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#like how DARE someone make a meaningless account on the internet
lesbiansanemi · 3 years
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Okay, so lord knows I’m one of the first people to criticize fandom (I fucking hate a lot of aspects of fandom), but the weird new branch of people who keep saying things like “stfu up about fandom/writing or reading fanfic isn’t a personality trait/all shipping is terrible and you need to shut up about it/idc if you participate in fandom but you must always talk about how much is sucks and you can never act like you enjoy it because it’s awful and irredeemable and actually if you participate in fandom I hate you” like... are yall okay? Like yes, I know, fandom can be awful, but have you considered that some people have hobbies? Some people like having fun? And so long as they’re not hurting anyone why the fuck do you care? Can you gremlins get off your high fucking horses for two goddamn seconds and quit turning anything and everything into a game of morality and not to be that person but let people enjoy things? 
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vceeukenlwml-blog · 5 years
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How To Instagram Viewer In 15 Minutes And Still Look Your Best
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My View Starting Points
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View Private Instagram
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If you search for how to see someones private Instagram profiles subsequently you will find out that there are a few websites which are exploitation that there is a tool which can make you view private profiles & pictures of Instagram users. Genuinely speaking, its just a hoax or and quite impossible business to happen as of now, but still, there are some websites which create you recognize that yeah its doable and its practicing currently, in view of that dont agree to them. appendix This article has no ambition of promoting a user to stalk users profile, and allocation posts are either for personal or trailer purposes. Many how to see private instagram accounts get caught taking place taking into account these websites which but the stop will have the funds for you nothing except sadness. In reality, they unaided generate gain from this, that is why they are making you take something impossible as a result that they can earn child maintenance from you. consequently past giving you the in-depth defense as to why you cannot view a Private Profile, here are the two types of accounts on Instagram. Public and choice one is Private. The public profile is where everyone can follow you and look your posts. It is simple to locate a person and follow him/her to get their posts and know their activities. In Private account, there are a few restrictions where lonely a fixed people can view your profile. In the combat of Private accounts, one can solitary be viewed if the person approves the request of the follower. The good news is that now weve got a bigger solution for this. total the like ways to accomplish out a private Instagram account. Bad news if you desire to view your crushs profile as the reply here is a big NO. In reality, there is no such software which can incite you to view someones private Instagram profile, thus truly speaking you will never acquire any real software or any tool that will permit you to see Instagram private profiles. However, there are great quantity of software that put you in doubt and trouble, then again of wasting period upon these sites we select you to not take on in something which is impossible. The answer is quite straightforward, they getting child support in the same way as you download their software or install it. As I searched for the tool or software which would back in viewing Instagram Private Profile, I found quite a few sites. These sites which are easy to use become more complicated as and past you get fervent to know nearly a private user. I will lead you through the steps I had to follow with I had to view a private profile picture. First, I had to Google and abandoned to see that there are such tools view private instagram welcoming to view private profile practicable or not? Guess what! Some sites offered me to view the private profiles. I entered the website and was quite impressed taking into consideration the artifice the site was built. I entered the username/URL of the person who has a private profile. next step is they question me to confirm whether I am a human or not. Some sites question to definite survey whereas some ask you to download apps to view a private profile.So did it incite me? NO.They did not. But these sites seemed to be daring and at the same period back visitors to associate in their websites and download some meaningless and paid apps.As and gone you enter the username of a private profile, it asks you to unqualified the survey for some advertisements listed upon their website which will support you in viewing the private profile.
Reference
youtube
There are no shortcuts to everything be it in warfare of earning grant or viewing a private profile. You have to put up with specific procedures to save it legal. The page that says that come up with the money for you in viewing the private pictures entre terribly, and the grammar used in those pages are way worse in view of that how could one drop for this? How realize you expect someone to break the code of a private profile and make it visible for viewing? Of course we know that not all hackers are foreigners, but as you visit their contact us page, you will declaration that their solution quarters is USA. appropriately here we have someone promising you an effectively illegal product, potentially lying}how to see private instagram accountsnot quite where they are from and who doesnt have a perfect grasp of the language. By now it is helpfully understood that no such software or tool can incite you view a profile picture. correspondingly I recommend you to get into them in person and question for them to follow. with if you find any such tool in far ahead or have questions once regards to this article, mention them in the explanation section below. Clicking on an public notice would urge on the site generate revenue, this is how they earn and make child support by fooling people and grab attention subsequent to their headline. Some sites ask you to have the funds for your username and password to generate their Instagram Private Profile. This will anyhow guide to hacking as the details you meet the expense of are stored in their database, and this will be used to bump their own or someone elses followers. As you final it, they acquire grant from you because you just completed public notice surveys for them. realize not acquire unhappy as there are other ways to view a private profile (No Hacking, No Tool) You can acquire for that reason many snapchat actions which are lovely legitimate and genuine. Here is a little trick that might arrive in understandable to you.
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svanwijk · 6 years
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The Campfire of the Future
“…And what happened next?” The fire burned and cinders sizzled. The tribe watched their shaman with eager anticipation. He pointed up towards the sky again and explained how spirits triumphed after all. This was tens of thousands of years ago. Nowadays, the stars cannot be seen by looking up. We stare at a screen where constellations get blocked by a giant spaceship in an Ersatz epic. In out contemporary technical system, the work of art has undergone a tremendous transformation both in its creation and in its reception. It has been subsumed by the productive ethos that characterizes our age, thereby at risk to lose its subversive dimension. However, there are glimmers of hope, shining as bright as the primal campfire in our faces. A new form of storytelling has emerged, which has the potential to aid in a radical transformation of our society. The tabletop role-playing game is conquering the world.
