SlovakPrincess
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Posts posted by SlovakPrincess
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Just now, Fool to cry said:
That's the benefits of an episodic TV show where she's the protagonist who can break the 4th wall and confide to the audience over a 2 and a half hour movie where she's a supporting character who can't!
The jokes and clever lines might have been obvious and not been subtle but her growing change of heart and sympathy towards Indy was for some viewers.
Well, yeah. They didn't have all the time in the world to round out this character and show us her innermost thoughts ... so cut down on the smug one liners and give her more depth earlier in the movie.
And tonally it's just weird because instead of bantering between her and Indy with a few heartfelt discussions thrown in ... he's mostly depressed and she's mostly glib (even when it makes her look heartless, like needling him about being wanted for the murder of his innocent colleagues and after Antonio Banderas and crew, who were all really nice to her and Teddy, die horribly).
I will say they finally get a great action movie buddy moment when she's hanging off the plane about to fall and he's like "what are you doing?!" and she goes "rescuing you!" (right before she does, indeed, shoot the bad guy). That's fun! That works! I'm finally enjoying her, and these characters together! ... ten minutes before the movie ends!
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3 hours ago, Fool to cry said:
Unless they're villains audiences hate female characters that make things difficult for the main character. Even if they do help at the end they aren't forgiven for spending most of the time being a hindrance. Helena and Willie being examples.
I think it was important to the story for Helena to be a big problem to Indy. He was in such a funk that only her brazen amorality could get him out of it. His scolding and guilt tripping throughout and just being a parent without her
askinghaving to ask for it is what changed her and better than having an emotional scene IMO.Yeah I get what they're going for with this character and it doesn't work for me. And not because she's a female character hindering Indy. She's written in an annoyingly obvious way with unsubtle "clever" dialogue and I don't think the actress gives her any depth.
Phoebe Waller Bridge worked great in Fleabag - a show with enough time to explore how a character's brash show of confidence is really masking deep hurts. That's what they're going for here, I assume, with the smug facade and sad dead father backstory (and grudge against Indy), but it's rushed and done poorly.
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Harrison Ford: good! Chase scenes: good! Story: ... weird? but interesting? A tad too depressing for my taste in parts, especially the back story on Indy's son (I guess they really didn't want to bring back Shia Lebouf for some reason) - but interesting.
HOWEVER. Whyyyyyyyy did they make Helena so insufferable? I just do not like this character. And it really shouldn't have been hard to create a sympathetic, interesting character out of someone who watched her father drive himself mad, is still bitter about it, and who's also upset Indy wasn't there for her as father figure (although he's been going through some tragedies of his own that she barely seemed to care about). But she's just smirky and cynical for so much of the movie. Blah.
Also - needed more Marion!!
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I’m only through the first season and mostly love it, but I have so many questions about Mikey putting all that money in cans of tomato sauce. When did he have time to do all that without anyone noticing, given the long hours they all work? How did it take months for them to need tomato sauce and accidentally find it? Isn’t all that money just going to pay the restaurant’s enormous debt? How does one report this to the IRS?
It’s mildly hilarious nobody got mad at Sydney for accidentally stabbing Richie … they all know he’s a lot to deal with.
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Now, to be fair, I didn’t watch every episode and my knowledge of the rest of it is from online reviews and synopses… but I’m weirdly fascinated by the train wreck and it sounds like things just went from bad to even worse. My theory is Dan Levy noped out of most of the show to preserve his dignity.
Something interesting COULD have been done with these dark themes. Clearly, they were more interested in being edgy and building up to the plot twist of “she was evil the whole time mwahaha!”
I have to laugh at her corporate overseers agreeing to finance a tour where her opening acts are unknown, inexperienced weirdos. The clip of them being so impressed by that girl warbling about lonely crocodiles crying… 😂
Most of the show also looks either too poorly lit or washed out — critics have said “at least it looks good,” but I think most of it looked kind of ugly. Her house is ugly, the office sets are really ugly, the outfits are ugly (so much unnecessary underboob!), the lighting is ugly.
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On 6/28/2023 at 11:53 PM, Artsda said:
I agree she's done. They fired others for less.
I would assume. It's the fact that she seriously hurt somebody else that is going to make it impossible for them to just wish her well in rehab and then welcome her back.
