katha

Yeah, I thought that was total strategic folly. Walking with the Nine on her into a duel with Sauron. I can kinda see it in a "She's so obsessed with killing him, rational thinking flies out the window", but it didn't show her in a good light IMO. Again. They do need to take a look how they are writing her.

The logistics were also always going to be difficult with Galadriel. We saw that this season. Sauron is the driver of the plot, everyone is reacting to him. They rightly centered him this season, I think it makes sense to stay with that model and have a most prominent leader of the good guys for every season as necessary. You saw that the further away from Sauron the narrative went the weaker it became IMO, structurally it makes sense to tighten things up around him as he gains in power and wreaks ever more havoc. Per Tolkien, Galadriel is not present for most of this in direct ways. You can add her in crucial moments like they did this season and IMO it was fine, but she needs to do things on her own like gain her spiritual powers, build Lothlorien, presumably find Celeborn somewhere along the way. Her realm will be an important point of resistance, but she's not always directly tied to the fight against Sauron. And they did present a scenario why that is in the show, not because she's weak, but because she has been obsessed with destroying Sauron for ages and this darkness has made her susceptible to him. Continuing on this quest has the real possibility of turning her into what she hates.

I think they did a good job of covering the nuances of this all season tbh. Celebrimbor summarized it well this episode. Sauron is a gaslighting menace and absolutely responsible for his evil deeds. But he works with his marks' weaknesses and desires. Celebrimbor takes responsibility for his part in the wreck, for letting ambition and vanity blind him. The Halbrand persona was tailored to Galadriel and on rewatch IMO you see how he is spinning her all season, it's a very sharp and precise performance by Vickers. But he didn't yet have a clear plan in place and was freestyling more with her, so yah, her own mania and single-mindedness were a driving force for much of her crap decision-making in the first season, Sauron often just nudged her along. She has to accept her own culpability and find ways to do better from now on. She's still in this angry "I will kill him, me alone!!!!!" phase, that we know she needs to abandon for something more constructive.

Yeah, I think there are aspects of the show that scream "executive interference" tbh. IMO they probably said "we gotte have Gandalf and hobbits in a LOTR show", which would explain why that plot often seems so inorganic and disconnected from everything else. We know they had to cut Numenor down for reasons (which was a terrible decision tbh), I can also see it tied to not being "allowed" to cut down on the Harfoots in contrast to make it fit into 8 episodes. They did start with the pitch of that Galadriel freak-out on the ring in the LOTR book/movie, so that connection is something they've been interested in. Agree that the ship baiting is tiresome here, but it's probably a mix of showrunners wanting to pander to shippers and Amazon wanting to pander to shippers. The question why Galadriel and Sauron are avoiding each other in the Third Age is an interesting one, I think. Gandalf is close to the ring, he's going into battle openly with Sauron. Why is Galadriel staying out of it? A situation where Sauron and Galadriel have so totally compromised themselves with each that they fear open confrontation is one way of explaining this. Sauron fears mutual destruction, Galadriel fears his corrupting influence. And they've had a leitmotif of Galadriel having an inner darkness as well as not being very self-aware of this. She just loads anger and self-righteousness on everything and tries to sell it as moral virtue. Various characters have called her out on this. Sauron sees this and tries to recruit her as a second in command (he won't share power, that's just nonsense he tells her to make the offer more tempting), which would bolster his pitch for ME domination. Now, do I think this is all well done? Nah, IMO they have made drastic changes to Galadriel without perhaps always thinking through how this effects the larger world building. At a certain point her personal angst regarding Sauron becomes irrelevant because the crap decisions she's made have catastrophic repercussions for the world beyond just her personal journey. So they try to ignore that to some degree and...I'm not convinced. But I can see why they thought it's interesting.

The higher pace is working for me and while some of the writing is wonky, I think overall the storylines were compelling. IMO Vickers and Edwards are killing it, the deception with Annatar works for me because Vickers is selling it and because they made it reasonably plausible that the combined screw ups of everyone have created this catastrophe. Galadriel through shame and pride didn't tell quickly enough that Halbrand is Sauron. So Celebrimbor was not dealing with complete information and with a malevolent powerful being who had already hooked himself into his mind via interactions as Halbrand. Then you have Celebrimbor's vanity and ambition, which Edwards portrays well, so he basically talks himself into letting Halbrand in. Sauron just has to nudge around a bit to get him spinning. And once he's in he seals the deal with the Annatar storyline. Now we're at a stage that Sauron doesn't have to charm anymore, Celebrimbor is stuck. He made the seven rings and disobeyed his king, the rings are flawed and now he doesn't want to question either his own skills/judgement as well as Annatar, but is starting to do it. While Sauron adds in the pressure, gaslights and probably also rummages around in his mind. To the point that he tells his usual half-truths and then turns them into guilt trips on Celebrimbor. Also appreciated that they showed how he's getting his hooks into the other Elves at the forge, further isolating Celebrimbor. The desperation with Celebrimbor is palpable, but he's like a gambler now stuck in the thought spiral that continuing to do the same thing will bring a solution. When of course it won't. I do really like Vickers' structure of movement, it's eerie. There's a stillness to him that makes him both predatory but also strengthens the effect that it's an otherwordly being wearing Elven skin like a dress. Also, Numenor was finally compelling. I think the show really, really needs to sort out their pacing and priorities in the edits. No one needed that much Harfoots walking around for two seasons, while they arguably didn't focus enough on the central tragedy of the Second Age in Numenor.

