#even if you have issues with the movies the experience itself is worth it

[the-algebra-thing]

ok so if you couldn't tell I'm rewatching the howl's moving castle movie bc I want to be reading the book but I have crafts to work through for decorations for my friends bridal shower in two days. so I haven't got past chapter 5 in my reread but I put on the movie—in subtitles, which I've never done before, bc it was all I could find for free—and I am just a little mind boggled. firstly I didn't realize how staunchly on the side of the book I had become despite loving this movie so much for so many years, and secondly . I'm feeling. I don't know.

like I don't want to cry misogyny but it feels kinda shitty that while the book was about secrets and truth and selflessness and knowing yourself and trusting yourself and all that shit right, because. in the book sophie's image of herself as incapable and unworthy has little to do with her looks and a lot to do with her birth and her responsibilities and what she sees as her lot in life. and howl's image of himself as capable and worthy and beautiful and a lady-killer is part of a web of lies he layers on top of one another to keep himself from being afraid, which ends up leaving his conscience wrapped up in countless layers and barely visible to the naked eye. and eventually sophie learns she has innate magical power, embraces this and strikes out on her own, and comes to love howl in spite of what she tells herself is supposed to happen to her. and all of howls lies eventually run themselves out, and at the end of the book he's stripped of his defenses and has to learn to stand in one place and take what comes anyways. and he comes to love sophie without even thinking much about it, without his beauty spells at all.

in the movie howl is still a self obsessed freak but his Heart Of Gold is put on display immediately, and sophie's self-worth issues are displayed almost exclusively in her bitterness at not being beautiful while her unshrinking personality that's supposed to show itself when she gets spelled is completely back burnered. she has very little presence compared to the captivating and hilarious personality she has to offer in jones' book. in the movie she's very anxious following the transformation, instead of it registering mostly as the weight of the life she had assigned herself off her shoulders, and the complexity of her motivations that you experience through the internal monologue in the book is almost completely flattened into aw man . I sure wish I was beautiful. this is really scary that there's a spell on me. her bold temperament is displayed as somewhat of a second thought, while we get to watch howl be full of righteous indignation and tired wisdom at the state of the warring world outside. to be fair I'm only halfway through the movie but in terms of the books contents we're actually right where I left off in chapter five out of twenty one, and jones had no trouble at all establishing a really good framework for all that I've described by then. I'm so much more disappointed than I expected to be goddamn

#in unfathomable detail #howl's moving castle #howls moving castle #diana wynne jones

[a-blog-for-venting-i-guess]

Watches Haunted Mansion 2023 with friends: Yeah that was alright. Product placement was insane though, took away from the serious scenes. Also it was too dark. Like literally could not see much.

Immediately watches the 2003 version with the same friends: omg that was way better, you can actually see what’s happening, the mansion set is amazing, it’s funny, and it was weirdly wholesome. The jumpscares got us good too.

My big takeaway from the experience is that the new movie suffered from fragmentation, being way too dark (likely to hide bad cgi but still), the weird Hollywood thing now where jokes and plot scenes have to be harshly separated instead of allowed to organically happen as the story progresses, and no real emotional investment. It’s hard to care when the main person with an actually tragic backstory interrupts said backstory with a Baskin Robbins ad. It doesn’t come across like the guy is telling the story and that was one of the details, it’s like it was crammed into the script. But that criticism aside, the Eddie Murphy movie was about a dad learning to put family first. What it meant to truly love them. Especially his wife, who he’d especially taken for granted.

There’s a small detail in the script that probably should’ve gotten fleshed out more, where the dad tells his daughter he works so much so he can give her and the family a better life than what he had. And the daughter is like, “wow dad, I didn’t know you had a bad childhood,” and he immediately gets defensive, saying his childhood wasn’t bad. It shows that it’s not that his life was ever hard, he’s just obsessed with prestige. Just like the main villain. Ultimately the dad is able to recognize he can’t give up so easily like he’d done before with working right before the family trip, even if it means losing something he thought he really valued, and without hesitation ruins his BMW to save his family, but the butler can’t get on that level and gets dragged to hell.

It’s not groundbreaking by any stretch but it’s something. Like, there’s an emotional through line there. A character arc.

Compare that to the 2023 version where there’s more this overall theme of, moving on and overcoming grief. And finding strength with others. Again, not groundbreaking but the difference is emotional investment. The movie takes itself more seriously but loses the connection because we only find out what happened to the guy’s wife like well over an hour into it and the bloated cast puts other reveals on the back burner too. Like the priest being a fraud or the fortuneteller’s self worth bit. The priest thing doesn’t get introduced until right before the final confrontation and no one really cares, meanwhile the fortuneteller finds her confidence, OFFSCREEN!

Instead of developing our cast or having them actually interact with the GHOSTS in a HAUNTED MANSION (beyond asking for plot details), we go on a detour to find out who the bad guy is, what his backstory was, and where his hat is. And on this detour we find out he was a horrible no good very bad man so don’t feel bad when he’s dragged down to green hell at the end.

Last note, interesting how both films ended on the saints go marching in and during the day vs at night.

Last last note, Haunted mansion 2023 just didn’t click with me for a variety of reasons. While haunted mansion 2003 isn’t a perfect movie. It’s got issues, I think the mom should’ve figured out the home owner was off way sooner and why didn’t the butler burn the letter, but I like it’s heart.

#haunted mansion #disney haunted mansion #haunted mansion 2023 #haunted mansion 2003 #haunted mansion spoilers

[quantumfizz]

Completely Uneducated Internet Opinion after seeing Oppenheimer and Barbie

The Barbie Movie focuses on a very specific lens of misogyny that doesn't show just how pervasive and horrific it really is, and it's painfully obvious that it's selling a brand of feminism that isn't too alienating to the status quo and is very "Oh well! The Kens will have as much power as us girls do in the real world ig. Get it? 😜" It just leaves a sour taste in my mouth, but it's about as politically aware and active a multimillion dollar Warner Brothers film based on a Mattel IP can really be. I appreciate it more as a celebration of embracing all the terrible flaws and aspects of being a woman in a misogynistic world, and an abstract being deciding that it's all worth it because of the joyful and meaningful experience of being a woman and not just an idea.

It's also funny that Ken as a character eclipses and overshadows a lot of the film, since the whole thing is about feminism and the name of the film IS Barbie. But much like feminist causes in the real world, the audience focuses more on the men involved lol. A lot of that comes down to Ryan Gosling's fantastic performance though. This man understood the assignment like no actor ever has before.

