All directors have certainly hallmarks that characterize their films, whether it's a particular visual sensibility or a fondness for certain kinds of stories.

If I were a director, I would make a concerted effort to be the most versatile and unpredictable director of all time. For example, I would unleash the most horrifyingly graphic, disturbing film ever made, then I would immediately follow it up with a heartwarming, family-friendly animated film. With that said, there would undoubtedly be certain qualities that would characterize my work, including:

1. Incredibly complicated characters with multi-faceted personalities. There would never be any one-dimensional caricatures or "joke" characters. There would be no black-and-white morality, and nobody would ever be 100% good or 100% evil.

2. A completely detached, non-judgmental view of all characters and events. I would just observe things in an aloof manner and let the viewers decide for themselves. Even the most hideous characters (like child molesters and serial killers) would be portrayed in a neutral manner as three-dimensional human beings.

3. Extremely intimate and personal views of characters' lives.

4. Frequent use of very bizarre and unorthodox camera angles.

5. Very striking and visually stunning cinematography. The camera would go underwater, underground, inside molten lava, into outer space, into clouds, onto swings, and wherever else I wanted to take it. The camera would usually be constantly moving, but would be still and static when necessary.

6. Constant desire to do things that no filmmaker has ever done before, like shooting an entire movie with cameras attached to drones, filming with the fastest frame rate in cinema history, and filming a movie entirely in the made-up language of Lojban.

7. Extremely graphic, no-punches-pulled approach to unpleasant subject matter. There is absolutely nothing that I would not be willing to show on screen in unflinching detail. Nothing would ever be censored or cut away from, and everything would be portrayed as graphically as if you were seeing it in real life. I fully believe in showing evil as it really is, with absolutely no phony sugar coating of any sort. With that said, not all (or even most) of my films would feature any shocking, disturbing content in them.

8. S*x scenes would be extremely explicit, but shot in the most cold, clinical, detached, and un-erotic manner possible. In addition, my characters would usually have very weird attitudes about s*x, and "normal", healthy sexual behavior would be pretty much unheard-of in my films.

9. Shooting absolutely every single film in 3D. At the moment, 3D is universally seen as being only for mindless popcorn films and not for "serious" artistic films. I would do everything that I possibly could to change that.

10. Incredibly extensive use of licensed music, spanning every genre and era. With that said, the music would mostly appear in-universe (like on car stereos or in nightclubs within the film). However, some of my films would have no music at all.

11. Frequent use of music that clashes wildly with what's being portrayed on screen, like soft pop music playing during a brutal murder scene. At times, it would feel like the soundtrack was just chosen completely at random.

12. Extremely naturalistic dialogue, documentary-like in its realism. The dialogue would always feel like real people talking and never like a contrived movie script. In addition, there would often be highly frank, candid conversations about subjects very rarely discussed on screen.

13. Tendency to "leave the cameras rolling" long after most filmmakers would have cut away.

14. Tendency to show things not normally seen in movies, like characters farting (in a non-comedic context) and characters emptying their bowels and bladders after dying.

15. Tendency to cast singers, stage performers, and other non-screen actors in acting roles.

16. Tendency to give films highly ambiguous, enigmatic titles that seemingly have nothing to do with the actual film.

17. Frequent use of extreme close-ups.

18. A desire to give each film a wholly unique and memorable visual appearance.

19. Tendency to focus on very young, very strange (and sometimes outright disturbed) female protagonists. My protagonist would usually be a young girl, and my protagonist would never be a quote-unquote "normal" individual. A perfect example of my typical protagonist: a detached, emotionless, hyper-intelligent, and sexually abused 11-year-old albino girl from a family of Georgian immigrants who begins filming suicides and posting them on the internet. My protagonists would often be frighteningly amoral at times, but with a certain vulnerability that would make them at least somewhat sympathetic. You would view them the same way that you would view a troubled daughter.

