#9: God's Own Country

A story about a gay man that's not about the struggles of being a gay man. For once. He's struggling with being a better person instead. Huzzah!

The story just happens; A man who works on his family's sheep farm is basically a wayward fuckup who deals with the monotony of his life in self destructive ways, and goes to a responsible person when he falls in love with the Romanian immigrant who has been hired to help out for a week.

#8: Roman Holiday

Charm essential.

I'm not big on old classic movies - my limit was a short French film from 1898 or something about a vampire - I'm a very future-looking toward person.

But when Roman Holiday was set to air, I had to check out a legendary film.

Book 1: Bato of The Water Tribe / The Deserter

Land of the One-Shots. 

Actually, Jun comes back in the series finale.

#7: Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (2017)

You might have seen it before.

As a fan of the television show, not so much the comics (They're fine, just never read them.), seeing a different bunch of Teen Titans (besides Starfire, Raven and Terra) was a real hoot. I like Jaime, Raven and Nightwing, adore Starfire, and I just loved Damien, a smart ass kid who takes this very seriously.

This is a storyline I remember from the show but with some changed characters, including a religious cult with a guy trying to ascend to a higher power. I love evil fake religions in superhero media.

Animation is really frame-heavy (A plus) in some points and a bit lacking in others, one thing I really love about the DCAU is everything feels so heavy, it feels like there are so many stakes, even though they're superheroes and the reset button is pushed after every time. Because in the end, there is a continuity (depending on what thread you follow), and the characters do learn and keep growing.

Soundtrack For: Jan 2018

Including a new album from an old favorite, an old album from a new favorite, and an original musical.

The 90th Oscar Nominations

Check the entire list here.

I'm going to talk about the categories I'm most familiar with, starting with a few bullet points -

• The Shape of Water steals the show with thirteen nominations, yet none of those really single out Doug Jones as The Asset. 
• The only accolades for Molly's Game and Logan (!!!) is Best Adapted Screenplay. I know many people of the Reddit persuasion was hoping the latter would get more attention, but I've not seen it so I can't attest to it's quality.
• Original Screenplay is 90% 'The directors wrote this movie,' with the only exception being The Big Sick.
• Beauty and The Beast production design? Really? AND COSTUMES? They fit the style of the movie but a lot of it looked very cheap. It's only nomination should have been the original song for Evermore.
• Christopher Plummer got nominated for All The Money in the World out of spite, let's not kid ourselves. I love it.

Book 1: The Blue Spirit / The Fortuneteller

It's all about Aang this time around. When is it not, when your show is called The Last Airbender.

#6: The Shape of Water (2017)

Pretty whimsy, also amphibi-fucking.

From the man who bought us Pan's Labyrinth, The Devil's Backbone, Pacific Rim, and Crimson Peak.

Four-Month Film Fave Bonanza Festibration

(Think of a Shorter Name For This Operation)

Why is your title so long?

Because I think it's neat c:

So what the fuck is this? Your Filmstravigonza - whatever the fuck.

Well to begin, if you’ve been on tumblr long enough, you know people get attached to actors and actresses, and unfortunately I am one of those people. At last count, there are a whopping …. I don’t know how many people I root for, but there is a lot.

And when there’s a lot, sometimes, their movies come out weeks apart from each other, and sometimes on the very same day! So why not make a challenge out of it?

From January to April, there’s a whopping ten 2018 movies on the agenda.

Oh, a marathon! Pretty cool. So, you're watching all of these in the theater?

Ha, no, some of them are being released on streaming very soon after their theatrical releases, and luckily they’re ones that are….well, I can save some money and not go to the theater.

Stupid question, yeah. So what people in particular are you looking out for in this?

#5: Proud Mary (2018)

Hello all four readers! The first in-theater movie of 2018 is another Taraji P. Henson vehicle, just like Hidden Figures last year, and this has the benefit of not being horrifically sanitized in it's screenplay to be palatable for a white audience!

No planes, but there's blowing out brains, and automobiles.

Soundtrack Sidetracked: Moana

Moana is the 56th movie in the Disney Animated Canon, sandwiched between the pro-police, sloppily allegoried Zootopia (That I like but yes, the allegory is very sloppy) and Wreck it Ralph 2.

I'm not using that stupid subtitle.

HERE is the song they should have been pushing for Best Original Song! I'm not sure how people listened to it and felt indifferent! "Where You Are" is my favorite song in the movie and probably my favorite Disney song period. There's something about it - I love group songs like this. This one feels involved, warm, and alive.

Book 1: Jet / The Great Divide / The Storm

It's another "Suave, competent newcomer comes in, impresses Aang and Katara while Sokka is suspicious but in the end the suspicious person is right," story!

Oh, uh, spoilers?

#4: Happening; A Clean Energy Revolution

The trailer; Mark is in it for maybe two minutes.

Jaime Redford shows that progress and the future is not scary.

Book 1: The Siege of the North, Both Parts

WELCOME

TO

THE 

BOOK ONE

FINALE!

Before we continue, I feel that we can summarize Book 1:

It fleshed out some of the world but a lot of it felt pretty ... inconsequential. Many of the people we see never come back, although some do!

The Gaang:

Aang isn't happy go lucky all of the time. He feels guilt that he abandoned his people and is overwhelmed by the task set in front of him. It's never "Don't worry guys, we can do it!" peppyness, he's pretty real about the fact that he has around six months to end this war before Sozin's Comet.

Over all three books, I think Katara is one who does not get a ton of character development, simply because she already was a great, well rounded character. Sure she becomes one of, probably the best Waterbender in the world, but most of her inner conflict and thoughts are more prevalent in the graphic novel North and South than in any of the seasons (I have to say seasons here). There is visually some, in Book 3, but it feels almost like an afterthought.

They really could have waited until Book 3 to kickstart Sokka's development, but they establish quickly that he is growing into a great tactician and strategist. His sexist bigot angle I always felt was half implemented and concluded a bit too hastily but it's no fun watching a sexist so I can overlook that.

We just begin to hit the deep well of fucked-up mindsets that is Prince Zuko, and it only gets worse in the Book 2 opener.

There's also some things that will be revealed, right now, in this recap!

Book 1: Avatar Roku (Winter Solstice pt. 2) / The Waterbending Scroll

All aboard!


Aang doesn't want Sokka and Katara hurt, so he plans to sneak off in the night. That doesn't work, and soon all three of them are on Appa, en route to the Crescent Island.

Think about this - this is actually a detour. I wish there were some more shots of the map so we can see exactly how erratically they travel.

After strong-arming the town, Zuko is in pursuit - and it's dangerous for him to be in Fire Nation territory as well, being banished. What's the worst the Fire Lord could do? Imprison him?

#3: Pokemon The Movie: I Choose You! (2017)

No one understands type matchups.

Hey, finally something not grim as shit.

#2: The Killing of A Sacred Deer (2017)

A deadpan, ideal family gets slightly less ideal and deadpan as they're cursed.

#1: Lady Bird (2017)

So welcome, I'm going to put more full-fledged reviews on this blog, but you can check out the listings without all the guff from 2015 - present here, let's get started with our first film of the year.

Snapshots of a time I was too young for and an unusual future sight into post 2008-recession.