really enjoying Voltron so far, again, because of the characters(lovable characters equals a happy Katie, y’all). It’s also nice to see an actual animated action show that ain’t an anime. It’s rare to see them on TV nowadays because they’re either cancelled too soon *cough cough Nickelodeon* or rebooted into a comedy show *cough cough Cartoon Network*

Freaks and Geeks: This is my first time really delving into live action series since Stranger Things made me realize how fucking good they can be. I decided to start with something short-lived, but supposedly very good. The first episode didn’t impress me much at first because of all the high school cliches that I hate so much, but now I’m on the fourth episode and DAMMIT WHY WAS THIS CANCELLED. IT’S SO FUCKING GOOD YOU GUYS, YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND. I DON’T EVEN THINK I UNDERSTAND, WHY IS A HIGH SCHOOL DRAMAEDY THIS GREAT. ALSO WHY IS SOMETHING WRITTEN BY JUDD APATOW FEATURING SETH ROGEN AND JAMES FRANCO THIS GOOD. I FUCKING HATE THOSE GUYS.

I’ll update y’all next Monday when I finish/start more stuff.

#binge watching #one punch man #jojo's bizarre adventure #sailor moon #yuri on ice #voltron #freaks and geeks

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medproish · 6 years

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April 20, recognized among marijuana users as the international holiday of 4/20, falls on a Friday this year, which turns out to be the perfect release date for Fox Searchlight’s “Super Troopers 2,” the long awaited sequel to the 2001 stoner-movie classic “Super Troopers.” It will open wide on 2,400 screens.

“Fox Searchlight chose 4/20 as the release date,” director Jay Chandrasekhar says. “It tested better than any of the movies we’ve ever made before. There’s real enthusiasm at Fox over this film.”

That’s not often the case with so-called stoner movies, which have endured waves of acceptance and industry reticence over the years. But now with marijuana legalization in full swing in nine states, including California, have the studios come around to stoking that market again like Cheech & Chong did during the decriminalization wave of the ’70s with “Up in Smoke” and several sequels into the ’80s?

Forty years ago, “Up in Smoke” lit up screens with its slapstick version of the stoner life. Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong were a standup comedy team who’d had success with a number of albums on Lou Adler’s Ode label. Adler and the duo teamed up on “Up in Smoke,” with Chong taking over the director’s chair during the film’s production. The zany movie laid out the blueprint for what would become the modern stoner comedy: two male friends, one more stoned than the other, go on some sort of quest as they thumb their noses at authorities, meet off-the-wall characters and do various drugs.

“Up in Smoke” was a huge success for Paramount (it made $44.4 million in 1978, $165 million in 2018 dollars) and earned Marin and Chong a number of sequels — “Next Movie” (1980), “Nice Dreams” (1981), “Things Are Tough All Over” (1982) and “Still Smokin” (1983) — that did progressively worse at the box office. “People spend a lot of time trying to make their first film,” Chandrasekhar explains. “They do a lot more drafts and put a lot of art into it. Then the studios say, ‘Let’s make another one,’ and you have to write one quickly. It doesn’t give you the time to write a tight script.”

To Marin, all the Cheech & Chong movies are “just one long tale” of the daily travails of two stoners. “They were improvisational movies. It looked like there were stories there, but the plots were a day-in-the-life. That was much funnier than any three-act plot that was out there. It really gave that sense of being in the moment. That’s why they’ve endured all this time.”

But that lack of structure marred the sequels, Chandrasekhar says. “‘Next Movie’ and ‘Nice Dreams’ are not as strong as ‘Up in Smoke.’ There are scenes in those movies that are fantastic, but had they written 10 more drafts and organized the structure a little better, they would’ve had greater success. The best comedies are the ones with the most drafts.”

With that in mind, Chandrasekhar got to work on his sequel. Despite the fact that “Super Troopers” had earned a respectable $18.5 million in 2001, Fox wasn’t convinced there was an audience for a follow-up to the film about pot smugglers and rival police forces in Vermont. During the interim, Chandrasekhar became an in-demand TV director (“The Goldbergs,” “New Girl,” “Royal Pains,” “Community”) and helmed “Beerfest,” “The Dukes of Hazzard” and “Club Dread.”

Chandrasekhar decided to crowdfund the money as was done for the “Veronica Mars” movie. “We figured if they have a fan base we probably do too,” he says. “We hired the same crowdfunding expert who did the ‘Veronica Mars’ campaign. He did his research and said there was a fertile opportunity here. And so we did it. It was a high-risk bet, but like all film it’s high risk. The risk was if the audience didn’t donate to the campaign, Fox was going to look at us and say, ‘See, nobody wants to see this movie.’”