We tell each other stories because we play. Man at heart has always been a storytelling animal. At the basis of a person’s emotional disposition stands the play-drive. If an activity is fully in tune with the play-drive, one is simultaneously engaged in and reflecting on one’s actions. In this sense it has an intellectual and instinctual dimension. This play-drive is amongst other things sublimated in the art of storytelling. The storyteller stretches its creative muscles and imposes a narrative structure on the whole at the same time. The audience reacts by opening up new avenues in the imagination by following along this narrative structure. This opens up the potential for subversion by inviting the audience to critical reflection on their circumstances.
Art has been transformed in two different ways by the contemporary technical system. According to media theorist Marshall McLuhan, the advent of writing and the writing press meant that ancient oral culture made way for a literate culture. Within an oral culture a story was transmitted through speech from one generation to the next. This necessarily meant the story was fluid and could easily be adapted to new circumstances. Within a literate culture, a story is mainly transmitted through the written word, which is more difficult to alter compared to transmission through speech. This meant that man moved from living within an acoustic environment to a visual environment.
Concomitantly to literate culture came a reductive form of instrumental rationality that infected the stories people told each other. Thought became compartmentalized into different categories. Where once a sprawling epic told of the origins of a people, now double-entry bookkeeping gives a boring account on the origins of an organization. But since the advent of modern communication technologies there is a shift back to an oral culture. For instance, instead of learning a recipe from a book we consult a YouTube video where someone is cooking the recipe for us and explains what to do. This shift back means new ways of storytelling can emerge, something which McLuhan anticipated.
A different albeit related perspective on the transformation of art has been aptly described by the philosopher Walter Benjamin. Originally a work of art had an aura: it exuded a certain authority through being authentic. This aura came about because a work of art had a cult value. It existed for a purpose on its own beyond that of mankind, such as for the execution of sacred rites. Take for instance a Pietà in a cathedral. This statue enhances the atmosphere of solemnity surrounding the Sunday mass. A work of art had an exhibition value as well, because the purpose of the work of art is to be viewed by people. If one takes the Pietà and puts it in a museum or one’s living room, its religious function will clearly disappear. According to Benjamin, with the advent of mechanical reproduction the shift from works of art having more cult value to having more exhibition value transformed art in a fundamental way. Its aura vanished as multiple copies of the same work of art existed.
For Benjamin there was no reason to despair at the disappearance of this aura, for he hoped that a greater exhibition value meant that more people could participate. This democratization of art could enhance the revolutionary sense of the people and thus help in the transformation to a society free from oppression. Yet this hope was mistaken. The mechanical reproduction of works of art was one part in the process towards the development of the hyperreality of the technical system.
The main characteristic of hyperreality is the intense proliferation of signs without meaning. These signs possess pure exhibition value without any corresponding cult value. Whereas the Pietà in the museum still is reminiscent of its original function in the cathedral, most internet memes exist purely to refer to other elements of popular culture. The Pietà appeals to man’s innate sense of religious mystique, whereas the meme appeals to man’s innate knowledge of popular culture. Man will derive meaning from a work of art with cult value by the impression that it exists on a plane of existence of its own. Consequently, his inner play drive is engaged when he contemplates the work. The problem is that with the disappearance of the aura in hyperreality, at best a distorted appeal is made to the inner play drive of man. In this sense there is a lack of meaning in our contemporary technical system.
The way forward for art is not one of returning to what was lost after the advent of writing. It is to create new forms of art that are informed by the ways in which art functioned in earlier times. The shift towards a new type of oral culture thanks to modern communication technologies presents an opportunity for new mythopoetic media. New modes of storytelling fit for people eager to find meaning in the rubble hyperreality is leaving in their minds. These new modes should recreate the aura by reinventing the way cult value is utilized within a work of art. The search for new meaning can be seen in the movement of Metamodernism. It is an emerging sensibility in artists to move beyond a hyperreality where all signs are interchangeably meaningless and consequently society is not shaped by a single grand narrative. The metamodern artist accepts that one size does not fit all, but strives to create a new grand narrative according to a particular perspective out of optimism.
The increasingly popular phenomenon of tabletop role-playing games are a prime example of this metamodern sensibility. In the 1970s the first role playing game ever Dungeons & Dragons evolved out of the miniature medieval war game Chainmail. A tabletop role-playing game can best be described as a cooperative mode of storytelling structured by guidelines for proper behavior of its participants. In the case of Dungeons & Dragons, people’s characters form a motley crew of adventurers, exploring a world resembling a fantasy mythos inspired by the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien. They travel through dangerous wilderness and dark dungeons armed with nothing but pen, paper and dice to keep track of progress and determine the outcomes of actions. The process is guided by the Game Master, who describes the situations in which the player’s characters are and uses the rules to determine how the world reacts to the player’s actions. During the process the game master and players act out the world and their characters respectively. Hand-outs and maps may be provided, depicting various parts of the world. Often a group comes together regularly to play a campaign, which is an ever evolving story with plenty of character development.
