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cruisingthedemimonde · 3 years

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America’s Gay Men in WW2

World War Two was a “National Coming Out” for queer Americans.

I don’t think any other event in history changed the lives of so many of us since Rome became Christian.

For European queers the war brought tragedy.

The queer movement began in Germany in the 1860s when trans activist Karl Ulrichs spoke before the courts to repeal Anti-Sodomy laws. From his first act of bravery the movement grew and by the 1920s Berlin had more gay bars than Manhattan did in the 1980s. Magnus Hirschfeld’s “Scientific Humanitarian Committee” fought valiantly in politics for LGBT rights and performed the first gender affirmation surgeries. They were a century ahead of the rest of the world.

The Nazis made Hirschfeld - Socialist, Homosexual and Jew - public enemy number one.

The famous image of the Nazis burning books? Those were the books of the Scientific Humanitarian Committee. Case studies of the first openly queer Europeans, histories, diaries - the first treasure trove of our history was destroyed that day.

100,000 of us were charged with felonies. As many as 15,000 were sent to the camps, about 60% were murdered.

But in America the war brought liberation.

In a country where most people never even heard the word “homosexual” , historian John D’emilio wrote the war was “conducive both to the articulation of a homosexual identity and to the more rapid evolution of a gay subculture. (24)” The war years were “a Watershed (Eaklor 68)”

Now before we begin I need to give a caveat. The focus of this first post is not lesbians, transfolk or others in our community. Those stories have additional complexity the story of cisgender homosexual men does not. Starting with gay men lets me begin in the simplest way I can, in subsequent posts I’ll look at the rest of our community.

Twilight Aristocracy: Being Queer Before the War

I want us to go back in time and imagine the life of the typical queer American before the war. Odds are you lived on a farm and simply accepted the basic fact that you would marry and raise children as surely as you were born or would die. You would have never seen someone Out or Proud. If you did see your sexuality or gender in contrary ways you had no words to express it, odds are even your doctor had never heard the term “Homosexual. In your mind it was just a quirk, without a name or possible expression.

In the city the “Twilight Aristocracy” lived hidden, on the margins and exposed their queerness only in the most coded ways. Gay men “Dropping pins” with a handkerchief in a specific pocket. Butch women with key chains heavy enough to show she didn’t need a man to carry anything for her. A secret language of “Jockers” and “Nances” “Playing Checkers” during a night out. There is a really good article on the queer vernacular here

And these were “Lovers in a Dangerous Time.”

In public one must act as straight as possible. Two people of the same gender dancing could be prosecuted. Cross dressing, even with something as trivial as a woman wearing pants, would run afoul of obscenity laws.

The only spaces we had for ourselves were dive bars, run by organized crime. But even then one must be sure to be circumspect, and act straight. Anyone could be an undercover cop. If a gaze was held to long, or lovers kissed in a corner the bar would be raided. Police saw us as worthy candidates for abuse so beatings were common and the judge would do all he could to humiliate you.

Now Michael Foucault, the big swinging french dick of queer theory, laid out this whole theory about how the real policing in a society happens inside our heads. Ideas about sin, shame, normalcy, mental illness can all be made to control people, and the Twilight Aristocracy was no different.

While cruising a park at night, or settled on the sofa with a lifelong lover, the thoughts of Priests and Doctors haunted them. “Am I living in Sin? Am I someone God could love?” “Is this healthy? Have I gone mad? Is this a true love or a medical condition which requires cure?”

There was no voice in America yet healing our self doubt, or demanding the world accept us as we are. And that voice, the socialist Harry Hay, did not come during the war, but it would come shortly after directly because of it.

Johnny Get Your Gun… And are you now or ever been a Homosexual?

For the first time in their lives millions of young men crossed thousands of miles from their home to the front.

But before they made that brave journey they had another, unexpected and often torturous journey. The one across the doctor’s office at a recruiting station.

In the nineteenth century queerness moved from an act, “Forgive me Father I have sinned, I kissed another man” to something you are, “The homosexual subspecies can be identified by certain physical and psychological signs.”

These were the glory days of patriarchy and white supremacy, those who transgressed the line between masculine and feminine called the whole culture into question. So doctors obsessed themselves with queerness, its origins, its signs, its so called catastrophic racial consequences and its cure.

“Are you a homosexual?” doctors asked stunned recruits.

If you were closeted but patriotic, you would of course deny the accusation. But the doctor would continue his examination by checking if you were a “Real Man.”

“Do you have a girlfriend? Did you like playing sports as a kid?”

If you passed that, the doctor would often try and trip you up by asking about your culture.

“Do you ever go basketeering?” he would ask, remembering to check if there was any lisp or effeminacy in your voice.

Finally if the doctor felt like it he could examine your body to see if you were a member of the homosexual subspecies.

Your gag reflex would be tested with a tongue depressor. Another hole could be carefully examined as well.

Humiliating enough for a straight man. But for a gay recruit the consequences could be life threatening.

Medical authorities knew homosexuals were weak, criminal and mad. To place them among the troops would weaken unit cohesion at the very least, result in treachery at the worst. In civilian life doctors had much the same thing to say.

The recruit needed a cure. And a doctor was always ready. With talk therapy, hypnosis, drugs, electroshock and forced surgeries of the worst kinds there was always a cure ready at hand.

Thankfully the doctors were not successful in their task, one doctor wrote “for every homosexual who was referred or came to the Medical Department, there were five or ten who never were detected. (d’Emilio 25)”

Here’s the irony though, by asking such pointed and direct questions to people closeted to themselves it forced them to confront their sexuality for the first time.

Hegarty writes, “As a result of the screening policies, homosexuality became part of wartime discourse. Questions about homosexual desire and behavior ensured that every man inducted into the armed forces had to confront the possibility of homosexual feelings or experiences. This was a kind of massive public education about homosexuality. Despite—and be-cause of—the attempts to eliminate homosexuals from the military, men with same-sex desires learned that there were many people like themselves (Hegarty 180)”

And then it gave them a golden opportunity to have fun.

The 101st Airborn - Homosocial and Homosexual

“Homosocial” refers to a gender segregated space. And they were often havens for gay men. The YMCA for example really was a place for young gay men to meet.

Now the government was already aware of the kind of scandalous sexual behaviour young men can get up to when left to themselves. Two major government programs before the war, the Federal Transient Program and the Civilian Conservation Corps focused on unattached young men, but over time these spaces became highly suspect and the focus shifted to helping family men so as to avoid giving government aid to ‘sexual perversion’ in these homosocial spaces.

But with the war on there was no choice but to put hundreds of thousands of young men in their own world. All male boot camps, all male bases, all male front lines.

The emotional intensity broke down the barriers between men and the strict enforcement of gendered norms.

On the front the men had no girlfriend, wife or mother to confide in. The soldier’s body was strong and heroic but also fragile. Straight men held each other in foxholes and shared their emotional vulnerability to each other. Gender lines began to blur as straight men danced together in bars an action that would result in arrest in many American cities.

Bronski writes, “Men were now more able to be emotional, express their feelings, and even cry. The stereotypical “strong, silent type,” quintessentially heterosexual, that had characterized the American Man had been replaced with a new, sensitive man who had many of the qualities of the homosexual male. (Bronski 152)”

Homosexual men discovered in this environment new freedoms to get close to one another without arousing suspicion.

“Though the military officially maintained an anti-homosexual stance, wartime conditions nonetheless offered a protective covering that facilitated interaction among gay men (d’Emilio 26)”

Bob Ruffing, a chief petty officer in the Navy described this freedom as follows, ‘When I first got into the navy—in the recreation hall, for instance— there’d be eye contact, and pretty soon you’d get to know one or two people and kept branching out. All of a sudden you had a vast network of friends, usually through this eye contact thing, some through outright cruising. They could get away with it in that atmosphere. (d’Emilio 26) ”

Another wrote about their experience serving in the navy in San Diego, “‘Oh, these are more my kind of people.’ We became very chummy, quite close, very fraternal, very protective of each other. (Hegarty 180)”

Some spaces within the army became queer as well. The USO put on shows for soldiers, and since they could not find women to play parts, the men often dressed in drag. “impersonation. For actors and audiences, these performances were a needed relief from the stress of war. For men who identified as homosexual, these shows were a place where they could, in coded terms, express their sexual desires, be visible, and build a community. (Bronski 148)”

“Here you see three lovely “girls”

With their plastic shapes and curls.

Isn’t it campy? Isn’t it campy?

We’ve got glamour and that’s no lie;

Can’t you tell when we swish by?

Isn’t it campy? Isn’t it campy?”

The words camp and swish being used in the gay subculture and connected to effeminate gay men.

I would have to assume, more than a few transwomen gravitated to these spaces as well.

Even the battlefield itself provided opportunities for gay fraternization. A beach in Guam for example became a secret just for the gay troops, they called it Purple Beach Number 2, after a perfume brand.

This homoerotic space was not confined to the military, but spilled out into civilian life as well.

Donald Vining was a pacifist who stated bluntly his homosexuality to the recruitment board as his mother needed his work earnings, and if you wanted be a conscientious objector you had to apply to go to an objector’s camp. He became something of a soldier chaser, working in the local YMCA and volunteering at the soldier’s canteen in New York he hooked up with soldiers still closeted for a night of passion but many more who were open about who they were.

After the war he was left with a network of gay friends and a strong sense of belonging to a community. It was dangerous tho, he was victim of robberies he could not report because they happened during hook ups, but police were always ready to raid gay bars when they were bored. “It was obvious that [the police] just had to make a few arrests to look busy,” he protested in his diary. “It was a travesty of justice and the workings of the police department (d’Emilio 30).״

Now it might seem odd he was able to plug into a community like that, but over the war underground gay bars appeared across the country for their new clientele. Even the isolated Worcester Mass got a gay bar.

African American men, barred from combat on the front lines, were not entirely barred from the gay subculture in the cities. For example in Harlem the jazz bar Lucky Rendevous was reported in Ebony as whites and blacks “steeped in the swish jargon of its many lavender costumers. (Bronski 149)”

The Other War: Facing Homophobia

“For homosexual soldiers, induction into the military forced a sudden confrontation with their sexuality that highlighted the stigma attached to it and kept it a matter of special concern (d’Emilio 25)”

“They were fighting two wars: one for America, democracy, and freedom; the other for their own survival as homosexuals within the military organization. (Eaklor 68)”

Once they were in, they fell under Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice: “Any person subject to this chapter who engages in unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex or with an animal is guilty of sodomy. Penetration, however slight, is sufficient to complete the offense.”

