Viraldice

Innnnnnnnnnnnnn this corner, weighing in at 250lbs of solid muscle, we’ve got the Slayin’ Seiyan, The Victorious Vegetan, Anime’s Most Popular Man, Son GOOOOOOOOOOKUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!! He’s destroyed demons, grappled with gods, and charged up an attack for five episodes straight! And boy is he charged up now! He’s ready to take home the Anime Heavyweight Championship of the World belt! And no one, not even these guys, is going to take it away from him!

And in this corner, weighing in at 110lbs soaking wet, we’ve got … a high school girl? Oh god, there must be some mistake! She must have gotten off the school bus at the wrong place! She can’t seriously be thinking of competing, can she? She’s going to be clobbered! Annihilated! She’s going to have bruises on her bruises! Oh what is the world coming to? Convincing poor helpless children that they can topple titans with nothing but a sailor suit and the power of love! This is going to be a massacre! A bloodbath! A-

The post Could Sailor Moon Beat Goku In A Fight? appeared first on The Mary Sue.

Cow print may be over but cows will be cute forever (have you seen all the videos of them cuddling with people in meadows? Adorable, iconic). While you obviously can’t keep a cow in your apartment (no, not even a mini cow like Poppy and Petunia), you can fill the void with as many plush toy cows as your hot little hands (or bank account) can handle. And if you want the cutest, softest cow plushies to comfort you over you can’t have a real cow (yet) and spur you on in your plans for forming some sort of anarchist dairy commune out in the countryside, then obviously they’ve got to be Squishmallows.

If you’re asking what a Squishmallow is, I’m assuming you’re buying one for someone else and have probably googled that phrase or something like it to get here, but I’ll help you out. Squishmallows are a ridiculously collectible, absurdly soft line of plush toys filled with the squishiest, pillowiest stuffing under the softest plush. With cute cartoony faces, minimalist, often bizarrely egg-shaped designs and engaging backstories Squishmallows are too adorable not to hoard (I say, from my blanket nest full of them as I plan to buy more.) So here are the best, cutest, most huggable cow Squishmallows for you or whoever you’re trying to buy a gift for available right now.

The post We Took on the Impossible Job of Ranking the Cutest, Most Loveable Cow Squishmallows appeared first on The Mary Sue.

The X-Men franchise was one of the 00s first and most popular superhero films that have since spawned over thirteen installments. With the genre now leaning into multiverse narratives and interconnected storylines across multiple films—something we all know by now the Marvel Cinematic Universe is leading—one can’t help but think back to the chaos of the X-Men’s timeframe. If anything, its nonlinear and almost equally nonsensical timeline is part of its appeal because of how comic-accurate that is.

Anyway, if you’re looking for a new way to rewatch the franchise, we’ve taken on the challenge of figuring out a way to see it chronologically. 

The post How to Watch the X-Men Movies in Order appeared first on The Mary Sue.

Maci Bookout has been through an awful lot with Ryan Edwards.

Normally we’d say these two have been through a lot together, but in this case, Ryan has been the one creating 100 percent of the drama, and Maci has been the one coping with the fallout.

As you’ve likely heard by now, Ryan was arrested once again last week after he relapsed and threatened to murder his wife, Mackenzie Standifer.

Making the situation even sadder is the fact that in the weeks before his latest meltdown, Edwards seemed to be making all of the right decisions.

Ryan got fired from Teen Mom OG back in 2021, but he recently returned to the franchise that made him famous.

The segment was filmed over a month ago — well before his life fell apart — but Ryan’s appearance on the most recent Teen Mom reunion special aired earlier this week.

To the surprise of viewers, Ryan and Maci sat and had a civil conversation about their 14-year-old son, Bentley, and the steps that Edwards can take to be a bigger part of the boy’s life.

Revealing that “it’s been a long time” since they last spoke, Maci said that her relationship with Ryan is “kind of nonexistent” these days.

“I’d just like to be able to, for Maci to be okay with me being able to see him. Hell, I haven’t got to spend any time with him, just me, in a long time,” said a tearful Ryan at one point.

“Hell, I just miss him. There’s a lot of times I wasn’t there just to see him play ball, just putting myself first.”

Ryan pled for compassion, noting that he might be able to have a better relationship with his son if he didn’t “have to deal with everything else that I’ve had to in the past, just everyone else in the way.”