The tabletop role-playing game is not a direct return to ancient ways of storytelling such as the Homeric epic, but a modern continuation of such traditions. It takes on an episodic form reminiscent of the picaresque. Stories, ideas and the act of creation are shared orally. The participants shape an acoustic environment conducive to the expression of their inner thoughts. The story is fluid and can easily be adapted to its participants’ needs. Moreover, the tabletop role-playing game generates a cult value and thus reinstates the aura in its cooperatively created story. The creators are its audience. The process of narrative pleasure takes a form akin to those of sacred rites.
In this way tabletop role-playing games instill in their participants the seeds for mental escape from the technical system. The technical system is a system of hyperreality. The bombardment of signs is a self contained system of memes, feeling real but ultimately signifying nothing of actual value. On the contrary, precisely in being an act of fantasy, the tabletop role-playing game is a bridge to the real by appealing to man’s innate creativity. Moreover, this innate creativity aides in evoking a sense of adventure. The mystique of the unknown, that disappeared in the technical system, is thus returned. This is thanks to the information asymmetry between the game master and players. It makes the fantasy world uncertain for both, exacerbated by the roll of the dice. The seeds of creativity and adventure can grow into the realization that ultimately, the hyperreality of the technical system is a facade created by us. It can be undone by us too.
What happened next? The increasing popularity of tabletop role-playing games planted plenty of seeds in people. Some caught on, stimulating those recipients of subversive thoughts to create daring new fantasy worlds out in the real. To see real life gold pieces as a nonsensical fabrication. To see the value in cooperating and creating stories together. To create the grand epic of mankind together. That is what happens next. Stars glimmer again as we sit around the campfire of the future. 
Bibliography: Benjamin, W. (1935). The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Baudrillard, J. (1981). Simulacra and Simulation. University of Michigan Press, MI, USA. McLuhan, M. & Fiore, Q. (1967). The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects. Penguin Books, UK. Vermeulen, T. & van den Akker, R. (2017). Notes on Metamodernism. Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, 2:1.
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aion-rsa · 3 years
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David Fincher’s Joker and Orson Welles Criticisms Shouldn’t Matter
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David Fincher, the beloved and mercurial filmmaker behind Fight Club and Zodiac, released a seeming torrent of criticism over multiple interviews for everything from fanboy darlings like last year’s Joker to the long worshipped ghost of Orson Welles.
In the case of the former, Fincher was speaking with The Daily Telegraph (via Deadline) when he said, “Nobody would have thought they had a shot at a giant hit with Joker had The Dark Knight not been as massive as it was. I don’t think anyone would have looked at that material and thought, ‘Yeah, let’s take [Taxi Driver’s] Travis Bickle and [The King of Comedy’s] Rupert Pupkin and conflate them, then trap him in a betrayal of the mentally ill, and trot it out for a billion dollars.”
The swipe about Joker being a betrayal of the “mentally ill” is certain to stir the pot with comic book fans, but also the industry which awarded star Joaquin Phoenix an Oscar for playing the disturbed  Clown Prince. But that is just one of many blasts of shade Fincher released out into the ether.
Elsewhere the director spoke with Premiere (via The Playlist). In that interview, Fincher seemed to want to cut down one of Golden Age Hollywood’s sacred cows when he said of Orson Welles, the alleged boy genius who wore many hats on Citizen Kane, “I think Orson Welles’ tragedy lies in the mix between monumental talent and filthy immaturity. Sure, there is genius in Citizen Kane, who could argue? But when Welles says, ‘It only takes an afternoon to learn everything there is to know about cinematography,’ pfff… Let’s say that this is the remark of someone who has been lucky to have Gregg Toland around him to prepare the next shot… Gregg Toland, damn it, an insane genius!”
He went on to say the disappointment in much of Welles’ later career came down to his “own delusional hubris.”
In the same Premiere interview, Fincher also compared Hollywood studios to “the five families” from The Godfather, with none being interested in anything except what Fincher calls “happy meal” movies that can gross $1 billion.
“None of them want to be in the medium-priced challenging content business. And that cleaves off exactly the kind of movies I make.”
These aren’t the words of a filmmaker not looking to make nice, even with his new film Mank beginning its limited theatrical rollout this month ahead of its Netflix debut in December. And with Hollywood of course being an industry of intense navel-gazing, Fincher’s words have already caused some early introspection… although not about the state of the industry. Rather much of the internal chatter I’ve heard is whether Fincher just handicapped himself ahead of what will be a protracted Oscar season in 2021.
What’s interesting about this reaction is that much of it is not that different from comic book fans being upset that he dared dismiss one of the superhero movie genre’s most legitimized productions. Yet these negative “hot takes” about Joker are nothing new. Most critics last year, including ours, expanded at length on how Joker seemed to remake entire sequences from Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. Personally though, the bigger problem tended to be Joker had nothing to add on top of those early Scorsese ruminations other than embracing the surface level nihilism of Travis Bickle.
So a critique of Phillips’ Joker, then and now, is obviously valid. As are Fincher’s insights into Welles, a filmmaker who notoriously tried to keep Herman J. Mankiewicz’s name off the Citizen Kane closing titles.
But of course there is the counterpoint. For example, Welles did write significant and ultimately iconic sequences into Citizen Kane, which is not alluded to in Fincher’s Mank. Similarly, Welles also is one of the few directors in Hollywood history to share his title screen with his cinematographer, which visually seemed to be Welles giving Tolland equal credit for Citizen Kane’s groundbreaking aesthetics.