Also, the costuming and set design are god tier and exactly what we need to see more of in a media landscape dominated by shitty looking CGI from un-unionized and poorly treated sweatshop artists. If you like good looking movies, watch this movie.

Ken does take over the screen whenever he's there, but Margot Robbie shines in this thing. The comparison can't NOT be made between Barbie and The Truman Show (Gerwig iirc says it was one of her main inspirations and it shows), and her performance as Barbie discovers the world she's lived in and her existence itself is a flimsy ideal is so moving. Because like Truman, she chooses personhood and freedom over certainty and safety. She chooses to become a real woman not despite the many disadvantages and pain that comes with it, but BECAUSE of the experience. She learns that there is beauty in cellulite and stretch marks and wrinkles, there is beauty in aging, there's an entire world of experiences and emotions that as a doll she could never achieve and truly feel. And seeing someone CHOOSE humanity is such a wonderful thing.

The film also indulges in the kind of campy silly shit we expected, and I can see how some viewers view it as inconsistent and jarring when it's juxtaposed with moments like America's speech. But despite how half-stepped and steeped in a very specific advertiser friendly brand of Hollywood/corporate liberal feminism this film is, I appreciate Greta Gerwig even trying to do this in the first place. If even one woman or girl comes out of this being more critical of the world around them and the ways misogyny affects us, then I'm happy. If even one man or boy comes out of this being more critical of the world around them and the ways misogyny and patriarchy affects THEM and how they view and treat others, I'm happy. You are Ken-ough (sweater now available via Mattel for $86.99 while supplies last btw).

Oppenheimer is...what you'd expect of a Christopher Nolan biopic of Oppenheimer. It looked nice on 35mm film but it's also got the sound quality issue every fucking Nolan film has, where if you don't have the exact setup he wanted for the film then so many bits of dialogue will be drowned out by music or be otherwise unintelligible. The effects showing one woman with radiation burns were so laughably bad, it was like she let a bunch of Elmer's glue dry on her face and it looked so goofy that it ruined the weight of the scene.

For a film that really tries to show how paradoxical and complicated Oppenheimer was, it doesn't exactly sympathize with him to the extent I've seen people say it does. The film shows he's a dramatic, dismissive, egotistical asshole that refuses to explain his convictions and at times you (and other characters) wonder if he even has any. And his hypocrisy is constantly pointed out by many characters. The prosecutor in the security hearing asks how and why he suddenly decided to have moral qualms about nuclear bombs when he was eager on the Manhattan Project and outright helped decide which city to drop the first bomb on. Strauss's belief that Oppenheimer wants to be a martyr seems true, whether it's (as Strauss believes) out of pure ego or (as his wife says) that he honestly believes that receiving every punishment possible will somehow lead to him atoning and being forgived.

Also if you're watching a Nolan film you're already coming in with low expectations for women characters and this is no exception. Florence Pugh's character exists to show tits, talk briefly about communist ideals only to be talked down to by the more well-read Oppenheimer, fulfill a "methinks she doth protest too much" shtick with her always tossing his flowers, show tits again, break down when he says he can't see her anymore, and then kill herself to add to his sorrow. I do like that his wife immediately looks at him and says that he can't do things like have an affair out of selfishness, disregard other peoples' feelings, and then be surprised when his behavior ruins peoples' lives and fucks him over. His wife is incredibly based and Nolan does a good job portraying how miserable she was as Oppenheimer's wife.

The film showcases his lack of empathy or regard for others until it comes back to fuck him over outside of the affair. He builds Los Alamos knowing that local indigenous tribes come up there for burial rites because they're less important to him than The Big Picture and building the bomb. The civilian lives in Hiroshima and Nagasaki are something he's prepared to destroy for the sake of this experiment and usher in a new era of scientific discovery (again, nothing is more important than that Big Picture). The lack of regard for the Japanese people, the indigenous tribes of New Mexico and the other civilians in the area is (imo) intentional because the film is about Oppenheimer. It's about how he put them, his family, and everyone around him aside to follow what he's worked in his entire life: theory. Real tangible lives were something he did weigh, and ultimately decided were worth the cost if it meant a) proving this theory b) furthering scientific knowledge and c) ushering humanity into a new era of understanding. And as disgusting as it is, it's interesting to see a film trying to dissect why and how one human being made that decision and seemingly came to regret it.

Anyway while both films are completely different animals in different universes, I think I prefer Barbie because when I cringed, it was during parts I was meant to cringe. And Oppenheimer has the scene where Floremce Pugh (naked obviously) asks him to read the Bhagavad Gita and they start fucking as he says the "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" line and thus robs it of its actual historical context AND cheapens not just Oppenheimer as he originally quoted it...as well as cheapened the Bhagavad Gita as a whole bc. Dude. Now I want a Bollywood movie where a character reads the Bible while a woman rides him and shows tiddy for superfluous bullshit reasons.

#oppenheimer spoilers #barbie spoilers #barbie movie #oppenheimer

[floralcyanide]

The Extra || Austin Butler x OC

Chapter Thirteen (nsfw)

Pairing: Austin Butler x OC

Warnings: smut (minors dni please!), choking, unprotected sex, that's it really.

Word Count: 1508

>> ahhhhh it's been like 3 weeks since the last update. I've had most of this chapter written but then I added the last bit this morning because I know I need to update. I've been busy with kinktober and have lowkey neglected this story lol but only two more chapters and then the epilogue left! please let me know if you all enjoy this chapter. I know it's short but a lot is going to happen in the last chapters.

Series Masterlist | Main Masterlist | Add yourself to the taglist HERE

Looking back, there were instances when I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I never thought acting would bring me so much joy. I thought being an extra was good enough for me and that it made me happy. But I have never known happiness like getting to become someone else and portray someone’s story, whether they’re real or not. Becoming Priscilla Presley has been an honor and a privilege I never thought I’d ever experience. And getting to know Austin on a deeper level because of our roles has changed everything. Simply being in the movie itself has changed everything because now I have a possible career in acting, and I’ve reconnected with the love of my life. I realized that being an extra has caused issues, but it has also caused opportunities I could’ve never dreamed of. 

Austin and I are closer than ever now that we work and live together more constantly. It can be challenging to do so- and it very much is- but I wouldn’t change a thing. Even if we get frustrated with each other or sometimes go home and go straight to bed without a word. However, after filming a particularly vigorous performance or an emotionally charged scene, uneventful nights are made up for. We’ve almost gotten caught a few times in one of our dressing rooms and even the unassuming janitor’s closet, but it was worth it every time. Austin is worth anything and everything to me.