“I just looked at him and I could see the pain and honestly I felt like I was staring at Bentley,” Maci responded.

“It’s obviously bittersweet, but I really appreciate the vulnerability and the ownership, where he maybe came up short, what he could have done differently,” she continued.

“Everything he was committing to, it just felt little by little, a breath of fresh air, because it would absolutely make Bentley’s heart so whole.”

Bookout then made it abundantly clear that Bentley’s love for his father remains undiminished.

“Ryan, there’s a part of Bentley that is hurting, he loves you so much and there is only one person who can help that hurt and it’s you,” she said.

“He wants a relationship with you more than anything else.”

Maci was then asked about ways that she might help Ryan improve his relationship with Bentley.

“I think one of them is making sure that I’m keeping Ryan all the way in the loop as it pertains to anything Bentley has going on, so he as the option to support and be there,” she said.

Maci then acknowledged the elephant in the room, noting that she and Ryan have often had “trouble communicating with each other respectfully.”

“I agree, I said some things that were hateful. Yes, I’m sorry for that,” Ryan said.

“I also want to apologize for not putting in more of an effort to understand the battles you were fighting and struggles you were going through,” she chimed in.

“I should have treated you more like a human being and if I could go back and do it different, I definitely would, but I’m going to do it different moving forward and I’m sorry.”

Had it not been for the events of the past week, the segment would have left us feeling hopeful for Ryan’s relationship with Bentley.

As it is, however, the conversation is just a sad reminder of what might have been.

Maci Bookout Begs Ryan Edwards to Be a Better Dad Amid New Abuse Scandal was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.

Gia Giudice is a bonafide Real Housewives of New Jersey friend-of at this point. She’s grown now and is ready to follow in Teresa Giudice’s footsteps, whether fans like it or not. She and Gabriella Giudice didn’t hold back in the latest episode when expressing their feelings about Joe Gorga and Melissa Gorga feuding with their mom. It’s a new version of Giudice vs. Gorga with the same old problems. Gia is ready to play.

Gia was Tre’s right-hand woman on her big wedding day. The Gorgas couldn’t be bothered to show up. Apparently, Jennifer Aydin spreading some cheating rumors is enough of an excuse for Joey to not attend his only sibling’s wedding. It’s really very pathetic. While I’m sure Gia has plenty of opinions about the Gorgas skipping the celebration, she also has plenty of good things to say about the RHONJ royal wedding.

RELATED: Teresa Giudice Shares That Blending Families With Luis Ruelas “Is An Adjustment”

When Tre got married to Luis Ruelas, she opted to walk herself down the aisle. Rumor has it Joey was supposed to do it, but I’m sure that will be another feud for a future RHONJ episode. In a recent interview with Page Six, Gia praised her mom for some of the choices she made on her big day. She did not mention Tre’s giant hairdo, which is important to note.

Gia’s favorite part of the entire wedding was when Tre walked herself down the aisle. Since Tre’s father passed away, Gia apparently offered to escort her mom to Luis at the altar. “There’s not many women that could say they walked down the aisle alone,” Gia said. “The strength that it took … [She] looked so beautiful and seamless doing it.” The love between Tre and her four Dorters cannot be fabricated, that’s for sure.

After praising her mom, Gia also shared her and her sisters’ approach to handling the Gorga drama this year. “Especially around the time of my mom’s wedding, we were just like, ‘I think it’s time to let bygones be bygones, put it in the past, and just focus on our family and focus on us,'” Gia said. Let’s be clear that Gia made this namaste comment before feuding with her uncle on Instagram, so it’s obviously an ebb-and-flow situation.

TELL US – DO YOU THINK TERESA WAS BRAVE FOR WALKING DOWN THE AISLE ALONE? WHAT DO YOU THINK OF GIA’S APPROACH TO THE GORGAS THIS SEASON ON RHONJ?

[Photo Credit: Evan Angelstro/Bravo]

The post Gia Giudice Praises Teresa Giudice’s “Strength” For Walking Herself Down The Aisle At Her Wedding appeared first on Reality Tea.