20. Tendency to end films in the most chillingly sad, heartbreaking, and gut-wrenching manner imaginable.

21. Recurring themes and motifs: ladybugs; fireflies; butterflies; moths; dragonflies; the moon; visually dazzling photography of water, blood, lights, and sand; dreams; music; mute people; mental illness; physical disabilities, deformities, and abnormalities, especially albinism; deviant sexual behavior; alienation; circuses/carnivals, especially acrobats; and childhood (especially abusive childhoods). Ladybugs would be my most common motif, would appear in some form in every single one of my films, and would be used for all manner of symbolism. In addition, every film of mine would have at least one albino character and at least one mute character.

22. There would always be an underlying pathos and tenderness, even when delving into the darkest depths of human evil, cruelty, and depravity. The overall tone would never be mean-spirited or sadistic, even if many of the characters are.

23. Real-world events and pop culture would never be depicted or referenced. Any celebrities depicted or referenced would be entirely fictional.

24. Tendency to give characters unusual names (like Apollo, Scheherazade, Lumina, and Galaxy, to give some examples). In addition, characters would often have meaningful/symbolic names like Pandora and Thana.

25. My films would usually be heavily steeped in a particular culture and/or setting, as my characters would come from every single background imaginable. However, my protagonists would typically be completely indifferent - if not outright hostile - to their culture.

26. Tendency to eschew special effects in favor of "the real thing".

27. Fondness for silent-era visuals, especially those of avant-garde silent films and early special effects films like those of Georges Méliès.

28. Tendency to have multiple different plots running at the same time in the same movie, and the plots wouldn't always have any clear connection to each other.

29. The majority of my films would be animated. All voices would be done in a very naturalistic and realistic manner, and child characters would always be voiced by actual children (except in certain cases where it wouldn't be possible to protect child voice actors from extremely mature content).

30. Making films in multiple different languages (sometimes in the same film).

If you were a director, what would be your hallmarks? What would characterize your unique cinematic vision?

!kino

!kino !anime !jinxthinkers

!kino !bookworms !ringbearers

Season 2 begins with a flashback. After Morgoth's defeat Sauron is running for President and delivers a low energy speech to the orcs. Adar starts an insurrection by stabbing the Dark Lord with his crown followed by the orcs killing him. Years later Sauron becomes a symbiote like goo feeding from maggots and mice until he crawls outside the Mountain, kills a woman and becomes "Halbrand". Then Halbrand boards a ship with an old man, a big fish destroys the ship and Saubrand steals the man's sigil, later he finds Galadriel and season 1 events ensue.

Now Saubrand goes back to Mordor where Adar tortures him, and later lets him go because he promises Adar to find Sauron. I hace no idea of what was the point of Saubrand in Mordor. Then he goes to Eregion to meet Celebrimbor and convinces him he's a messenger of the Valar, finally we have an Annatar reveal.

This should have been in season 2 and is probably the only scene so far I thought it was kind of cool, but is sad they casted an old man as Celebrimbor, the elves are ageless god Darnit! After that they resume their work.

The moronic and gullible she-elf Galadriel tells Gil-Galad and Elrond that Halbrand is Sauron. There's a ridiculous scene with Elrond stealing the 3 elvish rings. He takes to them to Cirdan but it turns out Cirdan doesn't want to destroy them, he puts the rings and gives the other two to Gil-Galad and Galadriel which leaves Elrond pissed.

The dwarves of Khazad Dum are worried about the mountain not responding to the dwarven kween's singing so Durin and Disa go to Eregion where Celebrimbor and Annatar begin forging the 7 rings.

There's the totally not-Gandalf wizard and fem-Frodo along fem-Sam wandering through the desert where they meet Tusken raiders sent by totally not-Saruman (I swear if the Dark Wizard is Saruman than they will outdumb every other dumb change made before)

Not-Gandalf has visions with a staff, he's looking for it. The Tusken Raiders attack him and he summons a dust-devil with a provisory staff, it doesn't work well as the Hobbits as taken away like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.