Penalties could include five years hard labour, forced institutionalization or fall under the dreaded Section 8 discharge, a stamp of mental instability that would prevent you from finding meaningful employment in civilian life.

Even if one wanted nothing to do with fulfilling their desires it was still essential to become hyper aware of your presentation and behaviour in order to avoid suspicion.

Coming Home to Gay Ghettos

“The veterans of World War II were the first generation of gay men and women to experience such rapid, dramatic, and widespread changes in their lives as homosexuals. Bronski 154”

After the war many queer servicemen went on to live conventionally heterosexual lives. But many more returned to a much queerer life stateside.

Bob Ruffing would settle down in San Francisco. The city has always been a safe harbour for queer Americans, made more so as ex servicemen gravitated to its liberated atmosphere. The port cities of New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles became the prime destinations to settle. Vining’s partner joined him in New York, where they both immersed themselves in the gay culture.

Other soldiers moved to specific neighborhoods known for having small gay communities. San Francisco’s North Beach, the west side of Boston’s Beacon Hill, or New York’s Greenwich Village. Following the war the gay populations of these cities increased dramatically.

The cities offered parks, coffee houses and bars which became queer spaces. And drag performance, music and comedy became features of this culture.

These veterans also founded organizations just for the queer soldiers. In Los Angeles the Knights of the Clock provided a space for same sex inter racial couples. In New York the Veterans Benevolent Association would often see 400-500 homosexuals appear at its events.

A number of books bluntly explored homosexuality following the war, such as The Invisible Glass which tells the story of an inter racial couple in Italy,

“With a slight moan Chick rolled onto his left side, toward the Lieutenant. His finger sought those of the officer’s as they entwined their legs. Their faces met. The breaths, smelling sweet from wine, came in heavy drawn sighs. La Cava grasped the soldier by his waist and drew him tightly to his body. His mouth pressed down until he felt Chick’s lips part. For a moment they lay quietly, holding one another with strained arms.”

Others like Gore Vidal’s The City and the Pillar (1948), Fritz Peters’s The World Next Door (1949), and James Barr’s Quatrefoil (1950) explored similar themes.

In 1948 the Kinsey Report would create a public firestorm by arguing that homosexuality is shockingly common. In 1950 The Mattachine Society, a secretive group of homosexual Stalinists launched America’s LGBT movement.

References:

Michael Bronski “A Queer History of the United States”

John D’emilio “Coming Out Under Fire”

Vivki L Eaklor “Queer America: A GLBT History of America”

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The Lesbians

In 1947 General Eisenhower told a purple heart winning Sargeant Johhnie Phelps, “It's come to my attention that there are lesbians in the WACs, we need to ferret them out”.

Phelps replied, “"If the General pleases, sir, I'll be happy to do that, but the first name on the list will be mine."

Eisenhower’s secretary added “"If the General pleases, sir, my name will be first and hers will be second."

Join me again May 17 to hear the story of America’s Lesbians during the war.

#gay history #world war two #queer history #gay #lgbt

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letterstothemidnightsociety · 3 years

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Previously On Supernatural Season 3, we had a really rock solid trio of episodes to kick us off right, so what does SPN do next? It’s gonna lay the groundwork for some spicy character development that may or may not pay off by the end of the season. Let's find out!

To be honest, I felt the next three episodes just sort of plateau? There’s enough nuggets in these three eps - “Sin City”, “Bedtime Stories”, and “Red Sky at Morning” - that it does feel like they’re setting up for something big but it’s taking too much time. If the season had been longer, I don’t know that I’d be complaining, because there’s SO much potential introduced with these character developments, but I know it’s gonna get cut off at the knees in the very near future. 2021 Me has been trained on what to expect from a short season, so half of my brain wants to give the show slack for Unexpected Circumstances, but the other half of my brain is shouting YOUR NOT DRIVING THE BUS FAST ENOUGH, YOU’LL NEVER MAKE IT TO THE END OF THE LINE IN TIME!!!

And that’s maybe unfair because there really are some great nuggets in here. We’ve got “Sin City”, which is Dean’s episode. I mean, they’re ALL Dean’s episode, but this one more so than the other two in this post. Dean gets trapped with a demon who turns out to be...kinda...nice? In kind of a Stockholm Syndromey way I guess? She let’s Dean in on the fate that awaits him when his year long contract is up and it is NOT great. This isn’t the first time we see that there’s more to the demons than SPN has shown us in the past (hello, Ruby), but it is the first time Dean chills out enough to actually have a conversation with one. Dean doesn’t really get it, like he’s still not interested in getting out of his deal, but the fear gets planted, it just needs some time to grow. Oh, also, the Colt Ex Machina is back in action, so that's important.

This dumb bitch thinks he can fool us with that devil-may-care side glance but he caaaan't

But then we get “Bedtime Stories”, the Sam episode, where Sam learns...to let go? That’s the point of this episode right? It’s about letting go of someone before that person becomes too toxic and dangerous? At least, that’s the lesson that Dean wants Sam to take away from this case. But Sam will NOT learn this lesson, so instead he tries to cancel Dean’s deal by killing the crossroads demon who wrote it. Spoiler Alert: it doesn't work.

And then we get “Red Sky At Morning”, which opens and closes with some heavy emotional baggage, but then is stuffed full of fun. Like, this episode ricochets wildly in terms of Feelings, but then that’s probably what we should expect from SPN. I mean, what show have I been watching for 3 seasons now?

Fun Facts guys: I’m a tired Millenial, and swapping DVD discs was too much work so I switched over to watching this season on Netflix and GUESS WHAT???? THESE EPISODES COME WITH A SUICIDE WARNING!?!?!

They're not wrong.

And like, if that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about this season I don’t know WHAT will. Cuz Dean is absolutely suicidal and I am surprised (??) I guess (???) by how much the show acknowledges that. Or I guess, surprised by how much Netflix acknowledges that. It’s something that I did not...pick up on the first go around on season 3, possibly because I was 19 and I was an idiot and found this sort of emotional vulnerability to be endearing. Listen, I know there’s a lot to be said about the producers of the show making...umm…poor decisions in regards to character developments? But if the target demographic of this show was anything like me - and I suspect they were - then the viewers were also...probably...responding inappropriately to some of those character developments. And here’s the thing - I’m looking at this from 12 years in the future, with 12 years worth of real life drama that makes the heavy handed melodrama of television feel...well, heavy handed. Maybe irresponsible? Certainly a little uncomfortable. Big Me is having A Time confronting Little Me’s taste in TV Characters. It’s one thing to have a kink, Little Me, it’s another thing to romanticize suicidal depression.

And hey, I can’t deny that the character development for Dean makes sense. I actually appreciate that the show is thinking through the world and the relationship dynamics that they’ve built and the toll that these misadventures are having on their main characters. These episodes all get bookended by Impala Fights where Sam keeps pushing Dean to give a shit about his own life and Dean responds with an inability to care. That’s just where he is right now, and I get that. We’re early in the season still. But how will the rest of the season handle this? I honestly can’t remember but I also don’t want this to be a throw-away issue that they use to remind us that Dean’s supposed to die at the end of the season. I’m prob gonna come back to this throughout the season because I ~just~want~this~show~to be~repsonsiblllllleeeeeeeeeeee.

Lol, I know, that’s a lot to ask from the CW.

ON TO MORE FUN THINGS!!

Sam is gettin’ reeeeeallll bitchy in these episodes and #1, I love it, Bitchy Sam 5Ever, but also #2, was this supposed to be the sign that Sam was going darkside? Like, he’s snarky, he’s angry, he’s not pulling any punches and that could just be him reacting to his brother’s situation but it could also be….you know...him...becoming slightly...evil? For instance in “Sin City”, he kills the two demons who kidnapped Dean without even thinking. On the one hand, this is the Winchester MO, they kill demons, that’s their job, but on the other hand, Dean is actively telling Sam to stop. Same deal in “Bed Time Stories” - Sam kills the crossroads demon in cold blood (or maybe viscera). Again, we could blame this on instinct - the Winchesters were brought up to do exactly this - but 1) Dean keeps telling Sam not to and 2) that’s not Sam. This show spent 2 seasons telling us that Sam is the Good Brother, the White Hat, the Touchy-Feely One. This is not the Touchy Feely Sam who reasons with ghosts and falls in love with werewolves. Like, everyone else sees it too, right? Also, he is usually very nice to everyone but he is a REAL BITCH to Gertrude in “Red Sky at Morning.” Like, come on, Sam, she just wants to have a nice time. She is OLD. You really think she’s got what it takes to climb that tree?

Honestly, how tall are this lady's heels?

I know that there was a plan for Sam to start Turning in this season before the show’s episode order got slashed due to the Writer’s Strike. And man, I really would have liked to have seen this play out. Like, first season Sam is the Innocent, right? He’s our stand in for the viewer in those first few episodes and then he’s revealed to be kind of the only thing that went right in the lives of both John and Dean, so Baby Must Be Protected at All Costs. The fact that John ultimately lets Sam go off to college and doesn’t contact him for the next four years says to me that on some level, John felt the need to preserve that innocence, that kind of untouched quality Sam has. Dean is very similar - whenever Sam gets too into the job, Dean calls him out on it. So in the second season when we find out that Sam might be evil, it’s a real punch in the gut, for Dean most of all. But then the show admittedly got bored with that storyline and it didn’t really go anywhere. So whereas Dean has personality in SPADES that fluctuates and changes and develops/maybe just gets more intense as the show goes on, Sam remains that kind of blank slate that the viewer can put their face on. Except now we’re in season three, and if you’ve bought into this show, then you’ve bought into it, so the audience doesn’t need a Blank Slate Sam anymore. And if you start with Sam the Innocent and then introduce the idea of Dark!Sam and then just leave that concept hanging, then isn’t this sort of like Checkov’s Evil Sam? If you introduce Evil Sam in the first act you really ought to deliver on Evil Sam by act three, right? Wouldn’t that have been A+ and Wild? Wouldn’t that have made Sam’s arc and emotional struggles over the previous seasons have more weight?

