(no subject)
Jul. 4th, 2019 07:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Beautiful summer day, so took a long walk around the park -- which was an obstacle course of competing family barbecues. Honestly, it was if half the neighborhood was barbecuing in the Park. I had to work to find a place that did not smell of propane.
Hmm, I might walk around Greenwood Cemetery later in the week. Tomorrow should be fine but off to the doctor in the morning for blood work. Took the day off as a vacation day, prior to scheduling the blood work.
This will most likely mean a follow-up appointment, mainly because they Doctor doesn't want to wait until January to see me again -- she wants to see me every three months or two months...I don't know why. She's concerned about my cholestrol and sugar levels, I think. I have a feeling they won't be much better.
I don't celebrate July 4th any longer, I stopped after the Doofus got elected.
Instead of watching the Fireworks -- although they are still going on outside my window. My neighbors are illegally setting off huge fireworks. Some of which are visible, all of which are audible -- I rented the old farce, Noises Off -- it's the film adaptation of the theaterical farce about taking a show to Broadway, and how the backstage antics slowly erupt on stage. It stars Michael Caine, John Ritter, Christopher Reeves, Nicolette Sheridan, Carol Burnett, Denholm Elliot, Julie Hagarty, Mark Lyn Baker, and Marilu Henner. And it is that rare comedic film that makes me laugh really hard all the way through. To the point I'm coughing. Really hard boisterous laughter.
We rented it years ago with my Grandmother -- way back in the early 1990s, long before I moved to NY, and we all laughed our heads off. I love farce, well done farce and absurdist situations. And I needed to laugh. So tired of watching things that make me angry.
2. Spent part of the morning reading reviews of Midsommar and...it's an interesting film. It sparked my curiosity, which horror films will do on occasion, but I know I can't see some of them. Okay, most of them. (Also I like reading reviews of horror films -- always have. More than any other film. I don't know why.)
What I picked up from the reviews?
* If I were Swedish, I'm not sure if I might be offended by this film. The director researches Swedish folk tales and folk rituals and appropriates them for the film. So we have a film that is set in Sweden (actually it was filmed in Hungary and Utah, but never mind) and views Swedish folk customs through an American lense. I looked up the Director, he's Anglo American and Jewish. Does this count as cultural misappropriation? And why'd he select Sweden?
* I also might be offended if I were Wiccan or Pagan -- seriously, we have done a lovely job of slanderizing the Wiccan and Pagan religions. I studied this stuff in school -- they don't do these rituals.
* The film reminds me a lot more of Harvest Home than Wicker Man.
* The director apparently likes to do sadistic and grostesque visuals. In short he's not into psychological horror so much as sadistic and gory horror. Or a combo of both. The camera lingers in close-up on smashed heads, a face wearing the skin of someone else's face, corpses put in grosteque positions, people being burned alive, and a ritualistic sex orgy.
* Also the film is a bit of a sadistic misanthropic comedy -- with a feminist edge.
A lot of angry feminists love this movie, while a lot of men really don't.
The humor in it comes from absurd sex jokes and various bits of sadistic foreshadowing.
Apparently it's a heavy critique of American Masculainity (by male director no less). The point of view and protagonist is Dani, a woman, who has suffered a tremendous and tragic loss -- one that is shown in graphic detail and is horrific.
She's in a relationship with...well for lack of a better word, a passive aggressive doofus, who sort of floats through life without really emotionally engaging with anything. It's a toxic relationship and he's portrayed poorly within it.
I can see why this movie tramautized a lot of men. It's rather disturbing, because much like the violin movie currently showing on Netflix, this feels a bit like a feminist revenge flick as seen through the lense of a male director. The female reviewer on Gamespot loved it. Where all the nasty boys are horrifically killed. Hence the reason I think it has more in common with Harvest Home than Wicker Man.
Okay, I want to talk about this trend in cinema...I noticed it in Roma, now in MidSommar, and in the Perfection currently playing on Netflix...(I have not seen the later two -- too gory for me, I have a weak stomach, there's a reason I skipped biology in college, but I did read spoilery reviews) -- is that we have male directors writing and directing films that are rather misanthropic and feminist. Women are shown in a good light, men not so much. And the male director makes fun of the male form, and degrades him, also in two of the films mutilates him.
And two of these directors are major directors, auteurs. So the question presents itself...why? One I could understand, but three? Also, I saw the same theme being presented by Guillermo Del Toro in Shape of Water.
Is there an internalized shame going on here? Is it a reaction to what is happening in the news and around us? This rage at one's own gender? Or more towards the machismo and toxic masculainity that plagues both genders and has infected our society?
I see the signs of it everywhere. At work. In my neighborhood. On my commute. In the media. On the television screen. In the posters. In films. In the book I'm reading now. And I'm seeing a sort of protest against it.