The Numenor shit continues to be boring. Donald Trump Ar-Pharazon coups Kween Tar-Miriel by EXPOSING her as an elvish lover. Isildur's sister shows up at Miriel's coronation displaying the Palantir and calls out Miriel, then an Eagle shows up for a photo-op and Trump goes toward the Eagle and becomes King after the crowd shouts and goes bananas!

As a Tolkien adaptation this slop is 2/10, it is very loosely based on the Legendarium. As its own thing it's like 4/10, very mediocre show, boring with few interesting moments and dumb plotlines.

In the clever new Netflix series Kaos, the Greek Gods are a rich and powerful modern-day family. They're led by an impulsive and deeply insecure Zeus (Jeff Goldblum), who lives on Mount Olympus with his wife Hera (Janet McTeer). But there is a plan to overthrow Zeus that depends on a slew of gods, demigods and mortals working together, whether or not they are aware of the roles they each are playing.

Finished this yesterday. A moderately interesting premise, same with the world building, and I thought Goldblum was good and towards the end was quite menacing. Really everything involving the gods was pretty good while the humans felt like wheel spinning a lot of the time. There are some good Easter eggs for people who know about the Greek myths and they throw in some twists. Had the typical Netflix gay stuff in it.

Verdict: Ends with a pretty large cliff hanger so I would say don't bother watching unless a season 2 is announced.

!bookworms !kino

Shoutout to the Neurodivergent Queen

New Minecarft trailer:

New Dragon BALLZ on yo face:

Official trailer for 'Dragon Ball DAIMA'

• Akira Toriyama wrote the entire story
• Reportedly has ~20 episodes
• Premiering October 11 pic.twitter.com/RXFPavNeiK

— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) September 4, 2024

Potential?

New Symbiote in #Venom3

Unconfirmed if it's Toxin or Lasher pic.twitter.com/ueT9iw8Akj

— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) September 3, 2024

POTENTIAL?

First look at Harvey Dent in #Joker2 pic.twitter.com/eFg9XmE7cX

— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) September 3, 2024

New Jokeher clip:

Alien Earth trailer:

We're so back bros:

Ian McKellen reveals he has been asked to return as Gandalf for ‘LORD OF THE RINGS: THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM’

(Source: Deadline) pic.twitter.com/g8NbRxIiqL

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) September 2, 2024

X2:

Matthew McConaughey and Ewan McGregor are both reportedly in the mix for the role of Hal Jordan in ‘LANTERNS’ if Josh Brolin declines

(via: @TheInSneider) pic.twitter.com/aHGDYSzvMR

— ScreenTime (@screentime) September 4, 2024

!kino

!g*mers

!comicshitters

!chuds

https://x.com/search?q=%23BoycottNetflix

MUMBAI, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Netflix (NFLX.O), opens new tab said on Tuesday it will add new disclaimers to an Indian series about a plane hijack after social media outrage and government anger over what they said was Muslim hijackers being shown as Hindus.

The series, called "IC-814: The Kandahar Hijack," a fictionalised version of the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines flight 814 from Kathmandu, was released on Netflix last week. It was immediately criticised for what social media users said was a wrong portrayal of the hijackers as Hindus with Hindu names when they were Muslims.

Netflix officials were summoned to India's information and broadcasting ministry on Tuesday, local media reported, and the streaming platform said soon after that it will update the disclaimer. There was no comment from the government.

"For the benefit of audiences unfamiliar with the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814, the opening disclaimer has been updated to include the real and code names of the hijackers," Monika Shergill, Vice President, Content, at Netflix India, said in a statement.

#BoycottNetflix was trending on X over the weekend, and several users as well as members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) criticised the series, saying it showed the hijackers in a positive light and misled audiences into thinking they were Hindu.

Amit Malviya, who heads BJP's social media unit, said the series "legitimised the criminal intent" of the hijackers and misled people into thinking that Hindus hijacked the plane.