But the truth is that everyone, whether comic book fans on the internet or Academy voters staring at their ballots, should not take this stuff so personal or seriously. It’s been more than 50 years since Roland Barthes coined the term “Death of the Author,” which argued in essence that a work of art (or “text”) should be evaluated solely on its own merit and in a vacuum, with the insights, aspirations, and personal history of the “author” being meaningless.
This is a narrow way of evaluating art, and as a critic myself, I find what Barthes referred to as the “paratexts”—the historical background of the work or author—to be sometimes the most interesting. It’s certainly almost impossible to divorce Fincher’s opinions on Welles from Mank when the film acts as a direct challenge to the idea that Welles deserves any credit for Citizen Kane’s screenplay.
However, if you enjoy David Fincher films, from Seven and Fight Club to Zodiac and The Social Network, why should him disliking Joker or Welles’ ego affect your opinion on his new film, even if it is a two-hour criticism of Welles? And if you were anticipating viewing Mank, hearing him refer to superhero movies in the main as “happy meals” really should have no influence on you hitting “Play” come Dec. 4.
That’s true of fanboys, and it’s true of Oscar voters and prognosticators, who both have a knack for following media narratives. Undoubtedly, rival studios are already packaging Fincher quotes to trot back out in February and March of next year. It’s the nature of the modern Oscar campaign beast. But playing politics and consensus building in the industry is how we get things like Fincher losing Best Director for The Social Network to Tom Hooper and The King’s Speech. Hooper ran a very Oscar voter-friendly campaign that ruffled no feathers and brought a lot of good cheer to his World War II/British Royal Family melodrama. And by all accounts, he is a kind and friendly man.
But in the years since then, Fincher made Gone Girl and Mank, and Hooper made Cats.
Like the debate over who deserves the credit for Citizen Kane’s script, at the end of the day, it’s the film that you remember—not what Welles snidely said about Mankiewicz, or what Fincher thought about the R-rated killer clown flick.
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Talent (Shawn Mendes x Reader)
Summary: Y/N is a struggling singer trying to find fame. Shawn noticed her. There will probably be a part 2 and 3 to this.
Y/N fixed her hair, and smoothed out the front of her last good black dress; and walked into the restaurant. The fourth stupid restaurant gig she got in the last week. She hated them, but her bank account was suffering and so she returned the call from her previous boss.
“Y/N!” A man in a sleek black suit waved.
She forced a smile and shook his hand.
“Hello sir.” “Now, you remember the deal? You only play the songs that are from my setlist.”
“Well, how about I play one of your boring lounge songs, and then I get to play one of my compositions?”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Hmm, okay um how bout two of yours for one of mine?”
Eyebrow still raised.
“Okay, how about all of yours and none of mine?”
Smile.
“Great, okay.”
“And remember Y/N, if I hear a peep of one of your songs.” He pointed to the exit of the restaurant.
“Right.”
Y/N took a seat down at the piano, and took a deep breath. Placing a tip cup on the top, she also opened her wallet to get the flow going. Taking out her only dollar, she sighed heavily as she dropped the coin in the cup.
Then, she stretched her arms, forced another smile, and started to play.
2 hours have passed, people have come and gone. Y/N was still playing the useless monotone music she had been forced to play; letting her mind wander off to other places.
If only people could hear what I have to offer, she thought. If only I got discovered.
Thinking that every famous musician right now has started from the bottom, she carried on playing.
Another hour of tapping the meaningless string of notes on the keyboard, Y/N was dead bored. Her tip cup had only what was enough for a meal at McDonalds.
Her finger slipped from the G key; and found its way to an unusual one, E#. Her left hand fingers followed, and she started to play another ballad; one of her one. She began to hum the lyrics she had written to it.
Shawn got out of the cab, exhausted. Wandering down the streets of LA, he looked for a place to have a snack before heading down to his hotel. What place would be open after midnight though?
Suddenly, a beautiful melody flooded his ears. He followed it.
Y/N’s hums turned into soft singing.
A woman’s voice added itself to the piano sounds. The combination of notes swam into Shawn’s mind and put it at peace. He definitely wanted to hear more. His ears telling him the source of the music was coming from a small restaurant, he stepped into it.
There in the middle of the dining area was a grand piano, with a woman his age playing it and singing.
Then from the corner, out came a man in a crisp black suit and overly polished leather shoes. He walked over to the piano, apparently unpleased.
Y/N kept on playing and singing before realizing what she had done. She mentally swore and looked up to see her boss’ scowling face.
“Y/N.” “Please sir, I can explain. This music is mine and I would like to share-“
“Out.”
Y/N grumbled something under her breath, before taking her coat and emptying the cup of change into her purse.
Shawn walked up to her; wanting to speak to her.
“Hi miss, I just heard-“
“I’m sorry, if you’re not a major music producer or of the sort you cannot help me.” Y/N angrily said, not looking up.
“Well, I don’t know if you know me, I’m Shawn Mendes? Songwriter?” Shawn shuffled awkwardly.
She looked up, anger fading from her face.
“Oh god, I’m so sorry; I was just um frustrated back there.” Color rising in Y/N’s face.
Idiot, Y/N thought, I just fucking screamed at the Shawn Mendes.
“Can I um help you?” Y/N asked.