The awkwardness with Luke has subsided, thankfully, and I can now look him in the eye when we speak to each other. We’re still the good friends we were before he addressed that he liked me. Dacre and I are still close, and we crack jokes and pull the occasional harmless pranks on our co-stars when possible. Tom and I speak to each other daily at the coffee stand and often complain about how stale the coffee is, but we drink it anyway. Olivia visits the set when she can and gives me pointers on how to position myself in a specific scene. Sometimes she reminds me to relax my shoulders. I’ve even warmed up to Xavier Samuel, who plays Scotty, one of Elvis’ band members from The Blue Moon Boys. He’s a chill guy and reminds me to smile every once in a while. At first, I was a little weirded out by that, but now I know that’s just how he is. He brings a lively vibe to the set and ensures everyone is in a good mood. If you aren’t, Xavier will go out of his way to ensure you are.

I’m so grateful to have met everyone I’ve worked with, from fellow extras like Tyler all the way to legendary Tom Hanks. All the people in Elvis are talented, and I couldn’t have asked for better people to be surrounded by. The scenes I’ve filmed so far have gone very well, and I managed to remember my lines when I needed to. I’m excited to see how everything turns out when the movie finishes. On another note, Austin has been doing better emotionally. I think he spoke with Baz about how he felt about the method acting, and they resolved it. He no longer comes home with puffy eyes and doesn’t ignore me after tough days of filming.

There have been so many times throughout filming where I had realizations. The moment I realized that acting is what I want to do permanently, if possible, was when I was filming the scene where Elvis and Priscilla were in Elvis’ bedroom overseas. The way the lines felt so carefree and easy to articulate and how simple it was to be Priscilla made me come to the conclusion. Even though Baz thought our kiss wasn’t passionate enough every few takes, every time I kissed Austin, I became more and more relaxed in my role. The final take was flawless, and I was so proud of how it came out.

We’re currently filming the last moments of the first Vegas performance and are about to begin another take of the whole sequence. Jerry accidentally misstepped and nearly tripped in the shot, so we had to go again. But if I’m honest, I don’t think this scene will need any retakes, not right now, at least. Austin has been putting every bit of energy he has into this performance, and with it being so high-octane, we can only film it a handful of times today. For the second time, Baz calls for action. I watch in awe as Austin sings I Can’t Help Falling in Love, thrusting out his arms toward the crowd of extras along to the beat of the orchestra. The amount of love and pride I have for him is untouchable. He has peaked in his life and career, and I couldn’t be happier for him. We have so much history, chemistry, and love between us, and I hope that after filming ends, those things don’t end either. Austin tells the audience goodbye and is crouched on the floor of the stage, panting and sweating profusely as he drops the curtain. I wait for him to take a few scripted moments before he walks over to me. I feel I’m almost breaking character when complimenting and expressing how amazing he was. Because in real life, the take we just did was phenomenal. I’ve never seen Austin work so passionately and so hard before. When he grabs my chin and looks me in the eyes lovingly, I realize I want to spend the rest of my life with him. Not because he is incredibly hot while sweaty and high on adrenaline, but because he puts his all into everything he does. Including our relationship, even if it jump started again in a rocky fashion. 

At the beginning of filming Elvis, if you had told me I’d be dating my ex again and were going to become a main character instead of an extra, I would’ve laughed in your face. A good, wholehearted, genuine laugh. I was always an extra, nothing more, nothing less. I would never give Austin another chance. But I’ve grown so much since then. I no longer naively believe I don’t need to advance in my career, and I’m no longer lying about my feelings for Austin, both negative and positive. Not only is Austin at the peak of his life, but I’m at the peak of mine. I hope we can share that glowing high together. 

And we do, but the high is off the success of the Vegas scene. We share it in a way that we probably shouldn’t while on set, but all caution is thrown to the wind right now as Austin, carefully and as quickly as possible, removes my dress. I silently thank my stylist for being so good at gluing wigs down because this is going to be quick and rough. We’re in Austin’s dressing room, and I’m shoved onto the vanity in nothing but my underwear. Austin manages to peel off his jumpsuit from the shoulders to the waist, allowing him to spring free. He doesn’t give it a second thought before he pulls off my underwear and plunges into me, his fingers pressing into the underside of my thighs for leverage. My arms wrap around Austin’s neck, pulling him as close to me as possible. We don’t tear our eyes away from each other as he thrusts into me quickly. I have to bite my lip to keep quiet so no one outside the room can hear us.

Austin wraps a hand around my throat, and I grip his wrist, trying not to cum just yet. His hips pound into my thighs, and his hand sneaks between us to circle my clit. My eyes roll into the back of my head at the feeling, the dizzying effect of the choking mixing with it. Austin swivels his hips in a particular direction, causing him to hit deeper inside me. I feel him twitch, and he quickens his pace on my clit. Austin finally cums with a low grunt, and the warmth of him spilling into me sends me into overdrive. I take him for all he has as I come down from my high, his hand releasing my throat.

“That was so good,” I breathed out with a laugh, running a hand over my wig to ensure it was still in place.

“You’re so good, babe,” Austin teases with a smile, and I shake my head as I hop off the vanity.

I retrieve my clothing and put it back on as Austin pulls his jumpsuit back onto his body. There’s a knock on the door, and a producer yells to Austin that he’s needed back on set. We share a look before giggling at each other.

“I guess that’s our cue,” Austin says, smoothing out his outfit and ensuring his hairpiece is also in place.

It’s days on set like this that I’m going to miss.

taglist:

@onxlymnsn @anangelwhodidntfall @butlersluvbot @austinbutler17 @mamaspresley @mirandastuckinthe80s @bobbykennedyfan @sodonebruh @lizzymizzy-blogg @defnotreadingfanfics12 @izzvoid @homebodybirkin2003 @thatonemoviefan @kittenlittle24 @tubble-wubble @kaycinema @annamarie16 @adoreyouusugar @amiets2 @mrs-butler @mesbouquins @ari-nicole @austin-butlers-gf @feral4austinbutler @inlovewithchrisevans @shynovelist @mommy-maia @karamelcoveredolicity @thtguyovrthere @starry-night-20 @coldonexx @hangmanswhorey @beautyofelvis @mavericksicybabe @coco-bitch @bobthefishiesworld @myguiltypleasures21 @rainydayz101 @finelineskies @cryingabtab @kaitaesupremacy @ash-omalley @latenighttalking13 @tom-whore-dleston @presleylust @oh-kurva @cece05 @poppet05 @every-dayiwakeup 

#austin butler #austin butler smut #austin butler x oc #austin butler x oc smut #austin butler fanficiton #austin butler fanfic #austin butler fic #austin butler imagine #austin butler x reader #austin butler x reader smut #austin butler elvis #austin!elvis #elvis #elvis movie #elvis film #elvis 2022 #elvis (2022) #the extra fanfic #floralcyanide writes

[vonithipathachai]

The Mario Movie and the Place of the Film Critic

So.  I saw the Mario movie at the theater with my friend.  …It was fine.  I figure I probably would’ve enjoyed it more if I had a closer personal attachment to the Mario franchise.  But I think it mostly accomplished its goals of being pleasant, light-hearted, mentally undemanding entertainment for families and fans of the games.