Sauron/Annatar is really working for me tbh. I think a lot is that they really struck gold with Vickers who is playing the unplayabale to some degree and also smoothing over some blah aspects of the writing. But IMO they also have a decent grasp on the character, how the flexibility and manipulation makes him so dangerous. Getting in with Celebrimbor is also tied to Galadriel not telling quickly enough that Halbrand is Sauron and I do think they did a decent set-up with him guilt tripping her in the season finale to make her hesitant to admit how badly she screwed up. Then Suaron is presumably killing the messengers they're sending from Lindon. And I think the scene of how he gets in is well done: Celebrimbor does most of the talking, Sauron just reacts to all his cues and figures out that he's isolated and doesn't have the newest updates. Celebrimbor does most of the work of convincing himself with a few well-placed nudges. A good scene on how Sauron operates, having the mark think it's all their idea and they have agency. Edwards also does well to establish how vain and desperate for eternal glory Celebrimbor is. So he sees what he wants to see while Sauron plays into all his ambitions with the Annatar reveal. It's cool that they have the Elves conflicted on the rings, because they are ultimately a way of suspending the natural order of things in order to stay in ME. However, messing so much with Galadriel in particular does write them into a corner. Yeah, Elrond may call her out, but she still gets a ring even after catastrophic failure because she has to get a ring for reasons. Gil-Galad comes across as a really wobbly leader because he can't get a grasp on her at all and also bungles Eregion/Celebrimbor. And I'm not sure that is intended, they just had cool ideas to change some things around without thinking through the consequences IMO and so they can't acknowlege them in-show and change things even more drastically.

This looks promising tbh. I'm glad they seem to go all in on Sauron. The villain arcs were among the best written and I thought Vickers delivered about the strongest performance of the season in the last episode.

I think the different way films are now consumed plays into the polarization tbh. Many niche movies become accessible to a broad public due to streaming services. And they might be watched more because they're available and acclaimed. But often those are not viewers who would have sought out those projects on their own. Also: Social media. The motivation to rant about something you hated is probably always greater than if you had a pleasant time. Something that I also dislike about social media and the way its discourse operates: As an example, take that argument scene from "Marriage Story" and how it was widely mocked and meme'd as "bad acting/writing". Now, I think the movie works better in individual scenes than as a whole entity and there are plot holes and frustrating characterization choices, so I'm certainly not saying its beyond criticism. But twitter taking that one scene out of context and mocking it, even though in the film it makes sense that they behave that way is kinda symptomatic about how much of these discussions escalate. The characters ARE overacting, because their conflict has devolved into a performative and destructive game of one-upmanship. Which you'd know if you watched all of it. But I think social media discourse encourages "fast takes" and "hot takes" and a lot of extreme judgements. That said, the new media landscape also makes creating movies with broad appeal more difficult. "Top Gun" managed that this year, and its being feted because it's become such a rare achievement outside of franchises.

I've been rewatching the Avengers movies recently and was once again struck by RDJ's work in them. IMO he really anchors these movies, not despite but because Tony is often a very flawed jerk. The humanity and mess makes him believable and the rest of the cast plays off him and comes off stronger and more grounded as well as a result. I think it's easy to take for granted what he delivered there, but it's astonishing work. Half the time you want Tony to step on a lego, he's so annoying, and that's a real testament to the actor pushing the character beyond the leading man formula. The movies post Endgame struggling to some degree shows this as well. They're searching for a central character to ground it, but it's not that easy. I think it was supposed to be Captain Marvel but now they're pivoting towards Strange a bit? Which...yeah, it's a bit the same formula, but also Cumberbatch just being game to come across as unlikable and also play second fiddle to others. He's got a good understanding of what the character can and can't be.

Han and Leia were canonically crap parents to Ben. There are explanations for this, not least of which are the constant wars. But he had Palpatine rummaging around in his brain and emotionally abusing him since he was a baby, also canon. They didn't seem to notice this, then shipped him off to Luke who tried to murder Ben in his sleep as a "solution" for being difficult/dangerous. It reads as a pretty blatant metaphor for an abused kid getting blamed for his abuse and further punished for it tbh. Which is also where I think a lot of the fandom for Kylo Ren originates tbh, people connecting to that dynamic, not necessarily glorifying him as a villain always. His crap childhood doesn't excuse the terrible choices he makes and that he becomes a mass murderer. That's squarely on him. But multiple things can be true at the same time. The aura of guilt that permeates Han and Leia when they are talking about Ben/Kylo also bears this out, no matter what they're trying to tell themselves. They knew they screwed up. Hence both of them laying down their lives for him in a last ditch effort to come through for him. It was one of the better arcs of the often confused sequels IMO. Also great acting by Driver and Ford, Fisher regrettably never got the chance to act with Driver.