“Well I wanted to ask you what song you were singing.” “Oh it’s an original composition I wrote.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, I know; I’ll never make it in Hollywood.” Y/N shrugged, looking back at her boss.
“No no no gosh, I mean wow like wow that was very beautiful.”
“R-really?” Y/N looked back amazingly. Shawn smiled.
“Yeah, um I’d very much like to hear it again, if that’s okay.”
“Well um, I don’t know where the nearest piano is… Apart from that one.” Y/N smirked mischievously.
“Didn’t your boss literally kick you out?” Shawn chuckled.
“Well. He wouldn’t kick you out, famous Shawn Mendes from Canada who’s gone platinum I don’t know how many times.”
“What are you suggesting?” Shawn smiled, clearly intrigued by this woman.
“If you play one of your songs, and I follow right after; my boss wouldn’t dare kick us out in front of all these customers.
“Ah I’d love to use my fame for a cause like this.” Shawn clapped his hands together.
He walked up to the piano, with Y/N standing beside him, her arms resting on the piano top.
“You got a hold of me…” Shawn started singing.
As his song Mercy went on, Y/N couldn’t help humming. When the bridge came again, she couldn’t hold it in anymore and joined in with Shawn.
“Please have mercy on me, take it easy on my heart.” Shawn continued singing, however he turned his head at Y/N in awe, seeing her sing with her eyes closed.
“Even though you, don’t mean to hurt me, you keep tearing me apart.” Y/N sang alone, Shawn pausing to let her voice resonate across the room without any other sound.
He meant to jump back in, really, but he was so captivated by Y/N that he just kind of forgot to. Before he knew it, his fingers were playing the last chord and Y/N’s voice came down from the last few lyrics.
The whole restaurant clapped and cheered.
“Encore!” Someone said.
Shawn gladly slipped off the piano bench and handed Y/N the seat.
Y/N spoke, loud enough for anyone to hear, but mainly to Shawn only:
“Um this is a song I wrote a couple days ago. I just came up with it when I was um on the streets playing ha.”
And Y/N started to play.
The streets, Shawn thought. He had never known how it was like to be a struggling musician; he was very lucky he got discovered through the internet at an early age.
This was how a lot of great musicians started then, he thought. Playing at random restaurants, in the streets; praying for an agent or someone marking to walk by and notice them.
Well he definitely noticed Y/N. And he was going to do something about it.
 A/N: ANYONE WANT PART 2??
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lefilmdujour · 4 years
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Another 500th movie celebration
My Tumblr just reached the 1000 movies mark, so I figured it’s time I write something about my last 2 and a half years of movie viewings and recommend 50 more movies out of the ones I’ve seen since the last 500th movie celebration.
Times have been strange in the last couple of years, and my movie habits have reflected it. There have been times when watching films was all I would do, but there have also been moments of complete disconnection from the medium. I went from watching several movies every day to spending months avoiding anything to do with sitting through a movie. 
Part of it had to do with the space I share with my demons, but mostly there has been a change of pace. My laptop died, it took me months to get another one only to also die on me. On the other hand, an enormous chunk of my viewings have been in cinemas or squats, which is a very positive change but led me to watch more recent films in detriment of classics or ancient underappreciated gems. I also got my first TV in over a decade this month, and my very first Netflix account last week, so I may be exploring streaming a bit more, although so far I am not finding the experience  at all satisfying. All pointless excuses since I went through 500+ movies in a little over two years, which is not bad at all.
It was hard to pick only 50 movies this time, and the list would have probably looked a little different if I did it tomorrow. Regardless, here are 50 movies I recommend, and why. Random order, all deserving of love and attention.
Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff) - This movie is unfairly  ignored in the best comic book adaptation lists out there on the internet. The opening scene is memorable, the soundtrack is a lesson in early Blues, and the characters are quirky and well written.
Hate (Mathieu Kassovitz) - An absolute classic about the class system in France and its tendency to end up in riots. Beautiful shot and highly quotable. Saw it a few times, the last of them with a live score from Asian Dub Foundation. One of the greats.
Audition (Takashi Miike) - Whenever I’m asked about my favorite horror movie, I tend to fall back on this one. Audition is very slow, starting out soft but with an underlying tension that builds until the absolutely gut-wrenching finale that makes us question our own sanity. Brilliant subversion of the “hear, don’t see” rule, just the though of some of the sounds used in the most graphic scenes still send shivers down my spine.
Kedi (Ceyda Torun) - A Turkish documentary about street cats, what’s there not to like?
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (Park Chan-wook) - The third in the loosely-connected Vengeance trilogy by Park Chan-wook, and my favorite of the bunch, especially the Fade to Black and White edition, in which the movie very gradually loses color as the violence grows. A visual masterpiece.
Paterson (Jim Jarmusch) - The poetry of routine. Adam Driver is one hell of an actor.
Love Me If You Dare (Yann Samuell) - Two people that obviously love each other but are not mature enough to follow it through. Frustrating. Beautiful. Made me sob.
The Exterminating Angel (Luis Buñuel) - I am realizing that a good part of this list deals with frustration. A group of people finds themselves unable to leave a party for no apparent reason. Buñuel is a genious in surrealism, I have yet to watch most of his Mexican period.
The Mutants (Teresa Villaverde) - Kids on the run from themselves. Strong visuals, very moving interactions at times. A hard but very rewarding watch. Teresa Villaverde’s entire filmography also gets a seal of approval.