She ought to thank her lucky stars the other driver lived, at least. Hopefully the other driver is not permanently injured in any way!
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According to IMDB Dan Levy only appeared in one episode. Did he ask to be edited out of the rest lol?
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On 6/20/2023 at 10:25 AM, cmfran said:
My plan after the first 2 eps was to hate watch this one, but it's honestly so bad I can't even hate watch it. For a proper hate watch, the show has to actually be trying, and this one isn't even doing that.
It’s such an obviously cynical enterprise that it doesn’t merit even a hate watch. Even the gawk-at-a-car-crash fascination of how badly this thing turned out wears off quickly.And it’s because the showrunners and MAX truly do not care. Throw together some titillating scenes and themes, cast a famous musician and a young pretty actress with a famous, controversial dad, throw out some deliberately obnoxious retorts to early bad reviews to generate more press, and viola! Instant controversy equals instant buzz and clicks and even hate-watching equals $$!
They know the storytelling is absolute crap. They have to. Nobody involved in the final product could have possibly believed “yes, we have made a thoughtful and compelling exploration of abuse within the music industry!” or even “this is a sexy and dark new take on the fame-is-dangerous genre!” This script is on the level of a bad Lifetime movie but they get to swear and have nudity.
Tedros is an obvious, unappealing scammer and manipulator and everyone falls for his crap and allows him to dominate Jocelyn within a matter of *days* because the thin plot of this mess requires it. MAX is simply chuckling all the way to the bank as they get away with having The Weeknd act out sexual sadism on a constantly under-dressed woman who plays an absolute nincompoop.
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My goodness what a train wreck. I needed a good laugh and this episode didn’t disappoint… but, uh, I am laughing AT the show not with it.
Again, poor Lily Rose. She is honestly trying and Jocelyn’s obsessive behavior and anxiety during the video shoot was the one interesting part of the episode. We see glimmers perhaps of what the show was supposed to be before it got reworked into this laughably “aren’t we so edgy?!” cringe fest. Of course, it gets ruined by the eye-rolling call out to her dead mom - can we be subtle for 2 seconds, show?
Rachel Sennot and Da’Vine Joy also had some good moments - anyone behaving like actual concerned humans for 5 seconds on this show is nice!
Someone needs to tell Levinson what he’s creating is not sexy or dramatic— we’re dying laughing at the ridiculous dialogue and he’s making sex look extremely unappealing lol. And because we’re supposed to believe Tedros’ sex appeal is what’s drawing Jocelyn in, his stupid wardrobe and pony tail, godawful dialogue, and aggressively laughable and gross approach to sex undermine the whole thing. Jocelyn looks like an idiot for falling for this try-hard weirdo who she has just met, and who is very obviously scoping out her place and testing her boundaries so he can take advantage. Real life cult leaders are far more subtle than this.
The whole thing is a juvenile, deliberately repulsive, and wrongheaded take on why someone would become burned out in Hollywood and vulnerable to a cult leader.
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"We have to get our stories straight." Yes, definitely say that to each other in the middle of a crowded crime scene. Very smart. 🙄
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If the stories of significant changes to the show in the middle of shooting are true, you have to feel a little bad for Lily Rose Depp. They have given her nothing of interest or substance to play here and if she weren’t a nepo baby this could wreck her career. It’s pretty obvious they had no interest in trying to create a realistic or well rounded character. The character is there to be sexy (and often nearly naked), mentally unwell and exploited. It’s pretty gross.
A story about a pop star getting sucked into a cult could be interesting, and I imagine that’s why she signed onto this. I don’t know how Dan Levy and Hank Azaria found themselves in this hell dimension, but it certainly lends credence to the idea that the project changed drastically after they were already trapped in a contract.
Between the awful Velma series and this, I really have to wonder what the hell is going at HBO .. Max … whatever the hell it is.
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Oh shit, I do not have a good feeling about poor Ronnie making it out of that explosion. :( I assume Hal and Stuart will be ok.
I truly did not care about Stuart and Eidra's relationship, as the show did little to give them any chemistry and Eidra is fine as a character but not particularly fleshed out. But I really like Stuart, so that part of the show didn't distract me too much.
The complicated, messed up Kate / Hal dynamic really worked for me ... and that is not an easy thing to write or communicate on screen. I really liked Rufus Sewell in this series, and he did great playing a character that is both charming and often NOT trustworthy because he always has his own angle.