Will this be resolved in later seasons? Maybe. I’m gonna be honest, this is the last season I watched all the way through and seasons 4 through...like, 8 were real touch and go for me. I know that Sam ultimately is revealed to be a vessel for??? The devil??? And Dean is ultimately revealed to be a vessel for??? Michael??? And then the two of them???? Fight to the death???? Point is, season 5 got weird guys and I’m not there yet.

Back to more fun things! You know what guys?? I think I ship Dean and Bela. I’m...almost ashamed to admit it? Like, I remember Little Me watching this season and just dumping on Bela, I HATED her, but this time? I am 1,000% On Board This Ship. Like, there is an alternate universe somewhere where these two got a spinoff show that ran for 6 seasons and I watched EVERY episode. And then, like, 5 years after it ended, they rebooted it with Dean and Bela’s grown up daughter as the lead and the whole OG cast makes cameos over the three seasons it stays on the air and it’s amazing. I’d own both shows on DVD.

What I like about Bela this time around (and again, I am WILDLY surprised about this development), is that she can dish it just as hard as the Winchesters can. Like, every line Dean throws at her she holds up a mirror to say, “Oh yes, I know the Kettle is black, but what color are you, Pot?” and I’m just continually thrilled. She is also just as damaged as Dean is but somehow channeling it into a healthier way? Like, she’s true Chaotic Neutral, which is not necessarily healthy, it’s just healthier than Dean. Or maybe it’s just that she’s better at managing it. In either case, they are HOT MESSES and I love it. I just love it. I know I complained about shoehorned romances but Ackles and Lauren Cohan just totally crush it in every scene and when Dean walks down the stairs all She’s All That in “Red Sky at Morning”, I yelled at the screen OMG just BONE already!!!!! And then like, 5 seconds later, Bela literally says “We should really have angry sex,” and it was probably the most vindicating moment I’ve had on this ride so far.

I just think they're neat!

WHY did we cancel her? WHY?? I don’t want to believe it was the Wincest again, so I’m gonna pretend that it wasn’t, but it was definitely fans. According to Kripke, Bela gets the axe at the end of this season because of the fan hatred of her. Now, I’ve already admitted that I personally held a grudge, but good Lord, what was wrong with us, as a Fandom? To be fair to me (and all of us), would we have felt differently if we had not been introduced to Jo a mere season earlier?? I'm gonna say yes. Although I had misgivings about Jo the first episode we meet her, by the end of season 2 I was certainly on her side. Working through season 3, I am remembering that, when we were introduced to Bela, I was immediately FURIOUS because WTF, WHERE’S JO? SPN just introduced to her. They just settled on a love interest for Dean and the writer’s just got me on board with that. Now they’ve completely done away with both that character AND that dynamic and you want me to get on board this NEW thing? And be excited about it??? So I'm gonna blame the love-interest-whiplash, combined with the fact that Little Me related my own personal self more to Jo than to Bela, that made me hate Bela in the first place. When you look at how quickly the show abandoned one character to introduce another character, it makes sense why fans got mad, but I’m also mad that we continued to hate Bela when she turned out to be such an A+ Frenemy. It makes me want to shout at the writers through the time void COMMIT TO A FEMALE CHARACTER YOU JAGWEEDS.

What’s wild watching this show now is just how Male it was, especially considering its audience was already skewed heavily female by this point in the series. If you made this show today, I don’t know that you could do that. Today, there’s a real push for balanced, diverse casts in programming, especially in sci-fi/fantasy and young adult. I think if SPN had started in 2021, they would have introduced the Harvell’s or Bela up in season 1, and that introduction would have been much more intentional. The benefit of having a shorter episode count as the standard is that there’s less of the “throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks” approach. Looking at it from 2021, reading snippets of interviews from Kripke, that’s definitely what they’re doing with the side characters in these seasons and you can feel that in Jo and Bela. A shorter season means that the storytelling has to be tighter, it can’t wander, so every decision has to be a load-bearing decision. On the other hand, one of the down sides of having a shorter episode count is the exact same thing - less room to throw stuff, less room to experiment. Heck, Bobby was technically a character they threw at the wall and he didn’t just stick, he became a tentpole character of the series. The only side character that actually made it into the series finale even!

So how much room should we be giving our television programs? I think it depends on the show, honestly. I think you have to decide up front if you want space to experiment, or if you have one, tight, compact story line that’s gonna drive viewers from episode 1 right through the finale without giving them the chance to catch their breath. You have to make the decision, but that doesn’t mean we have to stop making one style of show in favor of the other. Just because we’re in the Age of Streaming doesn’t mean there isn’t room enough for both.

#Supernatural #Supernatural season 3 #Supernatural rewatch #Sin City #Bedtime Stories #Red Sky at Morning #Sam Winchester #Dean Winchester #Bobby Singer #Bela Talbot #TV #TV history #TV format

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multiverseforger · 3 years

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In his original appearance, Jason was scripted as a mentally disabled young boy.[91] Since Friday the 13th, Jason Voorhees has been depicted as a non-verbal, indestructible, machete-wielding mass murderer.[92][93] Jason is primarily portrayed as being completely silent throughout the film series. Exceptions to this include in part 3 when he grunts in pain several times when final girl Chris manages to stab him (once in the hand and once just above his knee), flashbacks of Jason as a child, a brief scene in Jason Takes Manhattan where the character cries out "Mommy, please don't let me drown!" in a child's voice before being submerged in toxic waste, and in Jason Goes To Hell where his spirit possesses other individuals.[55] Online magazine Salon's Andrew O'Hehir describes Jason as a "silent, expressionless...blank slate."[94] When discussing Jason psychologically, Sean S. Cunningham said, "...he doesn't have any personality. He's like a great white shark. You can't really defeat him. All you can hope for is to survive."[95] Since Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, Jason has been a "virtually indestructible" being. Tom McLoughlin, the film's director, felt it was silly that Jason had previously been just another guy in a mask, who would kill people left and right, but get "beaten up and knocked down by the heroine at the end". McLoughlin wanted Jason to be more of a "formidable, unstoppable monster".[23] In resurrecting Jason from the dead, McLoughlin also gave him the weakness of being rendered helpless if trapped beneath the waters of Crystal Lake; inspired by vampire lore, McLoughlin decided that Jason had in fact drowned as a child, and that returning him to his original resting place would immobilize him.[96] This weakness would be presented again in The New Blood, and the idea that Jason had drowned as a child was taken up by director Rob Hedden as a plot element in Jason Takes Manhattan.[55]

Many have given suggestions as Jason's motivation for killing. Ken Kirzinger refers to Jason as a "psychotic mama's boy gone horribly awry...very resilient. You can't kill him, but he feels pain, just not like everyone else."[97] Kirzinger goes on to say that Jason is a "psycho-savant", and believes his actions are based on pleasing his mother, and not anything personal.[79] Andrew O'Hehir has stated, "Coursing hormones act, of course, as smelling salts to prudish Jason, that ever-vigilant enforcer of William Bennett-style values."[94] Todd Farmer, writer for Jason X, wrote the scene where Jason wakes from cryonic hibernation just as two of the teenagers are having sex. Farmer liked the idea that sex acts triggered Jason back to life.[78] Whatever his motivations, Kane Hodder believes there is a limit to what he will do. According to Hodder, Jason might violently murder any person he comes across, but when Jason Takes Manhattan called for Hodder to kick the lead character's dog, Hodder refused, stating that, while Jason has no qualms against killing humans, he is not bad enough to hurt animals.[98] Another example from Jason Takes Manhattan, involves Jason being confronted by a street gang of young teenage boys one of whom threatens him with a knife, however Jason chooses not to kill them and instead scares them off by lifting up his mask and showing them his face. Likewise, director Tom McLoughlin chose not to have Jason harm any of the children he encounters in Jason Lives, stating that Jason would not kill a child, out of a sympathy for the plight of children generated by his own death as a child.[96]

In Jason Goes to Hell, director Adam Marcus decided to include a copy of the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, from the Evil Dead franchise, in the Voorhees home as a way to insinuate that Jason was actually a "Deadite", a type of demonic being from that series. Marcus stated the book's placement was intended to imply that Pamela Voorhees had used it to resurrect Jason after his childhood drowning, resulting in his supernatural abilities: "This is why Jason isn't Jason. He's Jason plus The Evil Dead... That, to me, is way more interesting as a mashup, and [Sam] Raimi loved it! It's not like I could tell New Line my plan to include The Evil Dead, because they don't own The Evil Dead. So it had to be an Easter egg, and I did focus on it. It absolutely is canon."[99] In an early draft of Freddy vs. Jason, it was decided that one of the villains needed a redeemable factor. Ronald D. Moore, co-writer of the first draft, explained that Jason was the easiest to make redeemable, because no one had previously ventured into the psychology surrounding the character. Moore saw the character as a "blank slate", and felt he was a character the audience could really root for.[100] Another draft, penned by Mark Protosevich, followed Moore's idea of Jason having a redeemable quality. In the draft, Jason protects a pregnant teenager named Rachel Daniels. Protosevich explained, "It gets into this whole idea of there being two kinds of monsters. Freddy is a figure of actual pure evil and Jason is more like a figure of vengeance who punishes people he feels do not deserve to live. Ultimately, the two of them clash and Jason becomes an honorable monster."[100] Writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, who wrote the final draft of the film, disagreed about making Jason a hero, although they drew comparisons between the fact that Freddy was a victimizer and Jason was a victim. They stated, "We did not want to make Jason any less scary. He's still a brutal killer ... We never wanted to put them in a situation where Jason is a hero ... They're both villains to be equally feared."[100] Brenna O'Brien, co-founder of Fridaythe13thfilms.com, saw the character as having sympathetic qualities. She stated, "[Jason] was a deformed child who almost drowned and then spent the rest of his childhood growing up alone in the woods. He saw his mother get murdered by a camp counselor in the first Friday the 13th, and so now he exacts his revenge on anyone who returns to Camp Crystal Lake. Teenage fans can identify with that sense of rejection and isolation, which you can't really get from other killers like Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers."[86]