Bad Education (Pedro Almodóvar) - A movie about sexuality and problematic relationships, taken to unbelievable extremes.
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu) - The adventures of Mr. Lazarescu as he struggles to find help for the sudden pain he feels and ends up being passed on from hospital to hospital. Felt very real. Sold as a comedy, but I found it terrifying. 
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos) - A classic greek tragedy brought to the modern age. My favorite Lanthimos film, ranking slightly below Dogtooth. The deadpan acting and the unnerving sound serves as wonderful misdirection.
It’s Such a Beautiful Day (Don Hertzfeldt) - Three shorts stitched together to create a confusing, philosophical, absurd, funny and deep masterpiece. The animation skills of Don Hertzfeldt needs more recognition.
Amores Perros (Alejandro González Iñárritu) - A movie so good it didn’t even had an English name. Three tales of love, violence and loss, all linked by a dog.
Endless Poetry (Alejandro Jodorowsky) - Jodorowsky’s romanticized auto-biography, played by his own sons.Bohemian and poetic.
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer) - Show this movie to someone who refuses to watch silent movies. The acting is so impactful and emotional, and the use of close ups was highly unusual for the time. A 90-plus years old masterpiece.
Everything is Illuminated (Liev Schreiber) - Sunflowers.
Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan) - I have a soft spot for war movies, as to remind myself how brutal people can be to their fellow man and how meaningless the concept of nations truly is. This movie in particular achieves greatness due to its usage of sound, the best I’ve heard in recent memory.
Vagabond (Agnès Varda) - Be careful of what you wish for yourself, you may end up frozen and miserable in a ditch (spoilers for literally the first few seconds of the film).
Stroszek (Werner Herzog) - I know Herzog mostly through his documentaries. His voice brings me the feeling of a deranged grandpa sharing stories of a reality tainted by dementia. I have yet to explore his fiction work in-depth, and this has been my starting point. Stroszek is bleak and desperate but humor still shines through it at times. Ian Curtis allegedly hung himself after watching it. Not sure if this story is real, but it once more feeds into the Herzog myth.
HyperNormalization (Adam Curtis) - Put together through found footage and newscasts, HyperNormalization is an unforgiving study on how we got to where we currently are. Fake becomes real. Trust is an abandoned concept. “They've undermined our confidence in the news that we are reading/And they make us fight each other with our faces buried deep inside our phones”, as AJJ sings in Normalization Blues. Which you should also check out.
Chicken with Plums (Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud) - A man decides to die, so he goes to bed and waits. An apparent simple plot that uncovers a world of beauty and poetry, as life passes slowly through the man’s eyes.
The Florida Project (Sam Baker) - William Dafoe was born to play the role of a motel manager. He is so natural in his role that I think he would actually be great in that job. The rest of the movie is great too, but his performance is the highlight for me.
Lucky (John Carroll Lynch) - Speaking of great performances, Lucky is Harry Dean Stanton’s final movie and a great send off. IMDB describes it best: “The spiritual journey of a ninety-year-old atheist.“
Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders) - More Harry Dean Stanton. The desert plays a more than decorative role in this wonderful movie, representing the emptiness that comes from estrangement. A story about reunion and all that can come from it.
On Chesil Beach (Dominic Cooke) - I sometimes cry in movies, but this one shook me to the core. A play on expectations and reactions and their devastating impact on relationships. We all fuck up sometimes. Try not to fuck up like these characters did, not on that level, you will never be able to make up for it.
The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson) - An absolute classic. A movie about the concept of family.
No Country for Old Men (Coen Brothers) - Murder mysteries and bad haircuts.
Dawson City: Frozen Time (Bill Morrison) - I highly recommend this documentary for anyone who professes their love for cinema. The story of how hundreds of lost silent movies were preserved though sheer luck and human stupidity. Seeing these damaged frames coming back to life is truly magical.
Mandy (Panos Cosmatos) - Some films turn into cult experiences through the years, some selected few are already born that way. Mandy is a psychedelic freak-out and Nicholas Cage fits like a glove in its weirdness. If you didn’t catch it while in cinemas, you’re already missing out on the full experience. Mandy is filled with film grain, which adds to the hallucinogenic experience with its continuous movement, a feature that does not translate when transferred to a digital medium. 
City of God (Fernando Meirelles & Kátia Lund) - A masterpiece of Brazilian cinema, very meaningful and relatable if you grew up in a similar environment. One of the most quotable films in my memory, something that gets lost in translation if you don’t speak Portuguese. My Tumblr is mostly pictures because I “só sei lê só as figura”.
Loro (Paolo Sorrentino) - On the topic of languages, I watched this Italian movie with Dutch subtitles, by mistake. It is actually an interesting exercise, watching something without fully grasping every word and letting your mind patch the pieces together to make a coherent narrative. Impressive cinematography, amazing script. I learned a lot about corruption, not everyone has a price. I also learned I can speak Italian now.
Roma (Alfonso Cuarón) - Beautiful shot, every frame of it can be turned into a picture. Roma is about the meaning of family, seen from the eyes of someone who will never be part of it. A lot of people considered this movie boring and pointless. These people probably have maids at home.
Bad Times at the El Royale (Drew Goddard) - Engaging heist movie, well developed characters, amazing soundtrack.
Melancholia (Lars von Trier) - The World is coming to an end and the date and time has been announced. How would you react to these news? Would it matter?