I will say, though, that as someone who doesn’t consider himself a big Mario fan despite having played his share of Mario titles, I found the discourse around the movie’s critical and commercial reception to be far more interesting than the movie itself.  In the days shortly preceding and following its release, I found my YouTube feed being absolutely bombarded with Mario movie-related videos.  These included not only blatant spoilers, but videos from YellowFlash, Ryan Kimel, and other anti-woke content creators weaponizing the movie’s success and using it as an excuse to take the piss out of Disney and the critical establishment (not that Disney and certain critics don’t deserve it).  Now, I do feel I have something to contribute to the conversation, and I lean more on the side of the supporters of the Mario movie than the detractors.  But I’m really not interested in waxing polemic here as, again, there are plenty of other people who are far better known than I am doing that already.  Instead I’d like to ponder how we got to this whole situation between the critics and the audience in the first place and what can be learned from it going forward.  Because I do believe we’re witnessing change in motion as Mario smashes the box office and big movie studios are finding themselves compelled to take notes.  We might as well make the most of it.

The first thing we need to ask, which many who’ve observed large gaps in critical and audience approval ratings on Rotten Tomatoes have wondered, is “What is the purpose of film critics?”  Considering the question from a purely utilitarian perspective, I’m sure most would agree that they (at least in theory) act as a guide for the moviegoing consumer.  We all have limited time and money to spend on media consumption, and we would ideally like to spend as many of these finite resources as possible on “good” movies rather than “bad” ones.  Already we can see an issue here, as what exactly defines “good” and “bad” will vary between individuals.  Some audiences simply want a dazzling audiovisual spectacle to relieve themselves from the suffering of mundane life for a couple of hours, while others may be looking for more substance from things like narrative, actor performances, themes, etc. so that they may feel personally enriched by the movie experience.  Since the very nature of the professional critic’s job demands that the critic think more, well, critically about the movies they watch—carefully analyzing a film’s strong and weak points to argue for or against said film being worth seeing—they naturally fall into the latter category of defining “good” films primarily on the basis of substance.  This is not necessarily a bad thing.  In fact, it can be good, as it creates the potential for meaningful discussion and new perspectives which can help the ordinary audience member appreciate movies in a new light.  It does, however, create an alienating effect between critics and more casual members of the audience.

Further compounding the issue is that the professional critic, once again due to the nature of their job, is likely to have different viewing habits from those of even other substance-oriented individuals within the general audience.  They have to do multiple screenings per week (as many as 10-12 in the UK, not sure about the US) on top of writing their reviews and submitting them before the deadlines.  Not only that, they do not have the luxury of getting to pick and choose only “good” movies to watch, but must watch whatever movies are assigned to them by their superiors, including all of the “bad” and mediocre ones.  When you have to sit through so many movies, especially Hollywood genre movies that tend to follow similar plot beats, you naturally develop more keenly enhanced standards and sensitivity to whatever sticks out, both for better and for worse.  This partially explains how Star Wars: The Last Jedi was able to win significant amounts of critical praise for “subverting expectations” and “taking risks” while at the same time drawing the ire of longtime fans.

With this in mind, it is easy to wonder why anyone would want to be a professional critic at all.  A more pessimistic or distrusting individual might say that critics are driven by a desire for clout and prestige.  Monetary gain would play a limited role at best, as the majority of film critics are in fact paid very poorly and must find additional income elsewhere.  This typically comes through other forms of journalism, as critics are often college-educated with degrees in journalism or communications if not film studies specifically (which in turn explains how many of them can be construed as “woke” or otherwise politically left-leaning).  But when the critic’s more demanding viewing habits have such great influence over how they assess what they watch, this limits the scope of people who take their opinions seriously, usually to fellow intellectuals who may or may not lean left themselves.  Ultimately, the critic persists out of a sheer love for film as an art form, and the advancement of film as art is something their work gives them a vested interest in.

So then where does Mario fit into all this?  When considering the critical predilection for substance instead of spectacle and their more refined viewing standards, along with the Mario movie’s safe, sterilized, corporate-mandated handling of the titular character and his world combined with a barebones and predictable story, it is not difficult to imagine how the movie could be given underwhelming critical reviews, even without accounting for any possibility of woke bias.  If the critics can be said to “hate” the Mario movie, it is because it is antithetical to everything they stand for as intellectuals and lovers of film as art.  It is pure audio-visual junk food.  Well-made and satisfying junk food, but junk food nonetheless.  But as far as its target audience is concerned, this is perfectly fine, even if it could do with just a little more time spent on plot and character development.  Therefore it can be considered a “good” video game movie.  Which makes it all the more curious that the critic scores have caused such an uproar.

As of this writing, the Mario movie sits at a 59% approval rating from critics and a 96% approval rating from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, which is only a 37% difference.  For context, a movie on the site only needs a 60% critical approval rating to be considered Fresh, leaving it only a single percentage point away from Fresh status.  It does not even have as low of a critical approval rating as similarly critic-Rotten-and-audience-Fresh movies on the site, such as Venom (30%C, 80%A, 50% difference) and Uncharted (41%C, 90%A, 49% difference).  If the critics are too distant from the Mario movie’s target audience for their opinions to be worth consideration, then why is such a fuss still being made?  Wanting to break the “video game movie curse” is no longer a viable excuse; by this logic, Sonic would’ve broken it already with two audience-Fresh movies well before Mario.  The only logical explanation I can think of is that this is purely a matter of personal validation.  The critic scores are essentially the one blemish on what has otherwise been a perfect triumph for Nintendo and its fanbase.  …Either that or all the complainers are just a vocal minority and I’ve unwittingly found myself in one of those echo chambers.  Maybe it’s a little bit of both, who knows.