And then there were three. Alissa Humber’s surprise termination on the latest episode of Below Deck left the interior crew down a member, with a very demanding group on board. And the second stew was stellar at mixing drinks and generally wonderful at her job. So the question of justification arose as well as comparisons between her firing to that of deck/stew Camille Lamb.

If the perceived slight of calling the captain by her first name was indeed intentional, Captain Sandy Yawn could have let it slide or given Alissa a warning. Multiple pep talks by Captain Sandy and chief stew Fraser Olender were bestowed on Camille. She stuck around for three plus charters with her bad attitude. So why the double standard?

Alissa has negative emotions towards her firing and took to social media to voice her truth. The post has since been deleted. And according to RealityBlurb!, she may not even “show up” to the Below Deck reunion.

“If I don’t show up for the reunion (I became extremely unhealthy mentally during and following the show) this is what I would’ve harped on,” Alissa posted.

Some fans are rallying to Alissa’s defense and questioning whether her speedy termination had anything to do with bias. The Florida native shared a select comment from a follower who suggested that.

RELATED: Below Deck Star Captain Sandy Yawn Posts Ambiguous Quote After Captain Lee Rosbach Called Her Out Over Camille Lamb Firing

 The fan wrote, “It’s crazy that Camille could speak to [Fraser Olender], Ross [McHarg], and Rachel [Hargrove] disrepectfully and not do her job plus drink expensive client alcohol but gets fifty-eleven changes. But Sandy … trying to find a problem with the interior crew [before] you stick up for them and it’s immediate insubordination and you get let go… I’m tired of ppl saying race isn’t a factor on these shows.”

Another contradiction was the manner in which Camille exited the boat versus Alissa. Why was Alissa so closely guarded after leaving the bridge? She certainly didn’t have the “luxury of gallivanting around the boat after” as Camille did.

Many fans are not happy with Sandy’s management style in general. This follower labeled the environment as “toxic,” and called Camille “someone who was actually insubordinate.”

And Alissa was, frankly, wonderful at her job so there was certainly no valid complaint on that front. The post concluded, “You were never given the opportunity to reset. And I’m sorry for you and all the black people in these environments who go through the same thing.”

Alissa finished her social media activity by responding to someone who asked if she would ever join OnlyFans. She responded, “Y’all f**king wish. Not happening.”

A broken heart emoji summed up Alissa’s feelings at the end of the post.

TELL US- SHOULD ALISSA COME TO THE REUNION? DO YOU THINK ALISSA’S FIRING WAS RACIALLY MOTIVATED? SHOUD SHE START AN ONLYFANS?

[Photo Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty Images]

The post Below Deck Star Alissa Humber Reacts To Being Fired; May Not Go To Reunion appeared first on Reality Tea.

The Mandalorian has brought many new fans to the world of Star Wars. If you didn’t care about the franchise before, the big eyes and green ears of Baby Yoda might have brought you into the show but you might not know where in the franchise as a whole the series is set. And we’re here to help!

Starring Pedro Pascal as the titular Mandalorian, the series focuses on characters loosely connected to the larger plot of Star Wars. For some characters, it’s important to understand the timeline in order to figure out where in their arc we are. Like Ahsoka (who showed up in season 2) or Boba Fett. But otherwise, the show is just about Din Djarin trying to keep Grogu safe in the first season and Din trying to find the Jedi for Grogu in season 2.

The post ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Is Drawing Ever Closer to the Sequel Trilogy appeared first on The Mary Sue.

We’ve said it before, and now we’re here to say it again:

Audrey Roloff may want to just stay off the Internet at this point.

The former Little People, Big World often garners backlash from strangers on the Internet for coming across like a self-aggrandizing know-it-all.

She often writes gibberish that she thinks is profound.

Last week, however, Audrey was pretty straightforward in one of her Instagram posts.

The 31-year old jumped on her personal account this past Monday in order to share a video of her daughter, Ember, and sons Bode and Radley learning that the family was taking a vacation to Disneyland.

“Telling our kids we’re are taking them to Disneyland for the first time! Me: ‘We’re going to Disneyland!’ Bode: “Balloons!!’” Audrey wrote alongside the clip… which captured her revealing the news with, yes, Mickey Mouse-shaped balloons.

“But Ember is ecstatic to meet the princesses.”

(Added Audrey: “Also… do not buy these cute Mickey Mouse ears off Amazon. What a rip off.”)