As Jason went through some characterization changes in the 2009 film, Derek Mears likens him more to a combination of John Rambo, Tarzan, and the Abominable Snowman from Looney Tunes. To him, this Jason is similar to Rambo because he sets up the other characters to fall into his traps. Like Rambo, he is more calculated because he feels that he has been wronged and he is fighting back; he is meant to be more sympathetic in this film.[101] Fuller and Form contend that they did not want to make Jason too sympathetic to the audience. As Brad Fuller explains, "We do not want him to be sympathetic. Jason is not a comedic character, he is not sympathetic. He's a killing machine. Plain and simple."[102]

In 2005, California State University's Media Psychology Lab surveyed 1,166 people Americans aged from 16 to 91 on the psychological appeal of movie monsters. Many of the characteristics associated with Jason Voorhees were appealing to the participants. In the survey, Jason was considered to be an "unstoppable killing machine." Participants were impressed by the "cornucopic feats of slicing and dicing a seemingly endless number of adolescents and the occasional adult." Out of the ten monsters used in the survey—which included vampires, Freddy Krueger, Frankenstein's monster, Michael Myers, Godzilla, Chucky, Hannibal Lecter, King Kong and the Alien—Jason scored the highest in all the categories involving killing variables. Further characteristics that appealed to the participants included Jason's "immortality, his apparent enjoyment of killing [and] his superhuman strength."[103]

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psycheswritings · 4 years

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Nothing’s Fair in Love and War - Five

Title: Nothing’s Fair in Love and War Fandom: Peaky Blinders Pairing: Thomas Shelby x Daphne Scott (OFC) Warnings: Swearing, drinking, smoking. Word Count: 4071

Author's Note: Hello, again and welcome to the new update. Things start to develop right now and I want to know what you all are thinking of it. Thanks to everybody that commented and liked the fic. Please, let me know what you think. It makes me really happy and helps improve the story. What do you think of the characters, are they too OOC? Something is bothering you? There’s too much scenes of the show in there? What are your thoughts? Share with me. As always, this haven’t been proofread, so feel free to report any mistakes back to me; warnings are expecific for each chapter. Also, your feedback is also highly appreciated. Tags are at the bottom, let me know if you want to be added to the tag list.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter Summary: Alfie and Daphne have a little conversation that opens their eyes for things that they might have been ignoring. The Shelby Brothers Limited start to put into action their expansion and Daphne has a very interesting encounter.

Masterlist

Five

They were both sitting at the table, breakfast served, newspaper on their hands and silence filling the place. Cyril was sprawled out on Daphne’s feet enjoying the little ray of sunshine entering through the window. Things have been surprisingly good in the Solomons’s household.

“The Blinders took the Eden Club.” She said nonchalantly, taking a sip of her coffee, neither of them taking their eyes out of the paper.

“I heard.”

“Are we ignoring it them?”

“For now.” She sighed, resigned, knowing that he wasn’t going to talk anyway.

“Will you need me next Wednesday?” Alfie lowered his newspaper at that, observing the woman who still had the object hiding her face.

“Not that I remember. Do you have something planned?” She folded the paper, putting it aside on the table and looking up at him.

“Polly Gray invited me for tea.” He blinked once, twice, before folding his own journal and throwing it beside hers.

“Isn’t this Thomas’s aunt?” There was a hint of surprise on his voice. He remembered the woman from Daphne’s party, she seemed skeptical of the young woman the whole night, watching her from aside, trying to make Daphne slip on her words. It did not made any sense that the gypsy woman would invite her for tea without ulterior motives. Unless… Unless that she had seen what Alfie had been trying to ignore since the first time that Thomas Shelby had put his feet at the bakery – or more precisely, since the first time he had laid his eyes on Daphne.

“Yes, it is.”

“Are you considering her offer?”

“Maybe.” He scratched his beard, not taking his eyes of hers. Daphne could almost hear the gears working inside his head.

“Well, it could be good to build up trust, you know. She seemed a little guarded around you.”

“She was analyzing me. Both of us, for that matter.” She took a sip of her coffee.

“Yeah, but she seems to have picked more interest in you than in old, creepy me.” Daphne rolled her eyes at that – he wasn’t that much older than she was.

“We are women, Alfie, sometimes we see things that you men don’t.”

“Like the fact that Will still loves you?” His statement surprised her. Alfie was like a brother to her, they talked about almost everything and he was one of the first that had the courage to point out that William had fallen for her in France. “You can’t tell me that I was the only one who noticed the staring contest between him and our darling Thomas.” She stayed silent, looking at his blue eyes to try to discover where he wanted to go with this conversation. “I’m not stupid, Daph, I’ve been fighting your suitors since we came back from France, I know when a man looks at you as something more than the powerful businesswoman that works with the mad Jew. And that is the way Thomas Shelby looks at you.” He propped his elbows onto the table, hands placed together underneath his chin. “And don’t go telling me that he is curious about us because we’re past this point now.” She smiled, a genuine one, and Alfie had to fight the urge to not do the same.

“He is curious.”

“Well, you know what they say, curiosity killed the cat.” She saw the smirk on his face and the joke in his tone.

“Are you planning to?”

“It depends on where his curiosity is leading him.” Daphne really wanted to believe in him but there was something in the way he talked that told her that he was willing to do what it takes to keep Thomas Shelby from getting too close to her. “You go on and met Polly, aye. See if you can discover something useful to us. Either way, it may be good being on her good sides.” It would come in handy having her out of the bakery if he was going to do what he was planning. Alfie knew her for a fair amount of time to recognize the signs – she was falling for the Brummie gangster.

Since they met, Alfie never saw Daphne show any interest in a romantic relationship. She flirted just alright, could lead men on to think that they had a chance of winning her when the truth was far from that. He even suspected that she and William had some kind of fling at some point. But he also knew that the doctor wanted more – he had talked to Alfie about it in a drunken haze one night. He said that he would rather be in her life as only a friend than not being in her life at all. There is no need to say that they never talked about that ever again.

Yet, he had discussed the topic with Daphne a few times – he was protective of her but it didn’t meant that he didn’t wanted her to be happy, which he truly did. He was a bad man, by society standards, that is, he always had been. Taking what he wanted, manipulating people, lying, deceiving, beating, killing… his whole life. She was completely the opposite – gentle, caring and loving, with a fierce personality and courage that would put any man he knew to shame. Daphne deserved the world – but she did not believed in that. Not after the war. Not after losing everything, after being unmade and having to pick up the pieces. So she ignored everything, everything that could make her feel alive – including the hint of attraction that she felt for William and with that any chance that he had of convincing her that they could be good together.

Considering all of that knowledge, Alfie found a little amusing, at first, the sudden interest that Thomas Shelby had shown towards her the first time they met. It was subtle, the Brummie was not a man that used to show his emotions freely, but the Jew caught his gaze and recognized the curiosity there. And she was right, indeed, because in the beginning all that Tommy wanted was to discover what her connection with Alfie was. But that changed quickly when he learned that she had no romantic involvement with the Jew and he was more than surprised when he saw the hint of interest in Daphne’s eyes the day Tommy brought his man to the bakery.

Alfie didn’t liked the path things were starting to run up to, so he decided to play his cards and deal with things his own way. Thomas Shelby was no good men and that wasn't the first time he crossed somebody to his own benefit so he shouldn't feel guilty for behaving like the gangster he was. Then why he felt like he was doing something wrong?

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Thomas was leaning onto the dresser, reading the newspaper and smoking while he waited for his brothers and aunt.

“Are you alright?” Polly asked when she entered through the front door, taking off her gloves and going to sit by the fire to try and warm up. Tommy clears his throat, throwing the paper in one of the chairs and taking the bottle on the table.

“What is it? Just us?” Arthur asks, curious, standing beside his younger brother.

“Just us.” Thomas uncorks the bottle and starts pouring the liquid into the three glasses displayed on the table.

“Are we celebrating?”

“Just taste this.” Tommy hands the glasses to each of them. Arthur and John sit on the lovesit, the eldest Shelby takes the drink in one gulp.

“What do you think, Arthur?”

“Yeah, it's good. Good stuff, really nice. Too good for the Garrison. I suppose we could shift it to the toffs at the Eden Club. Why? What is it?” He asks, curious like the other two. Tommy starts explaining while Arthur takes the bottle and pours himself another glass.

“That is part of an export drive. We now have a secure warehouse in Camden Town and secure passage to the Poplar Docks. So, on Monday morning, we'll be sending out our first export crate. A crate of Riley car spares bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia.”

“Where there's prohibition.” Polly finishes for him. He gives her a half smirk, pointing at her with the hand that holds the cigarette.

“Where there is prohibition. All over Canada and America, people are making their own booze in bathtubs. But rich people in New York, in Toronto and Boston are still paying a lot of money for the real stuff. So, on Monday, the first Shelby company crate will contain a thousand Riley carburetors. But hidden in the packing will be five hundred bottles of the finest quality single malt Scotch whisky.” Polly is examining the bottle that Arthur had put back on the table. “And we, Shelby's, have a license granted by the Minister Of The Empire himself, which means our crates won't be searched.” Thomas sees the hesitation in his aunts demeanor. “And, Polly, all of the whisky will be packed at the docks, so Michael can do the books without being involved. Like I've been telling you all for a year now motor cars are the future.”

“So, how is your life then, Tom?”

“On the up, Johnny, on the up.” Tommy is supervising the shipment of the crate while smoking a cigarette.

“But, Tom, really, come on, how is it?” The gypsy steps closer to Tommy, hands on his waist. “You know I hate to see you not even married yet. I have a fine looking cousin, she'll make your life hell. You deserve her!” He laughs and the gangster smiles a little. “We haven't had a good old wedding in a long time.” The gangster can do little to stop the image that his brain conjures in his head - Daphne, standing at the altar in a white dress veil upon her face. Damn, woman for making him want things he can’t have. He is quick to go back into business.

“Have you had a look inside these boxes, then, Johnny?” The man is carrying boxes to the boat and tries to run away from the gangster’s question.

“What do I want to look at car parts, Tommy, when I haven't even got a car?”

“Faith in family is a fine thing, eh? And I wouldn't even be counting. If twenty five becomes twenty four, then twenty four it is.” Tommy walks closer to him, stopping by his side.