I’d like to end this piece off with some advice, not that I expect either party to abide by it.  Critics, if you are interested at all in expanding out of the intellectual bubble and gaining greater audience respect, it could be prudent going forward to try and put yourselves in the shoes of the movie’s target audience.  Not every movie is trying or even needs to be Shakespeare or have a profound social message.  Audience members, especially gamers, if you really don’t care what critics have to say about the movies you like, then just act like it.  It makes you look a lot less stupid.  And, uh, enjoy this possible new trend of high-quality Nintendo movies while you can.  Shigeru Miyamoto’s not getting any younger.

#mario #mario movie #the super mario bros movie #super mario #film critique #film criticism

[madhattersez]

Model Kit Build: "Transformers Furai 11 Devastator" by Flame Toys

This was my first Flame Toys kit, and I have to say... Not my favorite.

Don't get me wrong, I love Devastator. He's one of my favorite Transformers of all time. My dream is to have a G1 version, even just a reissue.

So what made the experience all goofy? ... Pretty much everything, hah.

First of all, the instructions. Holy shit.

Where Bandai would have separated the above image into 4 or 5 different steps, this book would often combine so many small steps into one box, which was sometimes confusing and easy to get lost in.

There was also an entire missing step at one point, like they skipped a few pieces by accident. I eventually reverse engineered what was missing, but... Really?

Most of the print was ridiculously small. Like "I have to take my glasses off and hold it an inch from my eyeball" small. This is a photo of my pinkie, y'all. The words in the lower right hand corner are especially way too fuckin' smol.

Aside from the instructions, some of the design choices were also iffy - The plastic used was noticeably harder than your average Gundam, and the parts were laid out in weird positions sometimes, which meant lots of jaggies.

I don't know if it was due to the heavier plastic or less-than-perfect design (or both), but I had to use extreme physical force to get several pieces to snap or fit together. My hands were beat to shit when I was all done.

You know how each Constructicon has a windshield in vehicle form? This kit had red, shiny stickers for each, which was cool... but they completely missed a few windshield pieces on the sticker sheet, leaving some plain plastic sections that look off. That's a crazy thing to overlook on a model this pricey.

You may also notice that the purple and green colors on the model itself do not match the ones on the box or the instructions or the original character. That kinda sucks.

Still, my love for Devastator pushed me through.

After some turmoil and more stress than you would expect from a favorite hobby, I completed the big guy. All building faults aside, he looks pretty damned neat.

This one's definitely a big ol' fella. Here is a size comparison to a High Grade Gundam:

The issues with this model are disappointing - Mainly because Flame Toys has already made several other incredible-looking Transformers kits, including a new Arecee model coming up from the new movie.

The poor experience during this build kinda has me spooked, though.

Just so you know - Not that Hobby Lobby deserves your money - but they have Flame Toys models (and Gundams, too!) on a half-off sale quite often. Might be worth the try at that price.

For more of my model kit builds on Tumblr, click here:

#model kit #transformers #decepticons #devastator #constructicons #model building #model build #flame toys #furai model #i wish it was bandai #hattersmodelbuilds #gunpla #yes i know it's not actually gunpla

[banishedthumbs]

Something about the current conversation around the Martin Scorsese movie Goncharov” (1973) is that there are so many people out there that consume media through others. You know about a soap opera because your mother used to watch it. You know the main characters and the issues in your best friends favorite movie. You never watched the anime but you talked about it with your classmate and you know the reasons they love it. Goncharov is so beautiful and even if some of us have never seen it, we know what the movie is about. We know the soul of it, we know it’s bones. We can see only the shadow of it on the wall as we see it pass above us, illuminated by a fire from behind.

You might not know how the movie starts, but you know the themes. You know the scenes that hurt the most people. You know the pervasive sense of loss and tragedy that underscores the film. You know the apples and pomegranates as well as the clocks and the cigarettes. But it doesn’t matter. You can’t be wrong because you’ve seen the movie through everyone else’s eyes. The movie itself becomes unimportant when you experience it as the labor of love and turmoil that we have all made it.

“It was worth it, for you it was worth it.”

#goncharov (1973) #Plato’s allegory of the cave #storytelling #goncharov #film #katya goncharov #andrey goncharov #me and the mutuals #unreality

[grevemcculloch79]

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Introduction:

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#Abonnement IPTV

[imrodolforeli]

Jersey No. 09

Written by Rhoda Chapter I

I have been dreaming my whole life of being in a relationship. When I am on TikTok, Instagram, or even Facebook, I always see videos and photos of different couples that are so sweet to each other and doing things that you can literally say, ‘Sana all’.

The way they express how they truly love their partners is really flattering and heart-melting. As I watch and look at those videos and photos, I can’t help but feel envious. I also want to feel and experience the same things with the man I am deeply in love with. But where is he?

Sometimes, I used to question myself, my worth, my appearance, and basically my entire existence in this world. How come, at this age, my Mr. Right is still nowhere to be found? How come I am still freaking single? What on earth is wrong with me?

I have been wanting and romanticizing having a boyfriend. Yet, here I am freaking single and alone. It is during these times as well, when I tend to look down on myself and when my insecurities come to surface. And I wondered why those people who are not even asking for it are being showered with boyfriends and girlfriends? Really, what is wrong with me? Am I not deserving of love or to be loved?

This thirst and obsession I have to have a boyfriend led me to explore the world. Yes, the world—the online world. In the movies or movie series I binge-watched, specifically K-dramas and BL series, the protagonist has the same situation as mine; the advice given to them sometimes by their parents or best friends is to “put yourself out there’, “explore the world”, “try new things,” or "try an online dating app.” And when they do, that is when the magic happens. They found their knight and shining armor, their soulmate, or "icing sa ibabaw ng cupcake ko,” as the lyric of Kim Chu’s song goes.

Believe it or not, I tried to download and use different dating apps just like my favorite characters in those movie series did. Tinder, Litmatch, Bumble—name it. Unfortunately, my quest to search for a boyfriend was still unsuccessful. I am not saying that I was not able to find a match on those dating apps. In fact, I was able to match numerous random guys who became my chat mates. However, I am the type of person who has a huge trust issue when meeting online people. So, whenever they ask me to meet them, I usually make excuses or tell them I’m busy. Sometimes, when they want to meet me already, I stop chatting with them. That is when I realized the online world or dating apps were not for me.

Those experiences made me realize that maybe it’s not yet time for me to have a boyfriend. Upon contemplating, I also realized that maybe I should love myself more first before trying to find someone to love. Most importantly, I realized that maybe I should focus first on pursuing things that are more valuable to me—my studies.