The crowdfunding campaign went better than expected, raising $2 million in the first 24 hours. They eventually received $4.7 million, which was enough to raise eyebrows at Fox. “They called and said, ‘Wow, you guys were right,’” Chandrasekhar says. “That’s when the campaign really began.”

Chandrasekhar was able to bring in $8 million more in private financing. The total budget after the rebate in Massachusetts, where “Super Troopers 2” was filmed, was $13.5 million. “If you spend $10 million in Massachusetts, they give you a check for $2.8 million, because you put money into the state and all those jobs. You take that $2.8 million and add it on top of the budget. That’s why movies shoot in Atlanta — they give you a 30% rebate. Where they have the good rebates, that’s where all the movies go.”

The $13.5 million budget for the sequel far surpassed the original’s $1 million budget. The 2001 film features the comedy troupe Broken Lizard (Chandrasekhar, Steve Lemme, Erik Stolhanske, Paul Soler and Kevin Heffernan) as well as Brian Cox, Lynda Carter and Jim Gaffigan. All return for the sequel, which also features Rob Lowe, Fred Savage, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Will Sasso and Tyler Labine. It’s set on the border of Vermont and Quebec, where a land-rights skirmish sparks an international incident.

“It’s really a border war movie and we’re an occupy ing force,” Chandrasekhar says with all seriousness. “We’re coming in and taking over Canadian land and turning it into American land. We’re kind of the villains of this movie. The Canadians the heroes.”

The five guys in Broken Lizard wrote the scripts for the original and sequel. Chandrasekhar describes their process: “We write the structure sober. We organize the three-act structure and we figure what the plot twists will be and then we’ll smoke and write jokes. We’ll put those jokes and hang them on structure of the film. I wouldn’t say we’re mostly high when we write our movies, but I’m saying it’s partially the case. When we’re trying to generate jokes, we’ll smoke a little.

“We have very specific jokes we’re trying to make,” he adds. “We write 35 drafts. The movie is incredibly specifically crafted. We’re not just throwing jokes out there.”

However, there are some questionable scenes in “Super Troopers 2” involving an exposed penis and the use of confiscated pharmaceutical drugs. This leads to a discussion about where writers and directors draw the line at what may be perceived by audiences and critics as offensive.

“We know exactly where the line is,” Chandrasekhar says. “Occasionally, we’ll take a joke right up to that line. Everybody has their own line. The Farrellys have their line. Judd Apatow has his, Todd Phillips has his and we have ours. We go up to it and that’s as far as we go. If we think of a really funny joke that’s really edgy, our instinct is to shoot it and see if we can make it work in a way that doesn’t flip the whole tone of the movie. But nothing in this movie crosses the line for me.”

Fox apparently agreed. “It’s an interesting new world,” the director says. “Because there are so many outlets now to watch movies and television, the movie companies have sort of adopted the idea that you really need to push it to make waves. At the end of the day, if we can make money for Fox Searchlight and that allows them to make more ‘Shapes of Water,’ then fine. The reality is the money from our comedy can help them make more of those movies.”

That’s certainly one way to look at it. Some recent stoner movies have done boffo box office business, including “Neighbors” ($150.2 million), “We’re the Millers” ($150.4 million) and “Pineapple Express” ($87.4 million), but most of them end up earning $15 million to $20 million with a theatrical release. The good news for “Super Troopers 2” is that sequels like “Ted 2” ($81.5 million), “Next Friday” ($57.3 million) and “Harold & Kumar Go to Guantanamo Bay” ($38.1 million) either eclipsed or equaled the originals. With the massive campaign Fox is putting into “Super Troopers 2,” it should at least surpass the $20 million mark.

“When the conglomerates bought the studios, they wanted to turn them into big profit centers,” Chandrasekhar says. “Most movies now are about super heroes. If they’re hoping a movie makes $250 million-$400 million, stoner movies are not going to do that so they’re not going to make as many of them. We had to raise the money for this movie because they were putting all their money into capes and tights. But they see there’s some commerce here. They believe they have a shot to make some reasonable money.”

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njawaidofficial · 6 years

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Is Hollywood Already Done Being Angry?

https://styleveryday.com/2018/03/07/is-hollywood-already-done-being-angry/

Is Hollywood Already Done Being Angry?