“Oh, you know I'm no good with numbers, Tom.” The gangster puts his arm around Johnny’s shoulders.

“And if 24 ever became 23 then that'd be tax. We don't pay tax.” The man looks at him clearly frightened.

“No, Tom.”

“Good man.” Tommy pats his back and makes his way to the stairs of the warehouse,, where he mets Billy Kimber.

“I put an iron door on, and we've put iron bars on the windows and across the skylights.”

“Good.” The gangster passes by Billy and the man follows him up.

“So what will you be keeping in here, Tommy?”

“Temptation, Billy. Temptation.”

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“Morning, Arthur. I was just passing.” The eldest Shelby is fucking a woman on one of the couches of the club, pointing a gun at the alleged threat entering the room. Tommy just walks by, going directly to the back room take a look at the books.

“I think I'm in fucking love.” Arthur takes a few minutes to go met his brother, appearance disheveled and still breathing a little heavy. “Drink!” He becomes one of the waiters and sits down in front of Tommy, buttoning his shirt. “She don't know where to look.” The waiter comes with a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. “Whisky, Tommy?”

“No, I've got a long drive ahead.” The younger Shelby is deeply concentrated in the number in front of him,

“You off home?” Arthur asks, serving himself a glass of the alcohol.

“Mm-hmmm. Eventually.”

“To Birmingham.” The eldest Shelby raises his glass before taking the shot.

“What's this?” Tommy asks turning a page and tapping his fingers on it. “Olives.”

“Yes, it's miscellaneous. It's, erm, olives. Sticks, you know, with little bits of fucking onion and things. That's what that is.” Arthur gestures while speaking and Tommy just stares at him.

“We've taken six hundred pounds on olives.” The older man seems a little unset

“Yeah, with little bits of onion.” Tommy takes a drag of his cigarette before speaking, very calmly.

“I told you, Arthur, the dealers sell the cocaine, we take a cut. We don't sell direct. The Home Secretary's cracking down and I don't want this to fuck up everything else, you understand?

“I understand.”

“How much of that six hundred came out of your pocket?”

“It's under control.” Arthur says after a while, pouring himself another drink.

“I put you down here because people are scared of you, Arthur. But if you don't straighten up, it'll be John's turn in London.”

“No need. I can handle it.”

“It's under control?”

“It's under control.” Tommy closes the book in front of him, leaning back in the chair and crossing his legs while Arthur downs the whisky.

“Fucking tidy profit, though, eh?” They both smile, while Arthur looks around.

“It's happening, Tom.”

“Good. Good.” Thomas gets up, taps the book on the table and leaves but not before shouting to his brother. “Straighten up, soldier.” Arthur kneads his fingers through his hair, finishing to button up his shirt and taking the money from the table.

“Yes, sir, Sergeant Major.”

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After knocking on his sister’s door and waiting for her to open the door for him, Tommy it’s taken a little by surprise when he is received by a young man.

“I'm looking for Ada.”

“Who are you?” Thomas just pushes him away and marches into the house, the man follows him.

“Ada.” He greets her sister.

“I asked you a question.” Tommy turns to face the man that had just passed through the living room door.

“It's all right, James. This is my brother.” The woman doesn’t bother herself by the presence of her older brother.

“Who's he?” Tommy asks and Ada answers nonchalantly.

“He rents a room.”

“You need to rent out rooms?”

“Actually, she doesn't charge rent.” James answers instead.

“He's a writer, which means he's skint.”

“You get up late these days, Ada.”

“Mm. I go to bed late.”

“Yeah? Where's Karl?”

“What do you want, Tommy?” Ada lowers the paper in her hands and notices that Tommy analysing James and is quick to say. “Oh, God, before you start sizing him up for a wedding suit, he's not interested in me. Or in girls of any kind.”

“Ada!” The writer reprehends her.

“What? Tommy won't judge you.” She goes on reading the paper again. “He sure as hell won't go to the police.”

“Look, I'll go and get dressed.” James makes a move to leave but Tommy stops him.

“James I'm Thomas.” The gangster extends a hand to him. “Pleased to meet you.” The young man seems a little unsure, but reaches for Thomas’s hands, shaking it. “Can I have a minute with my sister, please?”

“Yes, of course.” He leaves the room and Thomas takes a seat on the couch, looking around and then at his sister.

“So, does your lodger know your name?”

“Yeah. Thorne. You think I'd tell anybody anything else? Your Brummie boys are all over the papers. Just one last push, eh? Then you'll go legit? Just one more obstacle to get round then it'll all be straight?”

“Actually, yes.” Tommy seems unamused by her commentaries. Ada scoffs before talking again.

“Personally, I find it quite amusing. Men like you are becoming very fashionable down here. No society party in London is complete without a gangster for the girls to go giddy for. Anyway, what is it that you want?”

“I don't have any children, Ada.” That takes her attention. “So I have set up a trust fund. The beneficiaries will be John's kids and Karl. In order for Karl to benefit, I need your signature.” He takes a paper from the inner pocket of his coat, unfolding it and putting it onto the table for her to take. “I've set up an account. Money will be transferred in the event of my death. It'll set them up for a new life.” Ada folds the newspaper, putting it aside to take the thing he has left on the table.

“Are you sick?”

“I'm just doing what any ordinary man would, putting my affairs in order.” She paused for a minute or two, reading the terms of the trust fund.

“And putting your affairs in order includes admitting that you feel something for Daphne?” Since he had came to her asking about the woman, Ada had been dying to ask him about it. After her conversation with Daphne and seeing the way they both looked at each other at her birthday party, the Shelby sister was more than convinced that there was something in the water. Tommy rolls his eyes, scoffing at his sister but she doesn’t give him a chance to talk. “Wherever it is that you are doing that made you think about putting up a trust fund for your nephews certainly is trouble enough to make you stop moping around because of that damn barmaid and move on to someone that’s worth.”

“And Daphne is.” Ada sighs, irritated by his cold façade.

“You know what, Tommy. Go on and keep on pretending that you don’t care about anybody anymore. Keep on lying to yourself about what you really feel. Maybe that way she can have a chance with somebody that bloody deserves her!”

“I don’t know if that man really exists.”

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Daphne was sitting at the cafe, book in hand and a cup of tea in front of her, appreciating the piece and quiet when she noticed the man coming towards her. She knew that it was just a matter of time, she had already noticed that Finn had been following her all day, it was obvious that it had something to do with his older brother’s doings.

“Mr. Shelby.” She lifted her gaze to met his and saw the little hint of surprise in there.

“Miss Scott, a surprise to find you here.”

“Really. You mean that the fact that Finn is out there in the cold taking guard to see what time I arrived is totally coincidence.” He gave her a sideway smirk at her cleverness. He wasn’t expecting to get caught so easily. “Call the poor boy inside.” Thomas beckoned the younger blinder inside and in a minute he was by her side, looking at his brother a little concerned that he would get reprimanded.

“Hello, Daph.”

“Hello, Finn. Why don’t you go to the counter and ask Mary for a sweet? On my behalf.” He looked at his older brother for permission before thanking her and walking towards the counter. Tommy pointed at the chair in front of her.

“May I?” She closed her book, putting it aside.

“Be my guest.” The waiter came to the table immediately and she asked for more tea and something for them to eat before Tommy had a chance to talk. When the waiter left he was looking at her, smirking. “So what do I owe the pleasure of this unexpected visit outside of the bakery?”

“I was just passing by, thought that would be good to see you.” The warmth that spread through her was something that Daphne wasn’t expecting.They weren’t friends, they were just business partners and all that considered he was still a stranger for her - what little information she had of him, besides one or two things confided to her by Ada, was mostly business related. However, for some reason that she couldn’t quite understand, the simple fact of this man sitting in front of her and saying that he thought that would be good to see her in such a casual manner, like it was something that he had been thinking about for a while, made her heart flutter.

“Everything alright with the first crate of Shelby Brothers Limited?” He smiled as he noticed the faint blush on her cheeks and the fact that she was redirecting the topic. It seemed that Daphne Scott would never cease to find a way to amaze him in some way.

“All going according to the plan.” There was silence again as the waiter came back with the food but they never averting their gaze from each other more than what was strictly necessary. Daphne thanked the waiter and took a sip of her tea. “How’s the preparations for your friend's wedding?” If she thought that his inquiry was strange she didn’t showed it.

“Rushed but going well despite William’s complaints.” At the mention of the doctor’s name Daphne saw Thomas’s flinch but he quickly regained his composure.

“You seem pretty close.” He took a sip of his own tea trying to put the image of the doctor hugging Daphne to the back of his mind.

“Yeah, we know each other for a long time. William is a good friend.” He made a little pout murmuring a “hmm” and then there was silence. Being under his stare was never unsettling, not like it was with other people sometimes, she felt surprisingly comfortable with the silence in a similar way than what she felt around Alfie. But the Jew was right - like Ada and Harriet - there was something in the way he looked at her, something that wasn’t just curiosity. He looked at her like he knew something about her that she hadn’t figured it out yet and she had to admit that she felt compelled to discover what it was.

“Friend.” The word was said as if it contained venon. “I see.”

“He’s a good man.” She said casually and he scoffed at that.

“Yeah, I bet he is every mother’s dream for her daughter. Any particular reason to way he’s not married yet?” She arched and eyebrow at him.

“Any reason to why you are not married yet?”

“I am not a good man.” Thomas leaned back into the chair, analysing her piercing gaze.

“I doubt that this is a hindrance, lost count of how many women I saw daydreaming about marrying Alfie.” She smiled, biting a scone and taking her time chewing it. “There are people that are drawn to danger.”

“Are you?” There was the glint in his eyes again and Daphne paused for a moment before answering him.

“If I feared danger I wouldn’t live with a gangster.” It was a bold affirmation and he noticed that she did nothing to conceal it. He looked around, people seemed too absorbed into their own conversation to eavesdrop, even then, he was surprised by her bluntness. Thomas let the statement sink in with a prickle of satisfaction, a smirk creeping into his features. “You didn’t touched your food.”

“Not hungry.”

“Would you disregard me like that?” He knew what she was doing, trying to guilt trip him, so he decided to entertain her and began to eat. She seemed rather satisfied with herself as she took another bite of her scone, smiling.