LOL, coming from the other side of that and I think it's also pretty unpopular. I think Colin Farrell is one of the great living actors working today. I've not seen Banshees yet, but After Yang, Thirteen Lives and Batman is a fantastic string of performances in one year. And he's built up a portfolio of incredibly diverse and interesting work once he managed to free himself from the expectation that he's some sort of action leading man. I think recognition for this has been slow because he was stuck both in the pretty and in the bad boy narrative, which makes awards voters very hesitant towards male actors.

French film "The beat that my heart skipped" with Romain Duris. It's an electrifying performance by Duris and the film is very stylish and propels you on as a viewer, in its depiction of the petty half-legal world he inhabits in his job, the anxiety dealing with his terrible father or the stillness when he's playing piano. Beautiful film.

I just watched "Frankie and Johnny" with Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino. Was surprised how much I liked it. The performances were great, though they are both too glamorous to play these downtrodden people LOL. Ah, Hollywood, I guess. Pfeiffer was very affecting, giving the character both strength and fragility. With Pacino you always have a lottery if he'll chew all the scenery or actually deliver a performance. His acting is big, but not too big and suits his more extroverted character. Also surprisingly good comic timing. Nice cast of supporting characters as well. Wasn't sure if I should put it as comedy or drama, but I thought that the main relationship had too serious undertones for a romcom so here it is. :-)

Yeah, I thought the writing and particularly the acting really contributed to understanding why Kate and Anthony do the trainwreck things they do. The dysfunction in the family dynamics, them thinking that they have to take up everything for everyone. And their wrong-headed notion that love means having to constantly sacrifice and hurt yourself for others. Anthony is slowly getting a clearer picture, but Kate is still in massive denial about everything. I did feel for Edwina, because the Sharma dysfunction produced a situation where she's constantly treated as a sheltered child so she keeps on acting like one. Kate is her de facto mother figure, but Kate is way too young and inexperienced to take that on and becomes all domineering and controlling about it, infantalizing Edwina all the time. While Mary acts more like a sister and is super passive, she only starts realizing this. Like seen with the Sheffields. Kate made a deal with them, not understanding how emotionally abusive they are. Mary just starts taking charge, but she should have been the responsible adult in the family unit for a long time. Instead Kate took that role on in wrong-headed ways.

Yeah, I think it happens because many narratives are breaking down/being questioned in the wake of the last few challenging years and nepo babies are a celeb version with famous faces of classism and gatekeeping that happens everywhere. The discussion is too narrow, dogpiling happens, but tbh many of the hyper sensitive responses are kinda making the case for why these articles etc. need to be written. And I do think the entertainment industry is singled out as well because networking and who you know, getting your foot in at the start is often so totally disconnected from talent/merit. As a doctor/lawyer, yes connections will help immensely, but at least you have to get through extensive schooling. The formal requirements for Hollywood are auditions, connections etc., and nepo babies just live on another planet compared to anyone else in this regard. Also the economic reality that they can just try and fail and try again with financial security in their background, while someone coming in without the clout often has to get a regular job and then audition on top of it. The risk to go into the arts is much, much greater. In a British context, James McAvoy for example has talked about how the cut down on arts funding in GB is turning the arts more and more exclusively posh. There's nothing wrong with coming from an upper class background, but the system has calcified to a point that middle/working class (aspiring) artists get almost no state support anymore. Whereas there used to be programs, scholarships etc. And it makes the whole field super narrow because there are only certain points of view that get represented in the industry. And that's kinda the bigger picture with the nepo baby discourse as well IMO. It's not that the talented ones don't deserve their careers and no one is saying that, I think. It's burying the myth that it's an even playing field and a meritocracy. Getting in the door is huge. Of course then it becomes about talent, work ethic, ambition etc. Like, I don't think the argument is that Benedict Cumberbatch, famously posh LOL, only has his career because of his parents. He knew that he could go into acting because he'd seen it in his family, he had access to the right schools and the right drama program. That's where he had a leg up. No one says that he'd have made his blockbuster career and been nominated for or won all these acting awards just because of that. Once he got in the door, he had to hustle like everyone else and showed that he can hack it. Or an American example: Adam Driver's background is often treated as some sort of unicorn situation and that's tiresome. But sadly it also kinda is very out there and that's a problem. Driver's lower middle class from Indiana, his parents seem very religious and didn't seem very supportive of his artistic interests. It's incredibly unusual that someone like that tried to get into Juilliard after HS. He failed and enlisted in the military, but even him trying is really, really exceptional. And then after he injured himself and was discharged, he tried again, got in and could make it because of the GI Bill and working on the side, I presume. But someone from that background deciding that he'll go for an acting career is a level of confidence, drive and just sheer risk-taking that is totally exceptional. I think many very talented kids from similar backgrounds get discouraged at the various similar hurdles they face and just give up because at a certain point the systemic disadvantages they face just grind them down.