Maybe the reason why I feel really lonely and insecure about it is because I wanted it too much, to the point that it sort of highlights the emptiness I feel for not having a boyfriend. Now, I realize that the quote in the book of Mark Manson is right: “The desire for a more positive experience is itself a negative experience. And, paradoxically, the acceptance of one’s negative experience is itself a positive experience.” But of course, I am not losing hope that someday I will meet the right man for me, and I will keep holding on to what Catriona Gray said: that there are seven billion people in the world, and it's impossible that I can’t find one for me.

#writers on tumblr #writing #writer things #writeblr

[agentnico]

Flora and Son (2023) Review

Flora and Son - sounds like a name for a barber's or a chippy. "Chippy"....my-my, I'm becoming more British by the day!

Plot: Flora, a single mother who argues with her son Max in an attempt to find him a hobby, retrieves a guitar from a dumpster and discovers that one person's rubble can be a family's salvation.

John Carney's musicals aren't really musicals. Having brought us such treats as Sing Street and Begin Again, all his projects feature original songs, however, they are never flashy staged sequences, but instead very simplistic and calming moments. Carney uses music as a connective tissue between characters who otherwise struggle to click. So with his new Apple TV+ indie feature Flora and Son he sets the events in Dublin, Ireland, and its another feel-good heartwarming experience,. The best parts are the musical moments, with the song lyrics and acoustic guitar sounding delightful, however despite good intentions and solid moments, the film itself fails to fully hit the mark.

The thing with most John Carney movies is that they all feature flawed characters, with individuals going through some serious issues such as divorce or loss or being outcasted, however, that never stops these characters from being likable people whom we as the audience can root for and have that interest in seeing them get their happy ending. With Flora and Son, however, even though the story is structured in that same pattern, the characters are all really unlikeable and at times horrible. Flora (played by Ewe Hewson) is a terrible mother who rarely gives her son the time of day. She steals, is mean to everyone and overall just enjoys living her miserable life by feeling sorry for herself. We are supposed to wish good things for her character, but by acting so self-centered and unpleasant throughout most of the movie honestly made me not care for her. Only in the last 20 minutes, she makes the sudden decision to develop a consciousness, however, even then there isn't really any build-up in her character arc to get her to that stage. She just suddenly decides "Okay, I'm going to be nice now". The son too, though you do feel sorry that he's not got a solid parent figure, also is a bit of a prick, excuse my French. Weirdly it's the ex-boyfriend who we're supposed to hate, who actually comes off as the more reasonable one at times. Naturally, it doesn't help that he's played by Jack Reynor who is such a lovely man, so no matter how dislikable he tries to act I just see him as the sweet Irish-talking brother Brendan from Sing Street. In reality, the only character that seems to have a solid moral code and is actually a nice person is Flora's online guitar teacher (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), but again, that connects to the main musical moments of the film, which again are its stronghold.

The cinematography is fairly bland, with the only noteworthy moments being when Flora helps her son film a music video, which results in a very amusing piece. The narrative itself is standard cheesiness which is to be expected in a romantic comedy drama such as this, but the storyline is pretty basic and more tame than usual compared to Carney's previous works. Again, within the last 20 minutes, it does come all together nicely even if the ending itself is a tad anti-climactic, but overall it is a well-intentioned little indie flick, with a great acoustic soundtrack, and enough heartwarming moments to make it worth a Saturday night watch with your partner.

Overall score: 6/10

#flora and son #john carney #ewe hewson #joseph gordon levitt #jack reynor #oren kinlan #music #drama #comedy #musical #sing street #begin again #2023 #2023 in film #2023 films #apple #apple tv #apple tv plus #cinema #streaming #flora and son review #guitar #movie #movie reviews #film #film reviews #mother son relationship

[mrcowboysmovieroom]

The Mean Season (1985)

Directed by: Phillip Borsos Genre: Crime, thriller

CW: None

The Mean Season is a movie you've likely never seen personally (I mean especially in this day and age, good god) but you've definitely seen it somewhere else. Which is to say, you've probably seen a movie damn similar and likely better. What The Mean Season fails to give you in execution, it gives you in potential, which makes for a disappointing and rather lackluster watching experience.

So, to be transparent, I will admit right now that the reason I was watching this movie was entirely because it stars Kurt Russell. It also turns out I have already seen this film, which is not a promising revelation to have. You sort of want your thrilling crime drama to be memorable.

In any case the best way to illustrate the issues this movie has is to describe them in agonizing detail.

Kurt Russell plays Malcolm Anderson. He's a journalist who's feeling pretty burnt out by his job, but gets pulled into do one last big story when a serial killer who Malcolm recently reported on, contacts him about continuing to write about his future exploits.

So honestly, a promising start but I wouldn't call it groundbreaking. The dynamic is interesting though, and you can tell as the movie goes on that there was meant to be something more intriguing to their relationship.

See, the killer calls Malcolm after one of his murders so that Mal can get the scoop first. The killer likes his writing style, and in calling him, is giving him more veracity and also making the murders more sensational.

The killer's agenda, so far as we will ever understand, is to be the story. He gets mad later when more attention is on Malcolm's relationship to the case/killer later on in the film.

He also reportedly feels a certain sort of kinship with Malcolm, or feels as though Malcolm understands him and this is interesting in concept. Like obviously. The dichotomy between the killer and the journalist who writes for him is a great idea. Journalists in media have had a lot of varying stereotypes about them. At once they might be noble truth seekers, and then again, they are corruptible sensationalists who are motivated by a good story and nothing more. Think like Ace in the Hole (1951).

So it makes sense that a story would take advantage of those conflicting values.

Throughout the movie we get the impression that Malcolm's morals are supposed to be called into question. I mean characters do literally call them into question but it doesn't actually feel like anything about his character is really controversial or even slightly questionable.

His girlfriend, Christine (Mariel Hemingway), on a couple occasions talks as if he's becoming an entirely different person but we don't actually see any sort of transformation in his character so it makes her character feel weak as a result.

I should say now that acting wise, everyone does a good job. The issue isn't so much with any performance but with the story itself. It doesn't spend enough time exploring the character development of Malcolm and we don't really see his personal values get compromised.

Just that difference alone would have made this film significantly better than it is. The ending climax sees the killer, now known as Alan Delour (Richard Jordan), confronting Malcolm and accusing him of knowing him best. And even later Malcolm suggests that Alan can't kill him because who else gets him like he does?

And this scene falls flat because we keep getting told that something has happened with Malcolm, but we never see it. Despite the lack of character going on in the writing, Kurt Russell does a very good job playing a despondent man worried his girlfriend is dead. Of course, Kurt Russell is pretty good at this as Breakdown (1997) and Unlawful Entry (1992) will prove.