“Are you going?” Tommy gave her a confused look, like he had been distracted. “To the wedding.”

“Do you want me too go?” The question caught Daphne by surprise even when she knew that the leader of the Peaky Blinders’s boldness. Yet, there was no surprise to her in figuring out that yes, she did want him there.

“Don’t get me wrong, Mr. Shelby, but you don’t seem like a man that cares about anyone else’s opinion.” He rested his elbows on the table, leaning in closer.

“And if I care about yours?” She felt lost in his gaze, lost into this strange feeling that she had around him. But the moment had come and go just as fast when Josiah approached her, informing that she was needed at the bakery. So she had to excuse herself, getting up to leave. Daphne extended her hand for him to shake, like usual, and was taken by surprise when his rough fingers turned hers around, guiding them to his lips. He kissed her knuckles, a barely there touch, but his azure eyes stared at her conceding everything that he did not say. “See you then.”

Tags: @stressedandbandobessed7771

43 notes · View notes

oranges8hands · 5 years

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five choices (roswell nm)

uhhh so I was writing a rebuttal to a meta post about something else but then I got distracted - wtf love language does Alex have? like:

Kyle: words of affirmation [almost every conversation with Liz, offering words of comfort to Alex and offering to be a sounding board for him, (not to mention every time he calls him brave), offering words of comfort to his mom, taking comfort about his dad through words]

Liz: acts of service [she’s a runner and she sucks at the quality time, but she’ll work herself to the bone for her loved ones; see esp: finding Rosa’s killer, helping Isobel for Max, immediately wanting to contact the study for Mimi]

Max: I actually think its acts of service, not words of affirmation; as much as he is all about the pretty speeches/flowery love notes [or the mean/useless fucking comments], his actual acts are either about being there for someone (Isobel, Liz) or specifically not being there for someone (Michael). [It’s not quality time because its less about paying attention and more about there being something he can do; he wants there to be a (heroic) act he can perform for them]

Isobel: physical touch [I’m willing to listen to the argument for gifts - mostly because a. who the fuck brings someone flowers for “sorry for murdering your sister and pinning the blame on her thanks for not calling the government on my ass” and b. cause @myrmidryad writes good fic, but we constantly see her physically reach out to Michael, Noah, and Max to comfort them or get comforted; she tends to burrow into Michael’s space or come into Max’s, and Noah’s hugely romantic gesture is basically creating a cozy spot for them to cuddle into]

Michael: actually him I’m torn on cause a) words of affirmation b/c basically he’s like “here’s my heart, stomp on it” to everyone, boy is fucking raw and has the emotional self-protective instincts of a lemming, and he always looks incredibly hurt when people reject his (verbal/self) offers; b) acts of service or quality time, see: everything Isobel related (including acting a punching bag for Max for her and giving up his space for her emotional breakdowns), showing up whenever Max needs it, (glad they got the easy life), being there whenever Alex makes a move, being there for Maria and fixing things for her, spending time at the foster’s ranch/the stars to be closer to his roots; c) physical touch cause he provides and gives comfort through touch (forehead touches with his love interests, he and Isobel touch each other in comfort a lot, when he’s a teen he and Max are physical with each other, he offers/tries to offer both Alex and Maria physical comfort within and outside of sex)

Maria: quality time [giving her a break involves a day of hanging out, she wants company and/or offers company to people (Liz, Michael, Alex) when she/they are emotional, her activities with Rosa basically summarize as “hang out together”, and one of the many reasons its so hard to put her mom in the home is because it means she won’t be there. also, she’s the cuddle friend, come on, physical touch is totally her secondary language.]

but Alex??? and I’m wondering if it’s because it’s really hard to figure out his love language or because his love language is something he is really, really bad at so I’m just not seeing it. (IDK if I could figure out some of his choices behind his relationship with Michael it may become clearer; I honestly can’t always follow his thought process for it.) I actually wonder if its quality time for him too (I’m actually mostly basing this on my hc about his relationship with Maria and Mimi), but he’s a runner like Liz so it never lasts long (stay too long and a hammer appears), and also he’s the 'retreat and lick his own wounds' type so when something traumatic happens he offers the person space even though none of them (Michael, Maria) want it... I actually think it may be gifts (guitar, safe space, offers sixer for date bribery, gets Liz to Maria for hang outs) and then we can get all emotional over how he feels like he doesn’t have pieces of himself to hand over to someone he loves, but IDK... thoughts?

eta: so the thing is physical touch would be the easy answer but the problem is I kind of discounted his actions with Michael cause sex is easier than confessions, the guy would probably consider a root canal easier than talking, so the fact he always falls back on that with Michael didn’t necessarily read with the same significance to me. (Which is probably not fair, considering Michael is one of the only characters he would be using his love language on in the first season.) But the only time I could remember him touching someone who is not Michael is when he and Maria and Liz hug (in different combos) at the bar when he greets Maria and first sees Liz after a long absence, which is very much explained in the context of the situation, and as a kind of steadying/check in measure with Kyle before they split when the alarms go off in Caufield, which again in the context of the situation fits. Like he doesn’t really touch people beyond that, as far as I remember (- I think Kyle does touch him a couple of times, but that’s receiving touch, and then it could be argued the check-in measure was because he was mirroring how Kyle reaches out to him, which is something you could make a similar argument for Michael-Alex touching too); if it is though, it just highlights my point that he's very repressed (for various reasons) with his own love language.

#roswell new mexico #cross the street #instead of unpacking I did this; a+ adulting once again #also I keep forgetting I was tagged for that meme #will do sometime soon

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comingupforblair · 6 years

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Marvel fans should be more sympathetic to the difficulties the DCEU and it’s fandom have been going through because there’s a good chance that they’ll be in the same situation at some point down the line.

I’ve steadfastly maintained that a major reason for the DCEU’s divisive reaction has been that the franchise has had to work in the shadow of past successes such as the Nolan films, the Burton films, the Reeve films, the animated shows and films, video games and the comics themselves. Warner Bros had done films that have stood out in people’s minds as the defining portrayal of Batman and Superman and they won’t accept any deviation from that, regardless of how outdated or inaccurate their preferred version is. A good example of that can be seen in how many people detest Joel Schumacher for making Batman lighter when that’s just as present in the comics and accuse him of fundamentally misunderstanding the character even when he included elements that Tim Burton didn’t such as Bruce’s refusal to kill, a defining element of his character.

The MCU didn’t have to worry about pre-existing conceptions because audiences didn’t have any ideas about how their characters should have been presented due to their relative obscurity, a necessity as Marvel didn’t have the film rights to their biggest characters. Similarly, Marvels cinematic track record prior to the MCU had been fairly mixed. The Spider-man, X-Men and Blade films each had two great first installments and a third one that had a significant drop in quality as well as having multiple films (Hulk, Ghost Rider, The Punisher, Daredevil, Elektra) that were complete non-starters and Fantastic Four films that were seen as disappointing. No one went into The Avengers complaining that Chris Evans and Hemsworth weren’t enough like Matt Salinger and Eric Allan Kramer. The fact that you probably had to google those names proves my point.

They won’t have that advantage the second time around as they have set the popular image of these characters in people’s minds and there will be huge pressure on them to conform as well as the more vocal fandom who don’t want anything past what they like. They will just outright refuse to recognize another actor as Captain America or Thor in the same way that many refuse to accept anyone other than Michael Keaton or Chris Reeve as Batman and Supeman.

For example, we all agree that Chris Evans is perfect as Captain America. It’s his role in the same way that Wolverine is Hugh Jackman’s and Superman is see as Chris Reeve’s. It would be difficult, bordering on impossible, to imagine someone else in the part. But there will be another Captain America. They likely won’t recast within the franchise but Cap has become an iconic character due to his MCU portrayal and there’s no way that Disney is going to not make another version somewhere down the line.

Same with Iron Man. Robert Downey fits the role perfectly and Iron Man’s increased popularity has been inextricably linked with RDJ. Whatever happens with the character from here on out, the two will always be associated. Whoever takes over the role years from now will be doing it in the shadow of RDJ and they will have a choice of either basically doing an impression of him and failing to measure up or trying something new and being accused of heresy, regardless of it’s accuracy to the source material.

These characters aren’t going to stay frozen in time but fandom perception of them will and it will be tied to these portrayals. The world will move on and will require a different kind of take on the characters and, when that happens, there’s going to be many who will refuse to accept it and lash out at creators who attempt it. They will be just as aggressively protective of these portrayals as DC fanboys are of Burton and Donner’s films. You’re going to have fanboys complaining endlessly, drawing comparisons, wondering why some random person isn’t charge of the franchise and utterly loathing the people in charge for not making the franchise line up perfectly with their image and accusations of creators not under standing or actively hating the characters and anyone who disagrees with that assessment being equally guilty of the same crimes. You’re going to have a conflict between new fans who like the updated versions and older fans unwilling to let go of theirs. Hell, that’s already happened with the comics.

People critical of the DCEU love to portray it as a joyless corporate exercise populated entirely by people who don’t care about the fans or the characters and whose only motivation is money, which presumably distinguishes them from every other studio. There’s no reason to assume that a similar accusation won’t be leveled at later takes on Marvel properties. Let’s not forget that the MCU was once run by Ike Perlmutter, a man who epitomizes many of the worst elements of the film industry, and he’s still in charge of the shows.

Then there’s the issue of Disney’s image. The James Gunn fiasco showed how averse to controversy they are and how much they try to portray themselves as family friendly. It’s fair to say that, had the MCU been at Disney from the start, RDJ wouldn’t have been cast as Iron Man. That image is going to come first and it will lead to other conflicts down the line, especially as it clashes so heavily with Marvel’s image of imperfect human characters who make mistakes but try to do better.

That’s in addition to Disney’s unwillingness, bordering on an inability, to admit when they’ve fucked up, especially in relation to Marvel. You only need to see how they let their arrogance lead them to Hydra Cap and stick with it for a year to see that in action.

You might think that the good will they’ve created will give them some room to mess up but you only need to look at how Warner Bros have had decades worth of success with DC characters and achieved amazing things with them in every area, including a trilogy often cited as being among the best films of the 21st century, and there are still many people who want to see the characters sold to Disney because they’re unhappy with the last five years. A long memory and gratitude have never been fandom’s defining attributes.