We’re often critical of Audrey Roloff ourselves here at The Hollywood Gossip because she really does come across as someone who stands on a pedestal and thinks she has marriage and parenting totally figured out.

But our response to this message?

To this post? To a trip with young kids to Disneyland?

NBD, that’s for sure. Pretty sweet, actually.

HOWEVER, shortly after the podcast host and author shared the post, one critic took to the comments section to judge her with a negative response.

“How can a Christian go to Disney?” the social media user wrote. “Pls protect your children.”

Audrey fired back by sharing a screenshot of the comment via her Instagram Stories, which included responses from her other followers who at least took her side in this unexpected battle.

“Comments on my reel like this,” Roloff captioned the post, expressing her frustration by adding an emoji with spiral eyes.

Way back on April 2019, the former reality star spoke to In Touch Weekly about how she deals with mom shaming.

“You’re always going to get the people bashing you, shaming you. No matter how many followers you have, the ratio is probably similar,” she said at the time.

“I think keeping that in perspective has kept me grounded.”

Audrey also noted how her husband has kept her from flying off any rails.

“Jeremy’s just a voice of truth in the background on reminding me that I’m a good mom and that I do know what’s best for my daughter,” Audrey said.

“I have the context and the people who follow me online don’t.”

)

Audrey Roloff Takes Kids to Disneyland, Gets Dragged by… Christians?!? was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.

Sequels always have their work cut out for them, so it doesn’t really come as a surprise when they don’t quite hit the mark like their predecessors. Countless beloved movies have tried following up their narratives only for fans to either pretend that the sequels never happened or just downright hate them.

That said, lists focusing on excellent movie sequels that manage to both regain their original fans’ attention as well as garner stellar reviews don’t often contain a lot of titles. This article contains our favorite movie sequels of all time, ranked and ready for everyone to go, “Oh yeah, that one was better than the original!” or, at the very least, agree that they did come head-to-head with their first installments. 

The post These Franchises Saved the Best for Second appeared first on The Mary Sue.

When paper-artist Florence Waller posted an image of an NHS (National Health Service) breast cancer PSA with the text “North Shields Library!” (the adverts locations), those just scrolling past the tweet might have seen it as a positive message sharing the information. After all, preventative health screenings are an important aspect of getting ahead of deadly diseases. Unfortunately, upon closer inspection, it appears that Waller was more excited that portal to book breast cancer screening was covered with another QR code. This newer one placed on top would send the person seeking this vital information instead to a transphobic online celebrity.

If at any point in the last twenty years, you asked me what movie I desired the most in the world, I wouldn’t hesitate for a second: a Gorillaz movie. And that’s not as wild an idea as you might think. The idea of Gorillaz film has been tossed around Hollywood since the aftermath of their 2001 self-titled debut album. But in recent years, it looked like the project was finally, actually happening. But the problem is, the project was happening under the umbrella of Netflix. And according to a new interview with Damon Albarn, the real-life music frontman of the band, Netflix has gone and done a very Netflix thing: canceled the project.

This comes barely a month after one of Netflix’s most acclaimed animated original series, Inside Job, was canceled after only two seasons. Netflix canceling a critically-beloved show after two seasons is a tried and true tradition (I’ll never forgive you for Lady Dynamite, Netflix). But the Gorillaz and Inside Job cancelations come at a time when animated projects are getting canceled across the entire US film industry. Netflix canceled two other highly anticipated animated adaptations last year: Bone and Wings of Fire.

The post Netflix Appears to Scrap Gorillaz Movie as it Guts its Animated Originals appeared first on The Mary Sue.

The first scene of The Last of Us episode 6 begins in the home of an elderly Native couple. The husband, Marlon, comes home to find that Joel and Ellie have broken in and are holding his wife, Florence, at gunpoint. Florence doesn’t seem worried about her predicament, though. When Marlon asks why she didn’t shoot them, she replies, “The gun’s all the way over there.” Throughout the scene, the two needle each other and poke fun at Joel and Ellie. They’ve survived the apocalypse; they’re not afraid of one grumpy dude and a teenage girl.

If Florence looked familiar to you, here’s why: she’s the legendary Elaine Miles, or Marilyn Whirlwind on Northern Exposure.