So all in all, is it worth watching? Uhhhhhhhhhhhh I mean it depends... If you're watching it so that you can see Kurt Russell- yes :) But also there are better movies with him in it playing a very similar character.

Do you just want to see a crime/mystery movie? Well, there are way more of those than there are Kurt Russell films so I won't say no, but there is less reason to see this if that's the case. It's not a horrible movie, but it's also not groundbreaking, and as I said before, you've likely seen a better version of this film already.

So given that, I'm feeling a 6/10.

#kurt russell #the mean season 1985 #80s movie #mariel hemingway #andy garcía #richard jordan #richard masur

[waffle-bubbles]

I watched Barbie with my mom today, and she said that the movie made the patriarchy seem like it was putting women down when that wasn’t the case, which I don’t agree with. The patriarchy is made to keep men at the top, and it does that by suppressing the women from the success men have. I can’t explain my mom’s views, but she’s a conservative, family woman that’s against abortion. You can imagine what she thinks of gender roles.

Anyway, the movie was good, but it wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be. I thought the movie was going too fast to fully explore what it wants, especially since I feel it detoured a bit with Ken. The whole point of the movie was to explore how sexism affects women, but the plot itself kept getting rushed to explain that point. The dialogue was very explicit in affect, and I personally prefer more subtle ways of storytelling. I appreciate that we get to explore Ken as a character, but I felt like it distracted from Barbie. The world still revolves around men, so it’s disappointing when the image of Barbie herself can’t even have a full movie to herself. But I understand that it was trying to show how sexism affects both men and women. And at the end of the movie, there are still no women at the core of Mattel. The creator may have been a woman, but men are still at the top. I thought America’s character would get more of a leadership role in the company, but instead she was dismissed until her idea could make money. I get that it’s a joke—and it was a funny joke, I laughed—but I feel like making it a joke erased the point of the movie a bit. Nothing really changed, but the movie’s world was set-up to.

That being said, I did relate to Ken a lot, which surprised me. As a gay trans man, I missed a lot of the experiences cis men have. It makes me feel like I’m not really a man. But I still relate to basing my identity around things outside myself like Ken does with Barbie. And I definitely relate to feeling the need to live into hyper-masculinity in order to be respected as a man. I also related to Allen. Someone living as completely aside from everyone else. I didn’t relate to Barbie much. Most of her issues with self-worth and being perfect directly stem from being a woman, and since I’m not a woman, I have a hard time connecting my own feelings to that even when I have experienced self-depreciation before. I’ve never really related to women and their social issues much, which is weird because I spent most of my life as a girl.

Sorry if my thoughts are incoherent. It’s the middle of the night, and I’m exhausted. But also I’m not sure if the movie knows what a fascist is.

#Barbie

[peytons-depression-land]

Welcome to the Embarrassment Zone: A screenwriter trying to write prose

I’ve always struggled with forcing myself to create and share prose and non-narrative writing over my preferred format of screenplays. It all comes down to a deep rooted fear of being accused of pretension and self-obsession.

See, with screenplay writing every word and every character is at risk of being superfluous. That shit has to be lean, mean, and tight as possible - every ounce of fat trimmed away, every darling not only killed but buried and forgotten. Sure, you can break the “rules” when you think it’s worth it and include extra detail or descriptive flourishes (god forbid you hold Blake Snyder and his Save the Cat method gospel) but if your screenplay read like a novel its probably never going to get read, unless it’s really really good from like the very first word (and even then they’ll probably just hire a screenwriter to re-write it and just give you “story by” credit). At least that’s what I’ve been taught/what my experience as a young entrant into the world of Hollywood/screenwriting profession has been thus far.

But with prose writing or non-journalistic nonfiction (ie journaling) there’s not really as many overall boundaries or rules. Like, sure, narrative conventions exist, but you have far more room and space on the page to use. You’re not writing a eye-catching piece of blue-print work that’s intended to set a whole artistic process of making a movie/TV show in motion, never intended to be itself read by general audiences. With prose your writing is the main attraction, and so you can add all the detail, all the flourish, all the eccentricities you want: and therein lies the issue for me. When I write prose I’m always paranoid that the literary devices, details, and narration I’m providing are overwritten, pretentious, and self-obsessed.

When I write out some metaphor or lengthy description of a character (or in this case my own) internal feelings, I just feel so conflicted over the necessity of it; are these words and ideas providing substance or am I just jerking myself off artistically? How much is too much? How much is too little? There’s no definite answer and the possibility of fucking up scares me. The possibility of creating art or writing that is embarrassing in its flaws or unearned pretension has always been one of my biggest fears. I don’t want to be the fool who doesn’t realize that their work they regard as good is actually laughable. The thought of lacking self awareness is to me about the most humiliating thing I can think of.

But I need to get over my petty fears of failure. These obsessions with not taking risks when writing are what make my creative process so glacial and bound by anxiety and procrastination. I gotta start writing more - both my screenplays and just experimentally, with things like this. So I’m starting this blog and I’m gonna start using it on as frequent of a basis as I can make myself. Maybe I’ll recount my day or random stuff I’ve thought about. Maybe I’ll try to write some short stories or something. Maybe I’ll just write a lot about how depressed I am. Regardless, I just want to get myself writing more, embarrassment be damned.

One thing is certain: there will be lots of typos. I always miss something. And I ain’t got the time to just sit around and proofread over and over. Plus probably no one is gonna be reading all this anyway, so who cares.

[greyssync]

Plex vr supported phones

PLEX VR SUPPORTED PHONES MOVIE

PLEX VR SUPPORTED PHONES TV

Plex wasn’t exactly built to be a social network first, so inviting people to each other’s virtual homes may still be finicky for a while, but once you’re in, things work a lot more smoothly. My girlfriend’s (or my own alt) account wouldn’t show up in the online friends list until I force closed and re-opened the application. On multiple occasions, we had issues with the friend system.