I also liked the dynamic of Kate being torn between (1) just focusing on the immediate crisis as the ambassador to UK, (2) considering positioning herself for VP, and (3) really wanting to go back to her work helping her old contacts from Afghanistan.
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It's worth repeating just how much Logan screwed up his children and doomed them to a life of bitter resentment notwithstanding their vast wealth (well, except for possibly Connor and maybe even Roman if he commits to years of therapy ... maybe).
Logan never mentored his kids on how to be competent businesspeople (or even adults) ... but then berated them for not being serious people. He encouraged them to take advantage of nepotism and never learn the business from the ground up or prove themselves, and to rely on but also disrespect the people who actually did know what they were doing or put in the long, thankless hours (Frank, Gerri, and even Tom the willing pain sponge, etc.).
Logan lorded over them the fact that he built an empire and had nothing handed to him ... but he's the one who raised them to be entitled little shits and discouraged them from choosing a different career. Only Connor and Shiv ever explored careers outside of Logan's corporate empire. But Connor is a dilettante who resented never being considered as CEO, and Shiv (who could've had her own identity in the political consulting world) is manipulated back into the fold by Logan.
On some level, Logan would probably find it fitting that Tom ended up CEO. Tom is "beneath" the Roys, but also a cutthroat striver, which Logan could certainly appreciate. But why are the Roy children so comparatively entitled and incompetent? Because of their parents (honorable mention to Caroline, who's a real piece of work ...)
AND ... probably the saddest part of all for Kendall is that he is unable to be a present, decent father to his two children, or take any joy in this aspect of his life that could be completely separate from the toxic corporate world.
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Damn, that's bleak. I'm not even sure Kendall deserves much sympathy, but he's just so needy and empty that it's hard not to feel bad for him.
It's not clear Shiv had a clear reason for changing her mind at the last minute other than she simply couldn't bear to see Kendall get the coveted crown. "You wouldn't be good at it" ... since when do any of them genuinely care about that? I guess what she meant was "you don't deserve it more than the rest of us" (even though she no longer has a shot at it anyway) and she cannot let go of that. Shiv is probably the most like Logan, at the end of the day -- sometimes, she's just cruel because she can be and if she thinks one of her siblings is gloating too much, she feels the need to take them down a peg. You see glimmers of humanity from the others (at rare times), but Shiv has always been the coldest.
Tom getting rewarded for his years of sucking up and punching down is ... probably quite realistic but yikes. (I love the actor, cannot stand Tom the character lol).
I guess Roman's just happy he doesn't have to pretend to be a businessman anymore.
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The whole redo-animated-film-with-more-realistic-animation trend is just odd to me, but I did end up liking the Aladdin remake, and I hope this one does well. Really for no other reason than Halle Bailey is very talented and seems like a sweet person ... she genuinely seems like she enjoys meeting all the little kids when promoting the film!
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2 hours ago, SJC said:
I couldn't agree more !!
I also don't see Lorelai & Rory as being a lot alike either.They really aren’t and in fundamental ways — Lorelei’s sense of self is built from within, creating a unique life for herself after making a big mistake rather than following the easy path (marry Christopher to make her teen pregnancy “ok” in her parents’ eyes and stay in their social circle). Rory’s identity depends too much on external positive feedback … she’s a genuinely smart, hard worker but everyone around her has reinforced this idea that she is and must continue to be extraordinary all the time, and she can’t handle messing up or even normal setbacks. The show flirts with addressing this, but never really does — things somehow work out for Rory when the plot points run their course, rather than Rory examining herself or Lorelei acknowledging she never taught Rory how to bounce back from failure. Rory getting pregnant at the end of the revived series just hangs there, never dealt with.
I would be fine with Paris or Lane doing something unexpected with their lives IF the show cared to explain WHY they did so, but of course the show lost interest in Lane during the show’s original run anyway.
Paris’ brittle, over achieving personality was in part a reaction to being neglected and anxious. I would have liked to see Paris more relaxed later in life (but doing something she really loved and not completely losing her edge).
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Almost none of A Year in the Life worked for me. Rory’s behavior, Lorelai wanting a late in life baby, Paris running a fertility clinic or whatever that was … I found it weird and boring, and the few interesting ideas (Emily coping with widowhood, Lorelai clashing with Rory over Rory’s autobiography idea, Rory’s career stagnating in a tough industry) weren’t really done well.