Frances McDormand onstage, after winning the Oscar for Best Actress, during the 90th Annual Academy Awards on March 4.

Kevin Winter / Getty Images

Well, all that anger was exhilarating while it lasted. After a year that saw the inauguration of Donald Trump, the downfall of Harvey Weinstein (the man who, incidentally, created the modern Oscar campaign), and the massive #MeToo movement that erupted as a reaction to both men, some viewers might have gone into this year’s Academy Awards expecting to see more of the raw emotion that’s been on display in news coverage and interviews for months now. But to watch the ceremony was to be assured that in the time between the Golden Globes in January — at which almost everyone wore black and spoke pointedly — and Sunday, something significant had changed.

In contrast to the kind of year they were summing up, both in terms of what’s happened nationally and within the industry, these Oscars felt practically apolitical; the most notable statement made was pro-immigrant messaging so gentle it could scarcely be read as a challenge to presidential policies. Host Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue made dutiful but hardly sharp-edged references to sexual misconduct and the box office successes of the milestones that are Wonder Woman and Black Panther. He reminded winners that “you have an opportunity and a platform to remind millions of people about important things like equal rights and equal treatment” — before jokingly urging them to keep their speeches short: “You don’t have to change the world.” With one or two exceptions, it’s safe to say that no one tried. It was too much to expect Hollywood to stay so electrifyingly mad forever, but who would have thought it’d be over so quickly?

The biggest prize of last night’s Oscars did not go, as had been anticipated, to either the cutting racial satire of Get Out or the precariously messy drama about rage and revenge that was Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri — two films that, in typically dramatic awards narrative fashion, had been positioned as rivals in a battle for the soul of the industry. Instead, the Best Picture trophy went to the third frontrunner, Guillermo del Toro’s darkly fantastical The Shape of Water. It was the closest thing the race had to a safe choice, if a story involving sex with a merman could ever be considered safe.

Actors Ashley Judd, Annabella Sciorra, and Salma Hayek speak onstage during the Academy Awards.

Kevin Winter / Getty Images

Call it a gesture of hope for progressive unity, if you’d like. The Shape of Water is a film in which a group of marginalized outsiders — a mute woman, a gay man, a black woman, and an immigrant — join forces to free a creature being held captive by a villain who is the embodiment of the American dream gone viciously wrong. It’s a vision that was in line with a ceremony that determinedly turned its attention away from the tumult of the #MeToo moment to the future, to broad messages of inclusion and representation and, as Weinstein victim Annabella Sciorra put it, trembling with emotion on stage, to the “new path” that has emerged.

Hollywood, last night’s strikingly well-behaved Academy Awards suggested, is ready to put all those ugly revelations behind it and move forward down that path, back to the comfort of its own mythmaking. In that light, the triumph of The Shape of Water makes another sort of sense — it’s a movie about the movies, something the Oscars have always had a soft spot for (think Argo, The Artist, even last year’s almost-winner La La Land). Guillermo del Toro’s movie is awash with references to studio classics and features a scene in which its amphibious romantic lead stands in the middle of an empty theater, awestruck by what’s onscreen in front of him — the magic of film transcending species. And you could feel how desperately the industry needed to believe in its own magic yesterday, in every gorgeously made montage and speech asserting the power of dreams and of storytelling.

In contrast to, say, Oprah’s expansive speech at the Globes, which expressed hope without shying away from the work still to be done, the Oscar winners’ speeches were overwhelmingly nice: tasteful expressions of gratitude and astonishment. There were occasional acknowledgments, like that by original song winner Kristen Anderson-Lopez, that change is already taking place (“Not only are we diverse, but we are close to 50/50 for gender representation,” she noted of her category). And then Frances McDormand, accepting the prize for Best Actress, asked all the female nominees to stand, calling attention to both who they are and how few of them there actually were. When she urged the crowd to finance those women’s projects and insist on inclusion riders to ensure cast and crew diversity, the sheer practicality of the moment made it feel disruptive — she was talking money when almost everyone else (bless you, Kumail Nanjiani) was talking around it.

Host Jimmy Kimmel onstage during the Academy Awards ceremony.

