278 - Annette
Coming out of the COVID-led doldrums of 2020, the Cannes Film Festival loomed large as a "movies are back!!" starting gate for global cinema. Its opening film, Annette, was a long-in-development rock opera with music by cult fave Sparks and directed by visionary auteur Leos Carax, returning to the Croisette with his first film in nearly a decade. With Adam Driver at the helm as a batboy shock jock comedian who falls in love with opera star Marion Cotillard to disastrous results, the film is a bizarre fantasia about destructive creative ego and features a puppet as the titular baby singer. Though the film drew raves and buzz around Driver and Sparks' score, Annette was alas too freaky for the Academy.
This week, we talk about Driver's career and how his unique physicality makes him a worthy successor to Carax's usual collaborator Denis Lavant. We also talk about the other famous castings while the film sat in development, the 2021 Original Song contenders, and Simon Helberg's supporting performance.
Topics also include Baby Annette in the gay stan wars, Carax's filmography, and the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.
The 2021 Academy Awards
The 2021 Cannes Film Festival
Vulture Movies Fantasy League
10 notes
·
View notes
Why I think Nocturne is way better than the OG Castlevania series
Sorry, when I try to shut up about this show I be like
so here’s my unsolicited, highly biased word vomit that will contain spoilers at the end (but those will be under a cut) so read at your own risk! Okay, leggo
It’s actually diverse.
One thing about high fantasy is that it’s almost always Eurocentric. Even if it’s not set in Europe, the characters are gonna inexplicably have British accents because we associate that with high fantasy. We’re gonna have European style “old” clothing choices. And if everyone isn’t white, they might as well be because they’ll only throw in a couple ambiguously brown side characters and call it a day. Or if they make a main character a POC then best believe everyone around them will be white.
Nocturne, tho? Oh, you can tell it’s made with more than just a sprinkle of representation. They didn’t just make Olrox indigenous, they tied his Aztec lineage in beautifully. Annette was a slave but it’s not flattening her character because of it. Drolta came to slay but even she has her authentic background. Which leads me to my next point!
The Black characters especially are done tastefully.
Like… don’t get me wrong. I love Isaac. He was the only reason I stayed tuned into Castlevania past season 1, LMAO! But his backstory felt like straight trauma porn cooked up by a non-Black person who wanted an excuse to see a Black man whipped for character development.
Zodwa Nyoni wrote some episodes for Nocturne and she put her FOOT in it. When it came to addressing Annette’s time as a slave, her connection to the Orisha through her bloodline… I was gobsmacked at how accurate everything was and now I know why LOL! Like, for me, it’s always gonna be hard to see slavery in fiction but I can’t say shit bad about how it was tied into everything in this show. Annette’s ancestors play such a huge part in her growth and it just warmed my heart to see a Black girl whoop some colonizer ass without it feeling hamfisted. 🥹
The token relationship is the cishet one, everyone else is gay asf
I love that trope flipped on it’s head, ngl LMAO! I, by default, HC everyone as bi anyway but MAN was it nice to see Olrox and Mizrak speedrun enemies to lovers and a hint of Drolta’s devotion/gayness to Erzsebet.
I know the majority of my fictional character thirsting leans male but don’t get it twisted; I jump for JOY for gay shit in media 😂 The only reason I don’t thirst as hard for female characters is because I prefer my men fictional but my women real.
That being said, this series sent me into bi panic and I’d like to be manhandled in a room by Drolta and Olrox.
Nocturne’s first season plays out neater than the OG’s first season.
Like… okay. My main beef with the OG series was that after they defeated Dracula, the rest of the show felt like a meandering fanfic. Sure, there were a few badass moments, but the energy kinda faltered for me and I was bored with a lot of it. I hope they don’t do the same with Nocturne; they left off at a nice cliffhanger which builds anticipation for the next season and… idk it feels more cohesive already? They coulda speedran kicking Erzsebet’s face in like the OG trio did to Dracula but I’m so glad they left us a lil something to look forward to.
Alucard’s glow up >>>>>
I’m chronically online but I’m so glad I went into this series blind because the way I GASPEDT when he showed up at the end
Like damn for the past fifty-leven years he was in that castle by himself going “do I wanna talk to Sypha and Trevor plushies again or do I wanna make myself even more of a bad bitch?” Then he chose the latter, went to the salon, got his hair bleached platinum along with some sew in extensions for volume, beat his face with Fenty, and said “sorry Drolta but there can be only one vampire baddie on this earth and hunny I’m TAKIN IT”
He looks more like his video game design this way too, which I love! I hate that he took out Cuntress McSlay tho 😔 Drolta I will always love you!!
Mmkay. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to start a cult to Olrox real quick. Erzsebet ain’t the only god walking the earth and I feel he just needs good marketing!
42 notes
·
View notes
Infant "Crowing Together" Summer Outfit
Mesh by EA * Crowing Together
Recolors by Annett85
30 Swatches
Attention!
Crowing Together is required!
Patreon - early access - public 4th May
201 notes
·
View notes
We should absolutely think about awakening 2nd Gen garreg mach more. To keep talking about the Felix situation it’s even funnier adding Inigo bc Felix loves cringe people from the arts. Severa is his cool sparring partner he respect and Owain is that guy he is reluctantly friends with now be he supposed he’s not that bad, at least he doesn’t expect him to keep up conversation. But the cringe performing arts guy who is kinda like his childhood bestie but different in the ways that matter, he will never admit it but sign him up
the potential of an inigo felix friendship is SO funny. like felix should hate inigo. hes annoying flirt with low confidence, bad work ethic, (probably) believes in chivalry, goes around saying shit like “la de daaa!” and literally does twirls and spins in the middle of combat. yet despite it all felix is weirdly enamored with him. they spar once and inigo beats him with his little spinny moves felix has probably never seen before and he’d never admit but he starts practicing them in his mirror in his dorm room and hes just like “how… what the fuck…”
8 notes
·
View notes