The post Here’s Where You’ve Seen That Awesome Native Actress in ‘The Last of Us’ appeared first on The Mary Sue.

Earlier this month, we learned that Josh Duggar is currently in solitary confinement in prison.

Despite the twisted nature of his crimes, it is not for his protection. It is a punishment.

Josh allegedly smuggled contraband into the prison. Specifically, a phone. One with which he could contact the outside world.

This is not Josh’s preferred type of infraction — a minor one — but a major violation. And the notorious creep could potentially spend months in solitary.

As we reported last week, Josh Duggar is reportedly spending his time in SHU — the Texas prison’s “Special Housing Unit.”

This is simply a formal, less menacing name for a controversial carceral practice: solitary confinement.

Prison authorities caught Josh in possession of a secret, contraband cell phone. That is a major no-no.

Right now, we don’t really know how long Josh is going to remain in this isolated confinement, cut off from all social contact.

In addition to the social deprivation, most SHU situations involve very confined space. And there is an accompanying lack of free movement and basic privileges.

When news of Josh’s prison violation first broke, many wondered how many days he might spend in solitary. It turns out that “days” is an understatement.

Reports from insiders — those with inside knowledge of the federal prison in Texas and its workings — suggest that it may be weeks. Or even longer.

One person whose relative is an inmate there sounded confident that Josh is still in solitary, a week later.

“Most of the people in there,” the source shared, “have been in there for months.”

So … what determines how long it will be before Josh is once again among the general population?

Apparently, he may remain under confinement in this way until his disciplinary hearing.

Things could be considerably bad for Josh. While it’s impossible to feel sorry for him, specifically, it appears that his circumstances may be so bad that we wouldn’t wish them on anyone.

While under SHU confinement, visitors either fall under the “restricted” category or the altogether “disallowed” column.

According to the Bureau of Federal prisons, inmates under these circumstances receive only “one telephone call per month.”

And the source made it clear that things are even worse for that at Seagoville.

Allegedly, things there are “so bad” that the regional office had to look into “what was going on” at FCI Seagoville.

“They’ve been keeping prisoners in the SHU indefinitely,” the source reported.

“Not letting them have DHO hearings,” the insider continued, “which let them know when they’re getting out.”

According to what an inside source has told The Sun, Josh Duggar could remain in SHU for months.

On the one hand, solitary confinement destroys mental health and prevents anyone who might reform from reforming. We as a society should abhor and outlaw torture of any kind. Prisoners, we must remember, are humans too. Even if all of them were guilty, they would still be people.

At the same time … Josh is not a good posterboy for people facing injustice. His horrifying crimes display no ounce of sympathy for little girls whose lives were destroyed for his enjoyment. There are countless examples of more sympathetic, innocent victims of carceral cruelty.

Josh Duggar Solitary Confinement Could Last for MONTHS was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.

“Every day, on every street, in every city,” grimly intones the narrator, “women are insulted, abused, threatened.” The voice is Abel Ferrara’s, and this is the trailer for his sophomore feature, Ms 45. We see a striking young woman making her way down a bustling New York City street, while a succession of cat-callers leer and jeer at her. Her beauty is otherworldly and her expression is hard to place – somewhere between high anxiety and vacancy.

This is Zoë Lund as Thana, the titular Ms. “What’s her secret?”, Ferrara continues, audibly smirking. The trailer then goes on to outline, in a teasingly elliptical fashion, the film’s rape-revenge structure, giving a prospective grindhouse audience the rough idea. But it’s clear this is no ordinary exploitation quickie: the image of Lund dressed in a nun’s habit, lips painted blood red and wielding a pistol in slow-motion is more eerie than it is strictly sleazy. “What is she hiding?”, asks Ferrara. “Where is she going?”

Zoë Lund led a tragically short life and a consequently short career, both of which have become chiefly associated with Ferrara, though they only collaborated twice (she co-wrote and co-starred in his seminal Bad Lieutenant). A multifaceted and mercurial figure, Lund was an accomplished musician, a model, a novelist and a staunch advocate for the decriminalisation of Class A drugs. “She didn’t just love heroin,” punk rocker and NYC scenester Richard Hell said of Zoë, “she believed in it.” Lund was only 17 when Ms 45 began shooting (she turned 18 during the four weeks of principal photography), but she was given an enormous amount of freedom to shape her character and the film as a whole. “Every scene was more or a less a paragraph on a page” Lund herself would later recall, “and a lot of discussion went on.”