Climax (Gaspar Noé) - A very scary experience, equal parts trippy and evil like all Gaspar Noé’s movies. A dark ballet that that shocks and confuses the senses. Dante’s Inferno.
Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold) - A strong story about ambitions, neglect and survival. Katie Jarvis is very realistic in her performance, a little too much judging by her history after the movie.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour) - An Iranian feminist movie about vampirism and records. Watched it with live score from The Black Heart Rebellion for extra cool points.
Another Day of Life (Raul de la Fuente & Damian Nenow) - Based on Ryszard Kapuściński‘s autobiography, Another Day of Life consists of rotoscopic animation sprinkled with interviews. A look at the Cold War in the African continent, and an important watch for everyone, especially Portuguese and Angolan nationals.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino) - Rich in dialogues and paced very slowly until the insane climax, this is probably the best Tarantino film after Pulp Fiction. Filled to the brim with cinematic references, it’s a delight to all film nerds. Looking forward for an Bud Spencer/Terrence Hill film adaption with Leonardo Dicaprio and Brad Pitt after this.
The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine) - Google’s top voted tags: Boring. Mindless. Cringe-Worthy. Forgettable. Slow. Illogical. Looks like this movie didn’t resonate well with the audiences, but then again Harmony Korine’s stuff is not for the masses. I personally think this is one of his best movies, a true exercise on nihilism. The main character is lovable and detestable in equal parts, and every action is pointless. Such is life, the only meaning it has is attributed by yourself.
The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky) - A man reflects on his life. Memories tend to get fuzzy, conflicting and confusing. More like a poem than a narrative. A dreamy masterpiece.
The Spirit of the Beehive (Víctor Erice) - The most charming child of this list, she couldn’t memorize the names of the characters she interacted with so they were changed to the names of the actual actors. The innocence of childhood in dark times.
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (Roy Andersson) - A series of absurd vignettes connected by a pair of novelty items salesmen and their struggle to bring a smile to a grey World. Slow, but humorous and delightful. An unconventional and memorable ride.
Man Bites Dog (Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel & Benoît Poelvoorde) - Fake documentary about a serial killer. Heavy, gruesome and hard to watch, despite the false sense of humor in some scenes.A glimpse at the darkness of human nature.
Tangerine (Sean Baker) - Shot with cell phones. A story about love, gender and friendship. Funny, sad, touching.
The Guilty (Gustav Möller) - Focused on a shift of an emergency dispatcher, the camera focuses only on his face and phone interactions with the callers.A very effective thriller, its setting leads us to create our own narratives just to subvert them at the most unexpected times.
Cold War (Paweł Pawlikowski) - Loosely inspired in Pawlikowski’s parents, Cold War is a beautiful love story set against impossible odds. Powerful and heartbreaking. 
Parasite (Bong Joon-ho) - Poor family scams rich family. Rich family takes advantage of poor family. Everybody feeds off of everyone. Drama/Comedy/Thriller/Horror/Romance about control, delivered in a masterclass on cinematic rhythm. Best film of its year for me.
The Straight Story (David Lynch) - More than the fact that this movie is radically different than the remaining Lynch work, The Straight Story is a wonderful exercise in pacing and storytelling. Mr. Straight’s stories allow us to fill in the blanks with our imagination, and their impact in him is also felt in us. An underappreciated gem in its apparent simplicity.
Thank you very much for reading.
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I've noticed so many times on the internet that people lament about being perpetually lonely, normally by people in their late teens through to the late 20s. They talk about how it's hopeless and how they will never find anyone, and how they should just accept being alone and get used to it. If you identify with this, then this post is for you. And I also want to preface this post by stating that if you're genuinely ok with being alone, then this is not for you. However, if you're on a subreddit entitled /r/dating_advice, then it probably is. I also want to state that if you have mental health problems such as depression or anxiety, you shouldn't take what I say as gospel because parts of it might come across as disparaging instead of motivating, and your answer is elsewhere (professional help). I know that in my darkest moments I wouldn't want someone offering me tough love because that would've dragged me down even further, so take care out there. Maybe you'll benefit from some parts of it, though, because I feel the self-development part is important.I would know what it feels like to post about being unlovable etc. because I am one of these people. There was always some reason why I couldn't get a date. Too ugly, my body looks like shit, too passive, too introverted, too hard to approach, too hard to meet people, not what women wanted, whatever. Whenever I read a story about someone else's romantic or sex life, I would feel depressed and jealous. I tried to make peace with being alone and pretend that it didn't bother me and it would work for a while and I'd enjoy myself, but the crushing loneliness and depression would always come back. I wanted to date and find someone, and I was settling for less because I felt I couldn't get these things. I understood that dating wasn't everything, but I sure as hell wasn't happy for disqualifying myself from it. It was either accepting being alone, or making steps to make sure I could get it, or at least put myself in a happier position. The former option was unpalatable for me because of how it would make me feel, so I've finally decided to focus on putting myself in a happier position and maybe starting to look for love. I'm not as hopeless or unattractive as I think I am, and I need to stop lying to myself about why I'm alone. I am alone because I don't try hard enough and probably have to work on myself a bit, not because I am utterly repulsive as per nature's hand. And yes, I am still alone, but I will stop making excuses for myself and be honest with myself.The brain is a funny thing. It needs to find a reason for everything that you do. It hates disharmony (this is called cognitive dissonance), and will choose to give credence to one idea over another to assuage this disharmony. It's like when you procrastinate--you know it's