Horror and genre in general is often where you will start seeing it first. Although it can also pop up in foreign language independent films or anything that isn't mainstream or cult. It's showing up in the romance genre, horror genre, and superhero/comic book genre. It's a weird backlash against the trope that proceeded it. The disenfranchized angry white male aka Walter White, or Frat boy anti-hero, popularized by Bryan Cranston, David Boreanze, Nathan Fillion, Benedict Cumberbatch, Robert Downey Jr., Tom Cruise, Chris Pratt, James Franco, and Seth Rogen among others. Right now that trope is beginning to fall out of favor -- there's a protest against it from men and women across genres.
Audiences were more upset when Marvel killed off Natasha than Iron Man, which I thought was interesting. (I agreed, but I found it interesting.)
Iron Man, Walter White, Sherlock, and even Doctor Who 9 and 10 came of age prior to the coming of Trump. The dark male anti-hero took off at full steam during 2006-2016, coming to a head with the election of Donald Trump -- who is the poster child for the angry nasty white man, popularized in cinema and television up to that point. The anti-hero on House of Cards as portrayed by Kevin Spacey.
Now, we're seeing a backlash against that -- the cultural pendalum moving in the opposite direction. People are more interested in films about anti-hero women, or feminist revenge fantasy than disenfranchized white men. They want to watch Walter White be gutted, preferrably by his wife. And Ophelia kick Hamlet's butt. Or Zoe take over Mal's ship and kick him overboard. OR Robin Wright be the lead in House of Cards.
I'm curious to see where this goes and how far. But there's a definite pattern emerging. The best selling book "Where the Crawdad's Sing" features the murder of a nasty quarterback who beat and attempted to rape his girlfriend. She fights him off by the way -- by kicking him repeatedly in the nuts.
No. We're all mad as hell at those who have been in power for far too long, justifiably so, and we aren't going to take it any more. This rage is permeating our culture. Hence a reason I went back to the 1990s to find a comedy that didn't make me want to throw things at people.
Hmm, I might walk around Greenwood Cemetery later in the week. Tomorrow should be fine but off to the doctor in the morning for blood work. Took the day off as a vacation day, prior to scheduling the blood work.
This will most likely mean a follow-up appointment, mainly because they Doctor doesn't want to wait until January to see me again -- she wants to see me every three months or two months...I don't know why. She's concerned about my cholestrol and sugar levels, I think. I have a feeling they won't be much better.
I don't celebrate July 4th any longer, I stopped after the Doofus got elected.
Instead of watching the Fireworks -- although they are still going on outside my window. My neighbors are illegally setting off huge fireworks. Some of which are visible, all of which are audible -- I rented the old farce, Noises Off -- it's the film adaptation of the theaterical farce about taking a show to Broadway, and how the backstage antics slowly erupt on stage. It stars Michael Caine, John Ritter, Christopher Reeves, Nicolette Sheridan, Carol Burnett, Denholm Elliot, Julie Hagarty, Mark Lyn Baker, and Marilu Henner. And it is that rare comedic film that makes me laugh really hard all the way through. To the point I'm coughing. Really hard boisterous laughter.
We rented it years ago with my Grandmother -- way back in the early 1990s, long before I moved to NY, and we all laughed our heads off. I love farce, well done farce and absurdist situations. And I needed to laugh. So tired of watching things that make me angry.
2. Spent part of the morning reading reviews of Midsommar and...it's an interesting film. It sparked my curiosity, which horror films will do on occasion, but I know I can't see some of them. Okay, most of them. (Also I like reading reviews of horror films -- always have. More than any other film. I don't know why.)
What I picked up from the reviews?
* If I were Swedish, I'm not sure if I might be offended by this film. The director researches Swedish folk tales and folk rituals and appropriates them for the film. So we have a film that is set in Sweden (actually it was filmed in Hungary and Utah, but never mind) and views Swedish folk customs through an American lense. I looked up the Director, he's Anglo American and Jewish. Does this count as cultural misappropriation? And why'd he select Sweden?
* I also might be offended if I were Wiccan or Pagan -- seriously, we have done a lovely job of slanderizing the Wiccan and Pagan religions. I studied this stuff in school -- they don't do these rituals.
* The film reminds me a lot more of Harvest Home than Wicker Man.
* The director apparently likes to do sadistic and grostesque visuals. In short he's not into psychological horror so much as sadistic and gory horror. Or a combo of both. The camera lingers in close-up on smashed heads, a face wearing the skin of someone else's face, corpses put in grosteque positions, people being burned alive, and a ritualistic sex orgy.
* Also the film is a bit of a sadistic misanthropic comedy -- with a feminist edge.
A lot of angry feminists love this movie, while a lot of men really don't.
The humor in it comes from absurd sex jokes and various bits of sadistic foreshadowing.
Apparently it's a heavy critique of American Masculainity (by male director no less). The point of view and protagonist is Dani, a woman, who has suffered a tremendous and tragic loss -- one that is shown in graphic detail and is horrific.
She's in a relationship with...well for lack of a better word, a passive aggressive doofus, who sort of floats through life without really emotionally engaging with anything. It's a toxic relationship and he's portrayed poorly within it.