Maybe that’s not that unpopular, though fans usually have specific issues with AYITL and I hate the whole thing lol. I also don’t see the ending as Rory following in her mom’s footsteps as the show runners claim … they are two extremely different situations of single motherhood. Rory is twice as old, educated and supported as Lorelai was when she ran away and had Rory.
I think there actually IS good story to be mined from the idea that Rory needs to learn to handle failure … but the 2 big storylines dealing with it teach Rory nothing. The yacht stealing / dropout story was too melodramatic and then fizzled out — she basically returned to Yale with no issues, graduated on time, and was given Paris’ job as newspaper editor, rather than learning much of a lesson. In AYITL, she at least reorients herself and explores a career change with less drama … but the show doesn’t really address WHY Rory struggles so much with ordinary career setbacks.
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Hopefully the other driver fully recovers and doesn’t have permanent injuries.
I do judge HP harshly here as there’s no reason she needed to be driving herself in that state. If she’s struggling with addiction, that’s sad but the other driver doesn’t deserve to suffer for it.
That said, I don’t expect her friends and cast mates to scold her publicly or not feel bad for her if they think she’s got a problem. Though I do see why people find it annoying NLG is urging “compassion” for everyone involved in the crash — a lot of people justifiably don’t feel like extending compassion beyond the badly injured other driver who was just a bystander, and are in no mood to feel lectured about it.
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These shows typically work better if you just never see the world leaders and don’t have that cognitive dissonance… but it kinda works here so far? It’s still really weird, though.
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On 5/2/2023 at 2:31 PM, merylinkid said:
YAAAY. But when? Because with the writers' strike (which I FULLY support) that will probably delay things.
This is a show with fantastic writing, too!!
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I wasn’t sold on this show for most of the first episode… but they got me hooked with the surprise! Hal kidnapping at the end.
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19 hours ago, Friendly Lurker said:
Was there something significant about the fact that he bought a hat? Or was it just a random non sequitur?
I think it was just to drive home the point that while Kate had a day of high stakes life or death situation s to manage, Hal is just …buying clothes for future formal events and getting bored.
and it’s not a backseat role he can stay in comfortably for very long. He says he wants to just support her but he’s going to get restless and draw attention to himself again because that’s how he is.
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On 5/9/2023 at 8:11 AM, Kel Varnsen said:
They have talked about trying to rebuild US foreign relations, since I think a previous administration. So I assume that Trump, or a Trump-like president happened in their world.
What’s throwing me off a bit is the mix of real and fictional… like, the war in Ukraine and Brexit and US recommitting to NATO etc. are all still recent so it seems like the current year … but clearly years’ worth of drama from another timeline has resulted in this president, a VP embroiled in a scandal, and an unstable British PM.
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I must say, I rolled my eyes at the Hal character / the turbulent marriage stuff in the first episode …. but he’s such a chaotic and amusing and multidimensional character that I weirdly love him now? I mean, he is legitimately driving his wife insane with his antics and I feel for Kate … but I also am buying that he’s hard to quit even for no-nonsense Kate. That is not easy to make convincing onscreen and Rufus Sewell is selling it.
I love Stuart and I’ve warmed to Eidra but I’m not that invested in their relationship.
Dennison … omg that poor man dealing with Trowbridge all the time.
Dennison’s sister is a fun character, I hope we get more of her. I love that even while she and Hal were drunk and getting high Hal was still getting useful insights from her about Trowbridge.
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The Little Mermaid (2023)
in Movies
Not gonna lie, Javier Bardem did get me to tear up a little at the end.
Halle Bailey is a gem, and she even did great in the scenes where Ariel can't talk (I imagine it's hard not to just lapse into a vacant smile at times when your character can't say anything). I like the actor they chose for Eric, and I loved the little touch they added where - confused as he is as his girlfriend morphs into a fish - his first reaction is to hug her closer. Melissa McCarthy was a lot of fun in the role of Ursula.
As with the original, Ariel's naïveté in basically bargaining away her life is extremely frustrating (Ursula barely tries to hide that she's completely evil) ... but I'm an adult watching a kid's movie, so I'm probably nitpicking what is meant to be a simple story lol.