Maybe I’m wrong but I think Marvel fans should prepare for it all the same. After all, no fandom ever thinks it will happen with them until it does.

#mcu #dceu #marvel cinematic universe #dc extended universe

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weekendwarriorblog · 3 years

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The Weekend Warrior 12/18/20 – GREENLAND, FATALE, MONSTER HUNTER, EDUCATION, BREACH, SKYLIN3S and More

We’re getting so close to the end of what has been a fairly grueling year for movie lovers, especially those of us who enjoy watching movies in theaters. I personally was watching upwards of ten movies a week in theaters, but since March, I’ve only seen two, and that’s because movie theaters were shut down and then kept shut down since mid-March. Meanwhile, I can literally get on a train and see a movie in Jersey City without any problems, and there have been no cases traced to someone watching a movie in a theater either. Meanwhile, Cuomo and DiBlasio keep shutting everything down in New York City despite claiming that they were going to stick with the zones or hot spots… nope, the entire city may be closed down after Christmas.

But enough moaning… There’s some good stuff debuting this week and some of them even are in theaters. I’m gonna start with three movies from three of my favorite filmmakers, all of whom know how to make fun, mainstream studio films.

Oh, and before you get to that, also check out my advance review of next week’s Soul from Pixar Animation!

Director Paul W.S. Anderson and partner Mila Jovovich reunite for a brand-new video game adaptation, MONSTER HUNTER (Screen Gems), based on the Capcom game in which the characters… you guessed it… hunt monsters. In this one, Jovovich plays Captain Artemis a soldier who while investigating the disappearance of a battalion ends up in another dimension known as the New World where she encounters (dum dum dum!) monsters and fights them with a new ally, played by Tony Jaa.

Listen, I’ll be the first to confess that I find Anderson’s movies to be a bit of a guilty pleasure. While he has made some fun movies like Alien vs. Predator and Event Horizon, he’s sometimes faltered like his attempt at a Three Musketeers movie and of course, Pompeii. Undaunted by the number of video game movies he’s already made, he takes on yet another one, and he definitely seems to be having quite a bit of fun while making this one.

Monster Hunter begins with a preamble set in the “New World” where we see a ship and characters straight out of the game being attacked by a giant monster. We’re then back in our “Old” World where Jovovich’s character is leading a small platoon in search of a missing group of soldiers. They’re hit by a huge sandstorm, and next thing they know, they’ve been transported through a portal to another dimension where they’re attacked by a giant horned creature (a bit like a mutated Triceratops) that burrows under the ground and starts killing them off one-by-one.

Listen, I make no bones about the fact that I’m a full-on giant monster stan whether it’s Godzilla, Pacific Rim, whatever, so I was probably already fully onboard before I saw the great job Anderson and his team did to make these monsters feel like they have real weight and scale. There are definitely elements to the movie that reminded me of Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers – a movie I genuinely love -- but it did a better job of it than another movie out this week (see below).

Another reason Monster Hunter works at all is that not only is Anderson familiar with the mechanics of the video game but also understands that a movie like this requires some degree of humor to be taken seriously, ironically. Much of that comes from the attempts to communicate between Jovovich and Jaa, and that does get a little tiring after a while, but it offers some laughs once the action settles down, which isn’t often. Jovovich is still a kick-ass action heroine as always, and it’s almost shocking that her and Anderson have been doing this stuff for 18 years since teaming up for the very first Resident Evil.

The great thing about Monster Hunter is that it’s almost non-stop action for a good portion of the movie, rarely slowing down, and it just gets better when Ron Perlman enters the mix, although he feels somewhat underused in the crazy last act where they face creatures that look a lot like the Game of Thrones dragon. There is also some notable silliness that in fact is something from the game.

Monster Hunter is definitely not the kind of movie I recommend to everyone – fans of the OTHER Paul Anderson would turn their noses up at the suggestion -- but if you’re a fan of giant monsters and some of Anderson’s earlier work, you’ll probably already know whether or not this will be for you. Either way, it’s the kind of entertainment we just haven’t seen much of in 2020. Monster Hunter will open in theaters including IMAX on Friday.

Director Deon Taylor reunites with his The Intruder leading man, Michael Ealy, for the psychological thriller FATALE (Lionsgate), in which Ealy plays Derek, a very successful sports agent who has an unfortunate one-night stand while in Vegas with a woman, played by Oscar-winner Hilary Swank. When Derek returns to L.A., a break-in at his home brings out the police, including Swank’s Val, who happens to be a well-regarded police detective, and she will not be ignored, Derek!

I went into this presuming it was Taylor’s version of updating the erotic thriller Fatal Attraction, and I was partially right, except that Swank’s Val is much more dangerous in this case because as a police detective, she has a lot more power over Derek once she realizes he’s married. There are elements to this movie that definitely give it a twist like the fact that Derek and his wife Tracy (Damaris Lewis) are already having marital problems before his affair, or the fact that Val has been trying to get custody of her daughter from her politician husband (Carter Haywood). There’s also Derek’s best friend and business partner Rafe (Mike Colter) and ex-con cousin Tyrin (Tyrin Turner) that add to the mix once people around Derek start dying.

I’ve always said that Taylor is a better director than a writer, but I was surprised that this thriller was written by David Loughery, who also wrote last year’s fairly decent The Intruder. Ealy is just fine as always here, but Swank’s attempt to play a bad guy just doesn’t work as well as she did in The Hunt. Having so many different subplots and characters just confuses matters and takes away from the actual thriller. There may be a couple unexpected twists but none that really shake you up like some of the ones in Fatal Attraction. Sure, maybe it’s unfair to call it that, even though we’ve seen quite a few genre-switched remakes/twists like What Men Want and Little, and this isn’t that at all.

On the other hand, there is an interesting sublayer to the Val-Derek dynamic that makes you think of the way black men far less rich and successful than Derek are treated by white police, so the movie may be inadvertently (?) be building on the “Black Lives Matter” movement without intentionally trying. Still, I liked Taylor’s last movie Black and Blue much more.

Other than that, Fatale never really goes anywhere and never quite delivers on the promising concept in the same way some might be hoping based on Taylor’s previous work.

Director Ric Roman Waugh and actor Gerard Butler reunite after making last year’s Angel Has Fallen, this time for the disaster film GREENLAND (STXFilms). Sadly, this one is going straight to PVOD in the USA rather than being given a chance in theaters, which is a shame, since it’s a big screen disaster film about a string of comets heading towards earth and one man named John Garrity (Butler) who is trying to protect and save his family.

I’ll freely admit that I’ve been a big fan of Waugh’s since his earlier film Felon – and for the sake of transparency, I do consider him a friend, so I’m glad to see him doing bigger studio films, especially since he continually proves the quality of his work and focus on characters can be retained even for this kind of movie. Some going into Greenland might be expecting something like San Andreas or The Day After Tomorrow, but thankfully, and I definitely credit Waugh for this, it’s actually is a disaster flick that never loses sight of the humans at its core.

Butler is actually a decent actor when given half a chance, but obviously, his shift to starring in action movies means that he has to work a bit harder to show that he’s more than just a bulky buff action hero. In this case, he creates quite a fallible and grounded hero whose marriage has been trouble, because he cheated on his wife. Morena Baccarin is also quite good as his wife Allison, really adding to the tension when she gets separated, first from Jack and then their son. Young Roger Dale Floyd, who I was dubious of as their kid at least as the film began, really steps up and also delivers on making the audience feel that there is real danger and stakes. Just as you think the movie is about to head fully into Roland Emmerich land – lots of comet destruction -- Waugh pulls out another terrific veteran in Scott Glenn who adds even more weight and gravitas to the film.

Greenland is definitely a bit of a leap for Waugh in terms of visual FX from previous films. On top of the destruction caused by the comets, there is also a good amount of time where the skies are burning in bright orange. But it’s all background to following Jack and his family going through the ordeal of trying to escape and survive the inevitable “extinction event” when the largest chunk of the comet hits earth.

As far as disaster flix go, Greenland is one of the better ones, since it goes out of its way to make everything feel real, as if it was a well-made documentary or based on a true story, one that hopefully will never come true.

Note: I’ll also have an interview with Ric Roman Waugh over at Below the Line very soon.

Next up is Steve McQueen’s EDUCATION (Amazon Prime Video), the last installment of his “Small Axe Anthology” of films. This one stars Kenyah Sandy as 12-year-old Kingsley Smith, a boy who can’t read so he’s sent to a special school in Barnet where the teachers aren’t really teaching the kids and they’re running amok. Kingsley’s parents don’t realize what’s going on until a group of caring West Indian women pull together to speak up against the lack of education their kids are getting.

It’s the shortest of the series at just over an hour, and while it’s not my favorite, it’s still very good, and it also feels like it could be a very personal film to McQueen, maybe more than the other four movies. First of all, he found this great young actor to play the lead role -- as most of McQueen’s work, the entire cast is great, including Nicole Ackles -- but he also is exploring something that while some parents may be able to relate to, the segregation and racism that permeated the British school system in those days might not be something that many Americans or younger Brits were aware of. I also wasn’t aware of the cultural bias in IQ tests that sent trouble kids like Kingsley into this other school system where they would never learn anything despite the selling point that it has less students so the teachers can focus on helping them more. That clearly doesn’t turn out to be the case with Kingsley and the school to which he commutes.

Education definitely feels more informational than something meant to entertain like Lovers Rock, but it’s a fine addition to the “Small Axe Anthology” that shows how well McQueen and his team have been able to make each chapter feel different in terms of look and tone from others.

Streaming this week on Netflix is George C. Wolfe’s adaptation of August Wilson’s MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM, which I already reviewed. It stars Viola Davis as the title character, a famous blues singer in the ‘20s who has come to Chicago to record an album and she has to deal with an ambitious trumpet player, played by the late Chadwick Boseman, who has his own career aspirations that puts him at odds with Davis’ character. As with Denzel’s adaptation of August Wilson’s Fences, it’s a strong period drama. Also, as mentioned last week, you can also now watch the related doc Giving Voice, which follows the journey of six student actors on their way to the August Wilson Monologue Competition.