The film follows Thana, a mute garment worker scraping by in the big bad city. She’s alienated from her co-workers, patronised and pawed at by her lech of a boss, and subjected to a daily barrage of unwanted male attention on the mean streets of Manhattan. She appears to be totally helpless, as well as literally and figuratively voiceless. One day, returning home from a dispiriting day at work, Thana is raped twice – once in an alleyway by a mugger (Ferrara in a director’s cameo), and then again by a burglar in her apartment.

While Ferrara approaches these scenes with an exploitation filmmaker’s candour, he does so with no discernible eye towards titillation. This is supported by Lund’s performance, which heartbreakingly underlines the psychic damage of both events, and stresses dissociation over physical agony (atypical for the subgenre). Her approach is nuanced and considered, and Ferrara’s technique is blunt – a potent and disquieting mix.

During the second assault, Thana manages to bash the attacker over the head with a paperweight, then an iron, killing him. Over the next few days, she carves up the corpse, refrigerates the parts, and disposes of them piece-by-piece around the city. She keeps his gun. Her mania and paranoia begin to build – she’s tortured by visons of her landlady’s watchful eye and her bathtub drain bubbling with human innards. She is unable to look at her bare breasts in the mirror without seeing them groped by the hands of her rapist.

In one brilliantly conceived scene, Thana is comforted by her co-workers as she suffers something like a panic attack. As concerned faces loom over her, she silently grasps for words that simply are not there. Here Lund’s performance starkly evokes the alienation and terror of feeling oneself to be beyond help, and the ineffable fear that support might somehow come laced with malicious intent.

While out disposing of a bagged-up body part, Thana is hounded by a catcalling creep who inexplicably insists on returning said brown paper bag to her. He chases her down a dead-end alleyway, she turns to see him charging towards her and – without thinking – she blows him away with her newly acquired .45 calibre pistol. But this first murder offers no catharsis for Thana (and therefore relatively little for us). She returns to her apartment panicked and sickened. It’s not until her second murder that Thana discovers the restorative power of dealing death.

Her first pre-meditated target is a sleazy photographer who bothers her and her co-workers at lunch. Unlike Laurie (a particularly mouthy colleague), Thana isn’t able to tell the guy to “get bent” as he continues to pester her down the street. However, she is about to deliver a more permanent form of rebuttal. She shoots him dead in his own studio. She doesn’t even get out of the elevator.

Finally, Thana’s transformation into Ms 45 begins in earnest – a discrete new identity, that of an avenging angel, that she builds for herself. She discards her mousy attire and begins wearing heavy makeup. She spends her nights dispassionately offing men in the street: pimps, muggers, businessmen. Lund said that it was Thana’s muteness that allowed her to exercise a greater degree of control over the characterisation, and it’s at this point that she deftly modulates that silence from vulnerability to strength. We spend the film tethered to Thana, but once her reign of terror is in full-swing she starts to become obscure to us. Her painted face becomes a mask. She’s making herself into something inhuman.

It might be generous to describe Ms 45 as a feminist work, but it does upset the balance of the prototypical rape-revenge film in thoughtful and pointed ways. For instance, it explicitly places sexual assault on a continuum with catcalling and other more “innocent” forms of sexual pestering. In this way, the film does not position rape as an aberration, but as something endemic. Moreover, the protagonist’s revenge is not reserved for the men who wronged her (neither reappear). The vision that Thana brings to life through her violence is one wherein no man, under any circumstances, can ever hurt her again. But this anti-heroine persona does ultimately reveal itself as a deranged form of play.

Towards the end of the film, in a clear riff on Taxi Driver, Thana theatrically poses with her gun in front of the mirror. She playacts the massacre she’s about to visit upon her workplace’s Halloween party. She’s selected a nun costume for the occasion, a potent symbol of female purity – a woman without men. Lund’s performance in this moment is mesmerising. She’s at once childlike and monstrous, a self-made vision of twisted glamour.