India blames Pakistan and Pakistan-based militant groups for the December 1999 hijack, which was resolved after New Delhi freed three Islamist militants, including Masood Azhar, the head of one such group.

The series, which comes nearly 25 years after the incident, has actors Naseeruddin Shah, Vijay Varma and Pankaj Kapur, among others, and is based on the book "Flight into Fear", written by the captain of the flight Devi Sharan and journ*list Srinjoy Chowdhury.

Netflix, as well as other streamers such as Amazon's Prime Video, have been at the receiving end of complaints over their content in the past, especially from Hindu groups, who say their content hurts the sentiments of the country's majority religious population.

Amy Adams also hit the fricking wall hard

What she us3d to look like

X-Files
Fringe
Supernatural

That's all I can think of.

Why is no one making more of this format, it's cool

Redditors cope

https://old.reddit.com/r/TheRingsOfPowerLeaks/comments/1f4lazw/last_2_episodes_leaks_kiss_details_fates_of_adar/

AHHHHHH !ringbearers !bookworms GALADRIEL AND ELROND KISSING AND DARK WIZARD BEING SARUMAN

Tell me where is Celeborn, for I much desire to speak with him…

First clip from ‘THE APPRENTICE’, a biopic starring Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump.

Read our review: https://t.co/WLVeVK1A8y pic.twitter.com/RUNaCGVGie

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) September 3, 2024

!kino will you be watching?

!trump2024

I genuinely think some part of Donald Trump is genuinely in love with Joe Biden in the way the Joker is in love with Batman pic.twitter.com/IrZkPpQXzh

— Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma) September 2, 2024

title

!kino discuss

!jannies please pin

An oil well explodes and the only way to extinguish the flames is to use dynamite (believe it or not). The only dynamite available in the region is on the far side of a mountain range. It has been improperly stored, causing it to 'sweat', making it highly unstable. Four criminals, living in the remote mountains to hide from the law, are hired to drive the dynamite across unsafe mountain roads to the well in two trucks they have constructed from spare parts themselves. They call these trucks 'Lazaro' and 'Sorceror'.

The film was a remake of a 1950s French movie called The Wages of Fear. William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) got into arguments and fights with just about everyone making this film. If you don't know about William Friedkin, here's a little introduction:

Anyway, the movie bombed- Friedkin blamed being released in the same year as Star Wars but plenty other movies released in 77 and made bank:

Also, nobody saw the point of remaking The Wages of Fear and critics panned any attempt by Burgers to remake any Frog movie because, clearly, Frog cinema is a carousel of culture and beauty the likes of which no Burger could understand.

Nowadays people think Sorceror's pretty rad, and for good reason.

This movie isn't that bad. It's at least unsettling at times. Like the Babadook, it uses supernatural menace to mirror the struggle of a flawed parent raising a difficult child alone, while both try to cope with the death of the other parent. Both movies also use a series of creepy 2D illustrations (in this case, a set of ironic Burton-esque monster characters the father created years ago) that seem to acquire a life of their own as the protagonist's mental state deteriorates.

I think what makes this movie funny is that it so hyperspecifically mirrors the kind of one sided narrative your bitter 45-year-old drinking buddy tells you about why his marriage fell apart, which you sort of nod along to without fully believing. The fears are real, but they combine one after another into a wild series of alternative explanations for a far more likely story of mutual failure.

As such, while The Babadook is a tale about parental fear, Separation wears parental fear as a flimsy disguise over a core that's really a male victimhood/revenge fantasy.

Let's walk through the movie from the dad's perspective. This is all presented to the viewer as fact.

• I'm the fun dad. I built a puppet theater for my daughter, I let her watch R-rated movies, we're always laughing and joking around, we have such a great rapport. My frigid wife barely even SEES her.