PLEX VR SUPPORTED PHONES MOVIE

While the experience of watching a movie was virtually flawless, getting started was less so. This doesn’t lend itself to decent audio (in fact you only sound slightly better than the intercom at your city’s oldest Taco Bell), but it’s not too big of a deal since you shouldn’t be talking during the movie anyway. Plex uses the microphone in your phone which, you might remember, is inside a soft fabric-covered headset strapped to your face. Your voice will be broadcast to all participants. Simply hold down the middle button on the Daydream remote (the one with a - symbol on it) and start speaking. As a bonus, each user can play, pause, or rewind the movie so no one has to fight over the remote. If it ever slipped out of sync (usually because I messed with something, rather than the system itself failing), hitting the pause button and playing again re-synced everything. The movie was almost perfectly in sync in both headsets the entire time. I tried this out with two headsets on the same Wi-Fi network and it worked incredibly well. Synchronized and simultaenous play, not the virtual popcorn buckets, is the real killer feature of the Plex VR experience. Give or take a couple of floating robot heads. You can all watch as though you were in the same room. No more weighing whether it’s worth pausing and re-syncing just to use the bathroom. No more counting down and hitting play at the same time. If you’ve ever tried to watch a movie with a long distance friend or family member, you realize immediately how amazing this is. Each person in your theater hears the same audio, and they’re all at the same point in the movie. When you play a movie in this mode, it starts playing for everyone. You’ll even be able to see their remotes as they move through the air. Their floating avatars will appear on the seats next to you. Plex’s Watch Together feature lets you invite up to three other friends-all with their own Daydream headsets and Plex accounts, naturally-to join you in your virtual theater. That’s presumably why Plex offered something compelling that you can’t do with your normal home theater: watch with friends across the globe.

PLEX VR SUPPORTED PHONES TV

Sitting with a VR headset on your couch watching a movie is still a little too silly to get off the ground if you have another option (like even a modest TV or a laptop with a big screen). Inviting Friends to the Party Is Where the Real Magic Starts If you don’t have a fancy home theater, or if you want to watch a movie on an airplane, you could do worse than Plex VR. Virtual reality theaters aren’t necessarily the best way to watch a movie-you’re basically putting a magnifying glass up to your phone’s screen, which results in a very pixelated video-but Plex VR at least manages to make it fun. You can even resize the virtual in-room movie screen to be as big or as small within the virtual space as you want. Once you play a movie, the blinds in your “apartment” even automatically close, dimming the virtual room for a better view. Say you want to look through your library to find something to watch, you can physically pick out a couple candidates, set them down on the couch, read through the descriptions of each one and, when you’re ready, hit play on one to bring up a floating screen to watch the movie. Whether or not you like the idea of watching a movie in a virtual theater, the Plex VR experience is a polished one.Īs you browse through your Plex library, you can grab individual cards floating in front of you and set them down. There’s no point to this, but it’s fun, especially if you feel like throwing popcorn at a bad movie. You can pick up each of these and throw them around the room. The default space is a luxury penthouse apartment with a coffee table, covered in cups, popcorn bowls, and plates. Plex VR is a standalone app built for Google Daydream that gives you a virtual theater and menu where you can watch anything in your Plex library. Why Isn't This Possible With Normal Video Apps?īefore I start pining for features that don’t exist, let’s talk about the ones that do.

#Plex vr supported phones

[star-shard]

Elvis & Nixon (2016) review

Whelp, since I gave the showtime 90s movie depicting this infamous story a watch, time for the modern Amazon version. And right off the bat they are both similar and very different. It contains by far the strangest Elvis performance I've ever seen acting along side a certain disgraced Hollywood actor... Theres a lot to go through so let's take a walk

Okay, bandaid off, Kevin Spacey plays Nixon. In watching this movie I in no way promote him or his actions, and frankly whether his performance was good or not doesn't change my negative feelings on him as a person. This viewing experience was for reviewing purposes only.

Theres a lot to cover so I'll try to keep it informative without going into full on spoiler territory.

Right, so the movie itself, the story of Elvis meeting Nixon. It's a comedy (hard for a story like this not to be) but a different one from it's more campy 90s predecessor in almost every way.

Structurally speaking, Jerry Schilling is a major player in this movie (both in producing and as a character) And it dips into the themes of Elvis as a person always kind of pulling him back into his life now and then. Jerry is sort of the audience stand in, in that way. But unfortunately this lands with Elvis's own character not being as deeply explored.

What I do like is they give him a couple of scenes in which he expresses a loss of identity, and like most Elvis movies worth their salt, Jesse Garon gets a mention.

But time for the other elephant in the room.

Micheal Shannon as Elvis.

So as someone who has now seen a ridiculous amount of Elvis movies, theres a spectrum of how actors depict him. You want to be recognizable without going full on novelty impersonation.

Theres even a scene that pokes fun at over the top impersonators.

Austin Butler hit that golden spot where he found a way to do the accent, the voice, mannerisms, without it becoming like a halloween costume, it's hard to pull off.

Whats interesting about Micheal Shannon is he went for the complete opposite. In that he acted nothing like Elvis. No accent, no drawl, no pet names or nothing. Now in his defense, this is a comedy/drama. The idea of someone being soft voiced and deadpan while being Elvis Presley is funny.

But, this movie doesn't go all the way with it. Maybe the idea behind it was 'wouldn't it be crazy if we cast two totally unexpected actors for these parts?' Heres the issue I had. Spacey plays it straight.

Yeah, Kevin Spacey is just doing a regular ass Nixon performance, it's not campy or over the top its just a regular performance. And every other actors are also playing their character pretty straight as well. There are also a couple of more serious scenes that include Elvis questioning his identity.

If the whole movie was weird, then yeah, Micheal Shanon would be a perfect fit. But all I'm thinking here as an audience member is... 'why are the people around him blown away by this deeply underwhelming guy in sunglasses?'

And if the point was 'Elvis was a man, not a brand', it missed the mark on that too. Humanizing is one thing. But Elvis truly was a charismatic and magnetic person. And if you completely cut that out, I'm sorry it's missing a huge part of who he was.

Now not every movie has to worship the ground that Elvis walked on. But with Elvis Meets Nixon (1997) There was a real sense for the guy, you totally got why people put up with his more silly shit, you got why women would let him get away with murder. Even if the actor playing him in that wasn't drop dead gorgeous, his charisma put across just how he got into places no one else could. That movie both took pot shots at him, and showed an understanding.

In the context of Elvis & Nixon (2016), Elvis just comes off as an old famous guy with money. He's cold to his fans and strangers a like. Without the hair and glasses, you would have no idea what this performance is going for. And if you're gonna be passing off Elvis like that, you better be packing in a hell of a lot more laughs along the way.

The saving grace is by the end Spacey and Shannon work off together pretty well. But nothing great, honestly. And I'll say this, it's more realistic than 'Elvis Meets Nixon', if thats more your speed.

Considering it has fuckin Kevin Spacey as one actor and a deeply odd version of Elvis across him, I'd say skip this one. If you're on a marathon, I'm sure it's on the list, but I just don't feel much of any heart in this one. It just comes and go without much impact and honestly, not much point.

#elvis #movie review