I can see why this movie tramautized a lot of men. It's rather disturbing, because much like the violin movie currently showing on Netflix, this feels a bit like a feminist revenge flick as seen through the lense of a male director. The female reviewer on Gamespot loved it. Where all the nasty boys are horrifically killed. Hence the reason I think it has more in common with Harvest Home than Wicker Man.
Okay, I want to talk about this trend in cinema...I noticed it in Roma, now in MidSommar, and in the Perfection currently playing on Netflix...(I have not seen the later two -- too gory for me, I have a weak stomach, there's a reason I skipped biology in college, but I did read spoilery reviews) -- is that we have male directors writing and directing films that are rather misanthropic and feminist. Women are shown in a good light, men not so much. And the male director makes fun of the male form, and degrades him, also in two of the films mutilates him.
And two of these directors are major directors, auteurs. So the question presents itself...why? One I could understand, but three? Also, I saw the same theme being presented by Guillermo Del Toro in Shape of Water.
Is there an internalized shame going on here? Is it a reaction to what is happening in the news and around us? This rage at one's own gender? Or more towards the machismo and toxic masculainity that plagues both genders and has infected our society?
I see the signs of it everywhere. At work. In my neighborhood. On my commute. In the media. On the television screen. In the posters. In films. In the book I'm reading now. And I'm seeing a sort of protest against it.
Horror and genre in general is often where you will start seeing it first. Although it can also pop up in foreign language independent films or anything that isn't mainstream or cult. It's showing up in the romance genre, horror genre, and superhero/comic book genre. It's a weird backlash against the trope that proceeded it. The disenfranchized angry white male aka Walter White, or Frat boy anti-hero, popularized by Bryan Cranston, David Boreanze, Nathan Fillion, Benedict Cumberbatch, Robert Downey Jr., Tom Cruise, Chris Pratt, James Franco, and Seth Rogen among others. Right now that trope is beginning to fall out of favor -- there's a protest against it from men and women across genres.
Audiences were more upset when Marvel killed off Natasha than Iron Man, which I thought was interesting. (I agreed, but I found it interesting.)
Iron Man, Walter White, Sherlock, and even Doctor Who 9 and 10 came of age prior to the coming of Trump. The dark male anti-hero took off at full steam during 2006-2016, coming to a head with the election of Donald Trump -- who is the poster child for the angry nasty white man, popularized in cinema and television up to that point. The anti-hero on House of Cards as portrayed by Kevin Spacey.
Now, we're seeing a backlash against that -- the cultural pendalum moving in the opposite direction. People are more interested in films about anti-hero women, or feminist revenge fantasy than disenfranchized white men. They want to watch Walter White be gutted, preferrably by his wife. And Ophelia kick Hamlet's butt. Or Zoe take over Mal's ship and kick him overboard. OR Robin Wright be the lead in House of Cards.
I'm curious to see where this goes and how far. But there's a definite pattern emerging. The best selling book "Where the Crawdad's Sing" features the murder of a nasty quarterback who beat and attempted to rape his girlfriend. She fights him off by the way -- by kicking him repeatedly in the nuts.
No. We're all mad as hell at those who have been in power for far too long, justifiably so, and we aren't going to take it any more. This rage is permeating our culture. Hence a reason I went back to the 1990s to find a comedy that didn't make me want to throw things at people.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-06 12:32 am (UTC)I've never see the movie of Noises Off. I need to do that.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-06 12:55 am (UTC)I rented Noises Off for $3.95 off of Amazon Prime. It's hilarious. Physical comedic farce. Which is really refreshing. Also, I'd forgotten how good Chris Reeves, John Ritter and Carol Burnett were at physical comedy. It's not easy to do well.
And, I found David Tennent and Catherine Tate doing Much Ado About Nothing on Youtube. It's hilarious. HERE
I'm hunting things that make me laugh at the moment. So tired of things that make me want to throw things. The anger is not good for me.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-06 05:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-06 08:43 pm (UTC)Both this version and Whedon's version are better than Branagh/Thompson version in two aspects: 1) the acting, the actors understand and do Shakespeare and do it well, 2) the comedic bits are actually funny -- with an emphasis on physical humor. And are very bawdy in places. Shakespeare was very bawdy and employed a lot of physical humor in his plays, but not everyone does it -- and as a result a lot of the lines make no sense.
I actually prefer the play performed outside of the historical setting. Here it appears to be during WWII. 1940s or 1950s.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-06 09:47 pm (UTC)I don't mind Branagh/Thompson's version, but Wedon's is definitely better.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-07 01:08 am (UTC)While in Whedon's version -- everything works. It's darker, sure, and I'd say the only bit I could have done without was it being in Black and White, not sure it quite works as film noir. But other than that -- it's the first time I actually understood the constable character and found him funny.
Tate/Tennent do a better job with Beatrice and Benedict then Denisof and Acker do...I'm not quite sure why, I think it's how it is filmed, and the use of a rather minimalist set. It's stage though, not film, so that may have some effect. But Fillion is still the best Constable to date, and the most intelligible one.