• Okay, my unsupervised daughter hurt herself playing in the attic. But it was caused by creepy supernatural activity, and anyway why does my wife have to go out and work so much? I can't be watching her all the time.

• Okay now she wants to LEAVE me?! Over one little bump when I looked away for FIVE FRICKING MINUTES?

• My b-word wife is going for full custody. Full custody!! And she's gonna get it, too! Why do the courts always take the mother's side? Just because I'm an unemployed artist who hasn't had a job in three years...

• Right in the middle of my wife's unhinged phone rant about how my daughter is her property, the dumb b-word gets hit by a car. Instant karma! She was talking on the phone in the middle of the street, she wasn't even looking where she was going.

• Well at least I get custody now.

• My father in law is a mean rich bastard who doesn't understand my struggle, he accused me of having my wife killed (WHAT??) and now HE'S trying to get custody??

• My daughter keeps acting weird and doesn't like me as much. It's because her mother's evil ghost is coming into the house and trying to turn her against me.

• See, I told you I could get a new job whenever I want. Within a few days of starting, I got promoted to lead artist on a scary new comic series!

• My daughter keeps getting into the attic unsupervised and hurting herself, but I always lock the door. It's those stupid ghosts who keep opening it.

• I fricked up those comic pages because the spirits put me in a trance, I'll get them in on Monday. Jeez.

• My b-word ex's ghost looks like this evil balding clown thing lmao

• I WASN'T trying to frick the babysitter. SHE came on to ME, and she kissed me but I instantly pushed her away, and there's nothing between us, okay? She's this psycho b-word who's obsessed with me.

• Okay my daughter got hold of some food she is deathly allergic to, but I wasn't careless, it was the EVIL BABYSITTER trying to poison her, I just didn't know it yet.

• I didn't put those marks on my daughter, why are the police accusing me of child abuse?? All I did was try to give her the Heimlich Maneuver when I thought she was choking.

• So it turns out the evil babysitter actually killed my b-word ex-wife even though this makes zero in-universe logistical sense. She was just obsessed with my peepee and she tried to get rid of my ex and my daughter so we could be together. I've still got it!

• So I guess my ex was SORT OF trying to get revenge on the evil babysitter, but instead of warning me about the truth, she just supernaturally tormented ME with a series of dubiously connected spooky happenings involving my old creepy cartoon characters.

• ALSO, my b-word ex kept trying to get my daughter to jump to her death out of a high window, which was open because THE FRICKING GHOSTS opened it, okay??

• So my daughter actually did fall out the window, but I jumped after her, and because of the power of love we both magically survived. I guess my b-word ex-wife finally decided to stop tormenting us because I FINALLY proved I'm a good father.

• No I didn't kill my father in law or the babysitter.

The resolution does involve a mild reconciliation with the mother (despite her supernatural evil), but this only completes the fantasy. And the whole thing seems almost comically washed in grievance. I do think we're meant to perceive the father's flaws, but they never actually hurt anyone. 95% of the bad things that happen in the movie are unambiguously done TO him by an improbable series of unsympathetic buttholes, ghosts, and a third act twist psycho. He's the ultimate victim, but at least you, the viewer at home, understand!

I think this movie would have been a lot better if it at least hinted at unreliable narration. The Babadook uses this very well, but Separation is too insecure for ambiguity. The former is about the fear of being a bad parent. The latter is about the fear of others seeing you as a bad parent.

As you might expect, you can catch this on Tubi, but I just spoiled the whole movie and it really isn't very good. Just watch The Babadook. !kino

If she left them alive she'd draw much less attention. Also even if she didn't want to reproduce with them, they'd still probably help her with important alien shit as long as she strung them along a bit. If she didn't kill them it would also make it much easier for me to jerk off to the movie. What a dumb b-word

!kino

Its even funnier than I could have imagined 🌬️🎈 https://t.co/7pJ6xHODaY pic.twitter.com/0AWJBMJAMv

— Nick Walsh (@NICKWALSH) August 27, 2024