Mark Ralston / AFP / Getty Images

So much of the evening had been built on generalizations about progress and acknowledgments of breakthroughs, and it really was exciting to see Jordan Peele win, and to see Greta Gerwig get nominated. But after that, to have someone point out the stark gender differential among the nominees, and then offer a concrete suggestion for how to change it, felt like a break from an agreed-upon party line. Maybe someone left McDormand off the memo informing everyone that they were done talking about all of that in public. Maybe she felt like someone had to acknowledge that change doesn’t just happen easily on its own, even if everyone agrees it’s important — that it requires pushing people to do things they wouldn’t bother with otherwise. Or maybe she, like some of us at home, felt the dissonance of a event in which Kobe Bryant and Gary Oldman accepted awards, and Ryan Seacrest worked the red carpet, and wondered if we’ve gone as far as we’re going to.

Award shows have always been an awkward home for political messaging; they offer a prominent platform, but they’re also self-serving events at which industries pay tribute to themselves. What’s remarkable about #MeToo is that it has been both an industry phenomenon and a sweepingly systemic one. A movement born out of long-term showbiz power imbalances has, by sparking tough conversations, enabled self-examination and change that have spread far beyond Hollywood. But that’s also why the mild-mannered-ness of this year’s Oscars felt so disappointing — because it didn’t seem like it came from a place of healing so much as it did from an instinct for self-preservation, or concern that too much anger is alienating audiences already drifting away from an industry in flux.

Moviegoing is changing. It’s shifting to streaming, something that Best Adapted Screenplay nominee Dee Rees addressed at the Spirit Awards the day before. In a bolder speech than any given at the Oscars, she argued on behalf of the cinematic value of Mudbound, despite Netflix being its primary distribution vehicle. The type of mid-budget prestige dramas that used to be a big part of the Academy Awards now tend to be found on television, while most movie studios seem consumed with producing large-scale franchise fare of the sort that the Academy has been reluctant to consider beyond the technical categories. Ninety years into the Oscars, as ratings continue to droop, there’s a noticeable sense of uncertainty to the proceedings. In the repeated thanking of ticket-buying audiences — including the stunt in which celebs trooped around the corner to shower the unsuspecting attendees of a Wrinkle in Time preview screening with hot dogs and candy — there was an undercurrent of dread that those ticket sales were bound to drop.

Maybe the striking anger that has been so visible in Hollywood in the last half year has been electrifying to people, and maybe it has been alienating, but it felt clear that fear of the latter (as well as what has to be sheer exhaustion) informed the Oscars ceremony. #MeToo may not be over, but the industry seems ready to draw a curtain over the negotiations that are going to follow, to treat something like the sale of the Weinstein Company as a convenient resolution, to curl in on itself and try to turn the public’s attention back to the movies themselves — their resonance, the way that they are attempting to better reflect the people watching them. There’s value there, too, of course, but it’s not the whole story. Watching those montages of years of familiar screen images cut together as if in ongoing conversation with each other, we’d do best not to forget that while there’s magic in movies, there’s also plenty of myth. ●

Guillermo del Toro (at microphone) and cast and crew of The Shape of Water accept the Oscar for Best Picture.

Kevin Winter / Getty Images

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raffertyesque · 7 years

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2016 and Also Some Pennies.

I saw 33 movies in theaters in 2016. Four more than 2015! Good job, me. They were (more or less in order of release):

Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World, Hail, Caesar!, Deadpool, Zootopia, Midnight Special, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Captain America: Civil War, The Jungle Book, Green Room, Keanu, Finding Dory, Everybody Wants Some!!, Raiders: The Greatest Fan Film Ever Made, Sing Street, Ghostbusters, The Nice Guys, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Star Trek Beyond, Central Intelligence, Hunt For The Wilderpeople, For The Love Of Spock, The Lost Arcade, Snowden, Captain Fantastic, Doctor Strange, Arrival, Moana, Edge of Seventeen, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, La La Land, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Manchester By The Sea

Still on my list of things to see are: Moonlight, Don’t Think Twice, and Paterson. They may or may not have been on my top ten, but WE'LL NEVER KNOW FOR SURE.

Before I get on with ten movies that are on the top ten, some honorable mentions…

The “Sorry La La Land, I Don’t Like Movies That Romanticize Hollywood” Award goes to La La Land. Don’t get me wrong, La La Land was great, but I’m grading on a curve here, and I have an aversion to movies that are 80% Hollywood patting itself on the back. Albeit in an extremely charming fashion with some catchy musical numbers.

Midnight Special wins the “See, Michael Shannon Isn’t Always Creepy!” Award. Midnight Special is great, and would have made my top ten in virtually any other year, but I saw a lot of great movies this year… and Midnight Special is one of them. Let’s call it #11 on my top ten.