bad for you even though you want to do it, and your brain feels discomfort at these two conflicting ideas. You choose whether the pleasure of procrastinating is greater or weaker than the idea of getting shitty grades. It doesn't matter whether these statements you tell yourself are objectively true or false, your brain will give greater weight to what it perceives to be right or at least have the greater force of influence.Here's a normative development on cognitive dissonance: if you slack off because you reason that it's fine to do so and that having shitty grades is a potential implication, you better damn well accept those consequences and own up to them. You have no one else but yourself to hold accountable. If you don't like the result (and you probably don't, who likes getting shitty grades?), work in a way that ensures that this result is as unlikely to happen as possible. If you can't do the time don't do the crime, and don't use the idea of cognitive dissonance as an excuse for why you didn't try, either: oh, I just chose to do less because I'm ok with doing less**. Settling for less is unacceptable, but achieving less is fine if you intended to not to.** Mediocre intentions suck, mediocre outcomes don't so much.This can be applied to dating.If you want to date but give up, you are settling for less and you won't be happy. Even if you've given up and have given yourself reasons for doing so ("oh, I'm just focusing on myself, it's not that important, it's not worth the effort"), really be honest with yourself and ask if these are the reasons why you are alone. And I know I'm going to hit a nerve by saying this, but chances are that your excuses are bullshit. You're not ok with being alone, it is somewhat important to you, and you do want to date. You've spun a tale for yourself because taking the steps necessary to get what you want are too much work. You've reasoned that it's not worth it because if it was, you'd have done something about it already (using cognitive dissonance as an excuse). So why complain? But I know what you truly think because I've been there myself. "This doesn't apply to me, this guy's an asshole, how dare he tell me that I'm not capable of dating". Yep, that's what my conveyor belt of excuses looks like too. The excuses need to die. Because all you're doing right now is complaining that you're alone, but not doing anything about it despite supposedly being ok with it. You're not. You never will. I never was. It's like not brushing your teeth and wondering why your teeth are rotten. Meh, dental care is too much effort, I'll just be ok with my rotten teeth. It's not that bad. My breath is rancid and I ache all the time, but I have to be ok with this because I know I'll never get around to cleaning them.Ok, so maybe you've realised that you are settling for less. What now? Should I just be miserable until I find someone? Are you telling me that I'm not allowed to be happy until I find someone? No...that's not what I'm saying. I'm telling you to be honest with yourself and go from there. Realising is the first step, taking action is next and necessary. Maybe start with thinking about what you need to do to find someone. Am I grossly out of shape? Do I dress like a slob? Do I have interesting hobbies, am I good conversationalist? Who do I meet, and who do I ask out? And since you see average people in relationships all the time, the standards aren't that high. You don't need to be a self-improvement zealot, but you need to be fulfilled with your life. Would you date someone like you?This brings up my next point, and it is important in spite of what all I've said:You absolutely don't need a dating life to be a happy, fulfilled person.Before slaying the excuses you've set for yourself about not dating and settling for less, ask yourself what it is about dating that will make you happy. The answer seems obvious (love makes you feel fuzzy!), but ask yourself what you will get out of it. Dating and sex are an important cog in the lives of many and don't let anyone tell you otherwise if you believe them to be, but they are amongst other things. If you seek these things out to quell the perennial loneliness in your life, maybe you're doing it for the wrong reasons. If you seek these things out because they're fun and enrich your life and maybe you are transiently lonely (which is fine!), perhaps you're doing them for the right reasons. But despite this, it is not everything. There are so many places to visit, experiences to be had, people to meet, books to read, films to watch, music to listen to, games to play, hobbies to try, food and drink to supplement, and personal goals to be met. It can certainly feel like everything is meaningless if there's no one to share it with, but it really isn't. Maybe rediscovering what you love can kick you out of the slump that you've found yourself in. Maybe this will make you realise what you truly want out of dating. A lot of people think that dating will raiseThe point I'm trying to make is nuanced, but it is that people who choose to be alone because they feel inferior are settling for less, which will never make you happy. Those who are alone by choice are not settling for less because they're being true to themselves. You need to develop some integrity and be honest with yourself about why you're alone, and if it is out of your hopelessness or feelings of inadequacy, then you will never be happy. You need to stop making excuses and learn how to get out of your comfort zone and start dating if this is the case, and/or focus on yourself and pursue your passions. Excuses and settling for less are both unacceptable, because the pain of regret and not being good enough will never fade. It's not morally wrong to settle for less, but it is poisonous to your mental health.Finally, I'd like to end this article by asking you to do something. I saw this in David Wong's 6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person, which is a very motivating article even I don't regard it as 100% true. It is to name five impressive things about yourself. You can't list character traits unless you've done something that is demonstrative of that trait (e.g. you can't call yourself hard-working if you have nothing that shows this). Name five, objective things that you've achieved--they can be anything, like building a model, lifting a certain amount of weight, winning something, etc. If you can't, maybe you should start working on yourself a bit more. You need reason to feel good about yourself, and maybe you feel inadequate because you have no reason to feel good about yourself.Thanks for reading. I'm willing to debate people on a few points if there is disagreement, and I'm willing to change my stance if I am swayed significantly. via /r/dating_advice
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