The film up until this point has rested comfortably on her shoulders, but it’s during the climatic party sequence that her performance reaches an ecstatic peak. As she coldly picks off the male partygoers one-by-one, we see Thana totally subsumed by her fantasy. A lesser actor would let Thana become something purely symbolic at this point, but Lund’s performance keeps the tension between reality and fantasy ever present in our minds. Thana herself is not an abstraction, but rather she is a character who has found some measure of peace in embodying something abstract: vengeance.

The post Why I love Zoë Lund’s performance in Ms 45 appeared first on Little White Lies.

Michael Powell strived throughout his career towards a concept he called “composed cinema”: the bringing together of performance, music, and image into film as a singular whole. Powell wanted to make a ‘ballet film’, as opposed to a ‘filmed ballet’, in which the cinematographic techniques of cinema do not simply record but are worked into the choreography of the dance.

Describing his new film Creature, Asif Kapadia calls it “pure cinema”: nothing more than performance, music and image. Powell often attempted to create a “composed” film, the best-known of which is 1948’s The Red Shoes, which features a 17-minute ballet sequence. The aim had originally been to make an entire film as a ballet, but it is near impossible to sell the idea to a producer that a cinema audience will embrace a total negation of dialogue.

Returning to the image-based storytelling of the silent era to some may feel like going backwards. But to Powell – and now to Kapadia – it is an enhancement of form.
In Creature, Kapadia has realised Powell’s dream of a feature-length ballet film. At 87 minutes it is still a palatable runtime for what is essentially an experiment. Complete ballets have long been recorded and exhibited in cinemas. There is demand for what is often a more accessible mode of performance. But the editing and cinematography of those streams is static and one-dimensional to mirror the eye of an objective observer.

By contrast, Creature is a collaboration between director and choreographer which unifies film and dance. The ballet itself is an original piece by Akram Khan created for English National Ballet, which has produced the film, who has choreographed some of the most radical and exciting productions in contemporary dance. It’s easy to see why the project has appealed to Kapadia, who has rarely seemed content with conventional, talking-head documentary in films such as Senna and Amy. Here he transforms the ballet live stream into a work of cinema.

Creature works so effectively because the story is a simple and ancient one of beauty falling in love with the beast. Combining Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck with Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’, Khan tells through movement a romance in a dilapidated Arctic research station between a test subject (Jeffrey Cirio) and a cleaner called Marie (Erina Takahashi) as the doctors and military at the station come between them. It’s similar to Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, which also attempted to express forbidden love and alienation through sheer bodily expression.

The creation is revolutionary. It is the work of a collective – of director Kapadia, choreographer Khan, cinematographer Daniel Landin, editor Sylvie Landra, sound designer Stephen Griffiths, and composer Vincenzo Lamagna existing as a single mass which ebbs and flows in the filmic space. It is therefore also a celebration of British diversity, of dancers and creatives with heritage from across the globe, brought together in a bold artistic front. Creature announces a new frontier for cinema.

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ANTICIPATION.
Will doc maker Asif Kapadia and choreographer Akram Khan work well together? 4

ENJOYMENT.
There are moments when music, image, and movement combine to overwhelm the senses. 5

IN RETROSPECT.
An immersive implosion of artistic forms out of which a new monster is born. 4

Directed by
Asif Kapadia

Starring
Jeffrey Cirio, Stina Quagebeur, Erina Takahashi

The post Creature appeared first on Little White Lies.

There’s nothing more jarring than sitting down with a bowl of popcorn and turning on your favorite TV show, only to find that one of the main cast members has been replaced. Sometimes the change is told to the audience way in advance if actors have scheduling conflicts or simply want to step away from a project. However, sometimes the recasting can come out of nowhere with zero explanation and viewers simply have to take the change on the chin.

So, we gathered some examples of TV shows that had to replace one of their main characters in order for the show to go on.

The post 12 TV Shows That Recast One of Their Main Characters appeared first on The Mary Sue.

Hello, I’m an editor for The New York Times.

You may be wondering how The Times makes some of its, what the liberals would call, “questionable” editing decisions. But I can assure you, here at The Times we are VERY liberal. Most of our mothers and fathers are conservative, and, after allowing them to pay our six-figure college tuition, we’ve decided to rebel against them. It doesn’t matter that we accidentally-maybe-on-purpose put a swastika design in our crossword puzzle on the first day of Hanukkah. We at The Times are COMMITTED to upholding neoliberal values. That’s why we are DEDICATED to “both sides” journalism. While far right rags write articles according to their biases alone, we at The Times prefer to tackle the issue from ALL SIDES before we commit to settling down into our preconceived notions of that issue. Because that is the GOLD STANDARD of journalism.

