De Palma (2015)
http://www.documentaryarea.tv/player.php?title=De%20Palma
Brian De Palma talks about practically all of his films for nearly two hours. Really needs an independent critical voice to bring this beyond the level of glorified DVD-extra, but as far as gD-e’s go it’s actually quite good. Laden with spoilers, of course.
Thanks for that lovely visual.
*lolz
I can drink socially, but I never have more than one or two mixed drinks when I go out because:
A) Being a fairly petite woman, my body thinks I’m poisoning* myself and it tries to process it out of my system as quickly as possible; meaning I end up having to go to the restroom a lot.
B) I dislike the inevitable lack of body coordination and the sense of losing control over myself if I overdo it.
*I know that’s technically what I am doing; alcohol is essentially a toxin.
Indeed. She’s fantastic.
Been doing a rewatch of Sense8 because it occurred to me why I like Lito so much as a character.
I mean, he’s an overly dramatic, whiny, insecure guy who (at first, mostly) has it all. Even the troubles he does have seem small compared to Sun (in jail, with psychopathic brother who wants her dead), Nomi (parents can’t acknowledge her as a person, international organisation wants to lobotomise her), Wolfgang (entire psychopathic family wants him dead), Capheus (dead poor with psychopathic gangs on every side) or even Will (father dying, drug addicted, psychopathic guy who wants him and all he loves destroyed, living in his brain. Even when the “worst” happens and he starts to lose things (in quotes because) no one wants him dead.
He shouldn’t be that sympathetic. So why do I love him so much? Because in a lot of ways, Lito is me. He is the best damn portrayal of Imposter Syndrome I have ever seen on TV.
No, they don’t name it, but it’s there. The sensitivity to people criticising his work combined with his own harsh assessments of it. Nothing he does is ever good enough. He says he’s afraid of people finding out he’s gay, but he’s really afraid of them finding out that he’s a fraud. Look at his breakdowns. It doesn’t happen when he’s outed in the tabloid press. His sobbing, fall-apart breakdowns are when he’s exposed as (or believes he’s exposed as) a fake. “I am a liar. Lying’s easy, it’s what I do.” He’s not talking about acting, he’s talking about everything in his life. Again, it’s not just about him being in the closet, that’s just something he can point to and use to, yes, lie about it being a bigger problem.
So, who becomes most important to him? Those who recognise that he’s not a fraud and take the time to show him why. Hernando, who recognises and points out deeper themes in Lito’s work, and who encourages Lito even when Lito can’t see the value in what he does. Dani, who is relieved to discover that “Lito Rodriguez Movie Star” really is a fake, because the real Lito isn’t the posturing masculinity and control she’s suffered her whole life with. Who recognises that if he can fake that while actually being the quiet, sensitive person he actually is, then he’s a better actor than anyone gave him credit for.
And Wolfgang, who really doesn’t give a fuck who someone pretends to be, and really, really can’t stand people who are ultra-confident in themselves. Out of the entire cluster, Wolfgang is the one who gives Lito the least grief. Partly because he’s used to having an overly dramatic, movie obsessed person in his life. Partly because Lito managed to lie convincingly to Steiner (something Wolfgang literally could not do with a gun to his head) and partly because Wolfgang is so steeped in the worst of people that he knows that however bad of a person Lito thinks he is, he’s not, but it’s better to be a good person who thinks they’re bad , than a bad person. And because Wolfgang literally could not act to save his life, he recognises Lito’s talent as such, even when Lito can’t.
Long story short (too late!) representation matters. Just like having well written, multi-dimensional portrayals of visible minorities in our stories, the same counts for less visible minorities. It doesn’t surprise me that of all the shows, this one managed to do it. I just wonder if the writers are aware of what they really did.
I think Lito and Wolfgang were my favorite, too.
We’re watching first season of Killjoys. Really interesting sci-fi in a Firefly kind of way. I didn’t care for Firefly much, but this is cool. Still learning about the universe though; it’s still a bit confusing after only 4 episodes, but we’re learning I guess. And there’s probably a wiki out there somewhere.
I like the characters and the use of humor.
I enjoy Killjoys very much, and am caught up with the series on tb, but I’m always a little confused. There is always something I feel like I ought to understand, but don’t. I can’t figure out if it’s just me or not.
I agree. Orphan Black (same producers) was like that too, but far darker, so I enjoyed it less. And more confusing IMO. Killjoys is fun enough that I don’t mind not knowing everything.
I’ve just finished reading The Iron Jackal (Tales of the Ketty Jay) and I seriously think I’d rather see this as a TV series than more Firefly.
Steampunk (or really, somewhere between steampunk and dieselpunk), airship pirates, dune buggies, demonism as a science (more or less), swashbuckling, backstabbing, ancient horrors, and lots of humor.
Orphan Black - plot - I am totally lost. I LOVE watching Tatiana Maslany play all the characters and then all the hilarious hijinks where she has to be Sarah pretending to be Rachel. Helena pretending to be Alison. I frequently forget they are all Tatiana. It’s so fun.
Love Killjoys and Orphan Black too, when it was still on air.
Both Hannah John-Kamen and Tatiana Maslany are wonderful to watch…
Indeed; Maslany does a wonderful job. But they lost me with all the bloody explicit violence, like when the guy had his body mod tail cut off. Fight scenes like those on Killjoys I can deal with.
She is fabulous!
Yeah, gets a bit gruesome at times.
Yeah, she is!
Nothing takes the cake over what Rachel did to herself, followed closely by Helena’s fight with Rudy.
I read the books, which were really about what’s going on in Katniss’ head more than what is happening around her in the world. And she is oblivious AF, it’s age appropriate but still… naive and dense. Everything she doesn’t see or understand is indistinct, what she does see is through the lens of her own self-absorption. She is brave, but shallow (not that she cares only for frivolities, just that she isn’t a deep thinker.)
By the end, I no longer cared about the main character, and that went double for the movies.
That’s probably why the books are so popular. A lot of teenagers are naive and shallow, so they see themselves in her and understand her actions. OTOH, teenagers who are naive, but not quite so shallow, just get frustrated with Katniss and throw the book across the room and vent at length about it until they are brought up short when asked why, if they hate this book so much, they love Twilight.
I figured that by the end, she was broken. She would have preferred the hunky Gale, but that guy wasn’t up for taking care of a head case someone in a precarious mental state, and Katniss was not able to take care of herself for a long time. Peeta was at least on her level, pretty fucked up, but they could relate to each other the way few others could. I didn’t take it as a romantic message so much as settling for better-than-nothing for both Katniss and Peeta.
So that may explain why Katniss doesn’t know what happened to the rest of the planet, OR what cataclysmic event led to the destruction of the US Government as a world power… but it still doesn’t explain Collins’ lazy writing in that regard.
We’re just supposed to accept it as fact, with no logical explanations whatsoever.
Ding ding ding, I doubt the author even thought about that stuff.