If you’re looking for something to keep the kiddies quiet, check out Taylor Meacham’s TO GERARD, an animated short now on Peacock from DreamWorks Animation. It’s a wonderful animated short about a guy working in a mailroom who witnessed a magic show when he was a child that influenced his entire life and how he passes that love of magic onto a young girl he encounters.

Directed by Jennifer Trainer, the Director of Development of MASS MoCa in North Adams, Massachusetts, the doc MUSEUM TOWN (Kino Lorber/Kino Marquee) is an amazing documentation of the development of a former factory in the Berkshires area of Mass. being turned into one of the largest contemporary art museums in the world.

North Adams was a factory town where most of the city worked at the Sprague Electronics that was left quite dilapidated and destitute after the factory closed. Years later, the warehouse that was eventually turned into MASS MoCA.

Much of the film covers artist Nick Cave – no, not THAT Nick Cave – as he’s working on his installation, but it also goes back to when David Byrne brought his installation “Desire” there in 1996. Not that it all goes without problems. While opening MoCA would help the community by giving jobs, there’s some political wrangling from the state’s then-conservative Governor, and of course, the people living in North Adams aren’t quite prepared for it to be turned into an arts community.

Still, there are some amazing enormous installations that are impressive and the director even got Meryl Streep – yes, THAT one – to narrate. I’m not really a contemporary art kinda guy but Trainer has done a good job making it easier for people like me to understand why a trip to MASS MoCA in North Adams might be a worthy sojourn.

Speaking of art, I’m hoping to get to Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei’s new doc COCKROACH, which will be playing at Alamo on Demand starting Friday with a watch party with Ai Weiwei happening on Saturday at 3:30PM. In this one Ai Weiwei films the Hong Kong protests of February 2019, covering street demonstrations, police suppression and violence and things like the siege on Hong Kong Polytechnic University including interviews with the participants. Will try to catch this and add something later this week if possible.

Let’s get to some sci-fi, shall we? It’s a little odd to see a few movies that very well could fall into Paul WS Anderson’s genre purview, especially going up against an actual Anderson movie, but there ya go.

The best of the three is the John Suits*-directed BREACH (Saban Films), starring Bruce Willis, Cody Kearsley from Riverdale, Rachel Nichols and Thomas Jane. It’s set in the year 2242 when the earth is dying and the last shuttle, the USS Hercules, is putting its 300,000 passengers into cryogenic sleep for the long trip to New Earth…. Yes, a bit like Passengers. Willis and Kearsley are essentially janitors who along with a few dozen others have been kept awake to service the craft, but they soon learn that something else has “breached” the spaceship and is killing them off one-by-one. (*Okay, funny little factoid: Suits also directed the “Diehard is Back” commercial for Diehard batteries.)

I’m sure you’re immediately saying, “Hey Ed, that sounds a lot like Alien or John Carpenter’s The Thing. You realize that, right?” Sure, I do, and while I don’t think Breach is likely to stand the test of time in terms of sci-fi horror, as those have, it offers more than enough entertainment that you might not regret it if someone forces you to watch it… even in a movie theater! (Dum dum dum!)

I wasn’t familiar with Kearsley before this movie, but he does a good job holding the fort as , and I have to say that Willis definitely seems to be present and not phoning it in, as he has been in some other recent VOD release. In fact, I’ll say that Willis is kind of pulling from the “Classic Bruce” we all loved in the ‘80s and ‘90s, plus he has a bigger role in the movie then others, so that should be a great selling point right there for any doubters.

Eventually, we learn that all the mayhem has been caused by a virus, and soon, the surviving crew are facing infected zombie-like people (kinda like Resident Evil) who have been thawed out from cryo. We also learn that this virus is trying to kill as many humans as possible as the shuttle is sent on a crash course into New Earth (a bit like Greenland—see how it all ties together?)

Sure, there’s an element to Breach that does feel semi-derivative of other space movies, but Suits does a decent job keeping the fun quotient on par with other Bruce Willis movies, and that’s partially why Breach is actually quite enjoyable.

Filmmaker Liam O’Donnell returns to the helm for the threequel SKYLIN3S (Vertical), the third chapter in the low-budget alien invasion movie Skyline from 2010. A lot has happened since that movie, mostly in the sequel Beyond Skyline, which of course, I haven’t seen. Thankfully, there’s a recap as the third movie now follows Rose Corley (Lindsey Morgan), a young woman with powers believed to be the hero that can save earth while fighting back against the alien Harvesters. She also has a brother Trent (Jeremy Fitzgerald), who seems to be an alien “pilot” himself, and with a crew of soldiers, she’s sent on a mission to Cobalt 1 to take the fight to the aliens. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? (Honestly, I was so confused by some of this, I do not recommend watching without having seen the previous movie.)

I wasn’t that big a fan of the original movie (written and produced by O’Donnell), but he has turned this ersatz sci-fi franchise into a full-on space opera that takes its cues (translation: spuriously rips offs) from so many other science fiction movies from Starship Troopers to District 9 to the Aliens and Predator movies. Surprise, surprise, O’Donnell worked with Skyline directors Colin and Greg Strause on Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem, also not a great sequel. Even with Morgan being a decent female lead, it’s still very much your typical macho action movie of humans fighting aliens movie with a bit of awkward martial arts thrown into the mix. The movie is also ultra-serious almost to a level that makes it hard to snicker, and some might scratch their heads about the choice of a blooper reel during the end credits.

One thing where O’Donnell does sort of succeed is in the mix of practical and on-set visual FX to the point where you may not be sure what you’re watching, plus the environments created are generally effective quality sci-fi. It’s really in the last half hour or so when the visual FX budget starts being more obvious, but it also leads to a number of very silly and cheesy visuals, particularly involving the aliens. You can’t help but feel that you’re watching a particularly low-budget episode of any season of Doctor Who.

Ultimately, Skylines isn’t great, coming across like the Riddick sequels compared to the original movie. In this case, the first movie of this franchise wasn’t even close to as good as Pitch Black was, so why bother?

Lastly (as far as sci-fi goes), we have Martin Owen’s MAX CLOUD (Well GO USA) (aka The Intergalactic Adventures of Max Cloud), which might sound familiar to anyone who has seen any of the Jumanji movies or cheesy ‘90s films like Masters of the Universe and for whatever reason, wished they’d make movies that bad. Set in 1990, this is about a young gamer named Sarah Noble (Isabelle Allen) who finds herself transported into her favorite side scroller gang to join the adventures of its hero, Captain Max Cloud (Scott Adkins … uh oh) and his crew to take on the evil Revengor (John Hannah). In order to stay alive in the game, Sarah’s friend Cowboy (Franz Drameh) must keep the console game on and get Sarah’s character Jake, the ship’s cook played by Elliot James Langridge, through the game’s mission alive.

It did not take me very long while watching this to realize I was about to sit through a very terrible movie, but to be fair, I’ve long ago learned to go into any movie starring Adkins with some trepidation. My instincts weren’t wrong, because between the lousy writing, awful acting and cheesy score that quickly gets on your nerves, Max Cloud never once gets you thinking, “This could have been a good movie.”

There are a few other characters including Tommy Flanagan’s Brock Donnelly, your typical bounty hunter type, and there’s another baddie named Shee, played by…um.. what? Yes, kids, apparently Lashana Lynch, who is set to be the next 007 in next year’s No Time To Die got herself cast in a very bad D-grade movie before her big break. Whoops. At least the movie gives Adkins another chance to show off his martial arts moves, but they feel just as out of place here as they do in Skylines.

I can’t even say that the filmmakers or this cast were even trying their best or giving it their all, because it doesn’t really seem like that at all. Other than some decent visual FX to create a side-scrolling fight sequence late in the movie, it's actually pretty awful, a bad faux video game movie that should have had its plug pulled.

Shawn Linden’s HUNTER HUNTER (IFC Midnight) is about a family of fur trappers led by Devon Sawa’s Joseph Mersault, along with wife Anne (Camille Sullivan) and daughter Renée (Summer H. Howell), a family trying to make ends meet until their traps start being poached by a giant rogue wolf. Joseph leaves his family behind to track the wolf but while he’s gone, Anne and their daughter find a badly injured man named Lou (Nick Stahl) who may know something more about this wolf.

I wasn’t sure what to expect of this film, mainly since there already was a werewolf movie earlier in the year this year called The Wolf of Snow Hollow, and while this is very different, it’s also somewhat stiff in comparison. About 15 minutes into the movie, Joseph and the two women are separated, and it cuts between them. It’s about 45 minutes into the movie before Nick Stahl’s character shows up, but by then, you probably have a good idea what’s going to happen.

Linden and his cast do a great job creating tension with the help of the music and sound design, but things go along for some time without much happening. Otherwise, Camille Sullivan gives a stronger performance than anyone else, a performance almost too good for this movie, but Sawa is also quite good. Admittedly it’s a little strange seeing him all grown-up having seen Final Destination WAY too many times. On the other hand, I’ve never really been a fan of Stahl, and he really isn’t great when he finally shows up as the mysterious stranger.

There are some unexpectedly silly moments like when we actually see the wolf for the first time – it looks pretty cool, actually – and Anne just screams at it. There are a couple other characters who aren’t particularly interesting – wolf fodder, if you will – but it just takes its sweet time getting to the inevitable twist that you may have seen coming an hour earlier. The last act is pretty grueling to get through as Lou shows his true colors. Part of me wishes the movie didn’t go where it seemed to be going, because it because it feels sudden and much out of character with the rest of the movie.

Hunter Hunter isn’t a terrible movie, and it could have been far, far worse in the wrong hands or with the wrong cast. I’m definitely kinda mixed on it, since it’s still a genre film that erroneously plays down its genre potential until the very last 10 minutes, and that alone might annoy anyone watching it.

Some of the movies I just didn’t have time to get to this week:

Paint (Gravitas Ventures) Tiger Within (Gravitas Ventures) Sister of the Groom (Saban/Paramount) The Last Sermon (Gravitas Ventures) Climate of the Hunter (Dark Star Pictures) The Rescue (CMC Pictures) Shalom Taiwan (Outsider Pictures) Goodbye Dragon Inn (Metrograph Pictures)

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers … honest!

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