The post NYT Editor Explains Why They Changed a Pro-Trans Headline to Hide the Author’s Support of Trans People appeared first on The Mary Sue.

This post contains spoilers for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

I’m calling it. After seeing Jonathan Majors in two Marvel projects—Loki season 1 and Quantumania—I’m delighted to announce that he’s the best Marvel villain of all time.

The post Kang is the Best MCU Villain To Date. Here’s Why appeared first on The Mary Sue.

In the months leading up to the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, many fans speculated that the movie would tie into the Disney+ series Loki. Turns out that those fans were right! Here are all the Loki references in Quantumania, including a bombshell at the end that quenched our thirst for our favorite trickster.

Major spoilers for Quantumania ahead!

The post Fans of This Beloved Character Were Finally Fed in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ appeared first on The Mary Sue.

Allison Holker would like everyone to know something important.

Two months after the death of her husband, Stephen “tWitch” Boss, the professional dancer took to Instagram on Saturday in order to show her gratitude.

“I just want to say thank you for all love and support you guys have sent to me and my family at this time,” the 35-year old said in a video she posted Instagram.

Holker uploaded this footage in the wake of Boss taking his own life back in December.

“It has been very challenging and emotional, but you guys have brought so much hope and inspiration to us by sharing stories and memories and moments and different ways that Stephen impacted your life,” continued Holker.

“It’s brought us so much hope and inspiration.”

Boss rose to fame as a contestant on MTV’s The Wade Robson Project before becoming a runner-up on Star Search.

He then finished second on So You Think You Can Dance in 2008… and joined The Ellen DeGeneres Show six years later as a guest DJ.

Boss eventually became a permanent fixture on the talk show and was elevated to co-executive producer status in 2020.

Holker — who married Boss in 2013 — went on:

“He was someone that was just beautiful, and he lived his life from love and he made you feel a certain way.

“My family and I have always said that we wanted to make sure that our purpose was lived out by bringing joy to people, joy to people’s homes, from dance or love — and that’s not going to change for us.

“It’s going to feel a little bit different, but we know that that’s our purpose, and we’ll still do that to this day.”

The Dancing With the Stars alum and Boss shared son Maddox, 6, and daughter Zaia, 3.

Prior to his passing, Boss also adopted Holker’s daughter Weslie, 14, from a previous relationship.

“I hope that we can remember the feeling that he gave us and remember that we can still move from there.

“We can still move and choose love, and we can still choose grace and we can still choose kindness,” Holker told followers.

“And I will always be there for you guys, and I appreciate you guys being there for us at this moment. It goes a really far way for us, so thank you. And I hope you guys remember how special you are and how much of an impact you make around the world and continue to move from there.

“We love you guys.”

Boss was laid to rest at a small family funeral on January 4.

About a month later, hundreds turned out for a celebration of life in his honor.

“To my husband, best friend, babe, Chee-chalker, Superman and father of my children I LOVE YOU FOREVER and ALWAYS!” Holker previously captioned a slideshow of happy moments with Boss.

“We will forever remember you as the true beacon of light that you were and we will continue to cast your light and love throughout the world.

“Thank you for our incredible memories and our beautiful life shared together.”

Allison Holker Thanks Fans for “Hope and Inspiration” Following Death of … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.

I love being right about things. Whenever someone brings up The Last of Us and calls it a zombie show, I point out that the infected are not, in fact, zombies. When I corrected Ben Shapiro about this after he went on some nonsense rant about the third episode of the series, titled “Long Long Time,” people tried to fight me on the zombie correction. So I brought up how Neil Druckmann himself has said the infected are not zombies.

Now, it has been made even clearer that those behind the series do not consider the infected to be “zombies” at all. Again, I made it clear that a zombie is a dead person brought back to life. The Last of Us has made it clear that the “dead” cannot be infected. But whatever, let the set’s reaction to the “z” word speak for me.

The post The Z Word Wasn’t Allowed on the Set of ‘The Last of Us’ appeared first on The Mary Sue.