Captain America: Civil War, Deadpool, and Doctor Strange all share the “I Think Marvel™ Fatigue Has Finally Set In, Guys” Award. They were all perfectly entertaining films, I have nothing bad to say about them, but man, at this point I think I gotta take a breather on these things, or maybe just a nap.

All four documentaries I saw in 2016— Lo and Behold, Reveries Of The Connected World, The Lost Arcade, For The Love Of Spock, and Raiders!: The Greatest Fan Film Ever Made— get mentions. Sup. You’re mentioned. They were all fine. They were fine. Raiders! is probably the strongest of the bunch, but overall, not a great year for documentaries. (Disclaimer: I have not seen Zero Days or Weiner.)

I didn’t see any outright bad movies in 2016. (In theaters, that is… I saw plenty of 2016 releases on transcontinental flights, and they were universally terrible… notably Suicide Squad and Batman V. Superman.) (Okay, so mostly just DC Cinematic Universe movies.) Point is, I’ll just give Snowden The Most Boring Film Of The Year Award. Somehow Citizenfour, which just tells the events as they happened managed to be more interesting and dramatic than the dramatized version of events JGL and Co. mustered up. Meh.

Moving on to the top ten…

10) Finding Dory - Sort of like Monsters University in 2013, it felt wrong leaving a non-Cars Pixar movie off my top ten, so congratulations Dory, you did it. With a heaping help of Hank. And Sigourney Weaver.

9) Star Trek Beyond - Listen all of y'all it's sabataage.

8) Sing Street - AKA La La Land By Way Of 1980s Ireland. I mean, not really, it's about a bunch of kids putting together a far-too-competent band and recording some far-more-believeable shitty music videos, but as far as musicals go, I'm on team Sing Street through and through, and if you watch it (it's on Netflix!) you will be too. It swings baby, it swings!

7) Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping - Simultaneously the funniest and the funnest film I saw in 2016. Popstar is not high art, but it definitely achieves what it sets out to do (lambast celebrity culture and everything that goes along with it) and does so in a lean 86 minutes. Clearly someone must have distracted producer Judd Apatow in the edit bay, or else it would have been an hour longer than it was. (Although, hey, I could have done with another 45 minutes of Will Arnett as TMZ Guy. So great.)

6) 10 Cloverfield Lane - I left the theater thinking that 10 Cloverfield Lane was like Metroid Prime. Both would stand better on their own, not weighed down with the baggage of their respective franchises. Despite the baggage, 10 Cloverfield Lane is still a great psychological thriller that leaves you guessing even past the end credits, which I was totally into, but if you like your endings unambiguous, the Cloverfield “franchise” is probably not for you.

5) Zootopia - There's a lot of heavy topics addressed on this list (xenophobia, psychological abuse, bullying, ableism, sabataage), and I saw a lot of them coming, but what I did not see coming was addressing systemic racism in the kids' movie with the talking animals. I'll be damned, though, Zootopia kinda nailed it. And managed to be super entertaining while doing it. Sidenote: Jason Bateman should only be allowed to play foxes going forward. He's a natural.

4) The Nice Guys - Take The Big Lebowski, throw in some Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, add a dash of Boogie Nights and you’ve got The Nice Guys. Those are some great movies, and so is this. Make it happen.

3) Arrival - Not to be confused with The Arrival (way different movie). Arrival came out the Friday after the presidential election, and countless thinkpieces were written about how it's the perfect movie for this particular moment in time. And, well, I agree? (Controversial, as always, Rafferty.) Science fiction has a long history of showing humanity the way forward in tumultuous times, and Arrival does just that. I mean, we're not going to listen to its message, but hey, nice of it to give it a try. If you ever need a good pick me up that doubles as a nice put me down, Arrival is your movie.

2) Moana - Hot take: Moana is better than Frozen. Fight me. They’re both great, to be clear, but Moana's songs are better (fight me!), and Moana herself is a more interesting character than Anna and Elsa put together. I also liked Maui subverting expectations every step of the way. (Going in, I was like, is The Rock the villain? Waaaaaaa? Before realizing he isn’t.) (Or is he?) (He isn't.) (OR IS HE?)

1) Hunt For The Wilderpeople - In any other year, any of the top five movies on this list could be my number one movie of the year, but something about Hunt For The Wilderpeople tickled me just right. I went in cold, knowing only that Sam Neil was in it and it was a Taika Waititi joint, and that's how you should go into it too. (The trailer gives waaaay too much away.) Suffice it to say, it's hilarious, heart-warming, heart… cooling (?), and the best movie I saw in 2016.

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