On the surface, its stand up comedy. Gadsby is a stereotypical "Butch Lesbian" who was raised in Tasmania, one of the most homophobic places in the already homophobic Australia. She's known for using self deprecating humour to tell her coming of age and coming out story in a funny way. This time though, she's not joking. Its still funny in places, but she's using her platform to emotionally and angrily address the environment which made her coming out so toxic. Its very, very powerful.

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The Vinyamars on Stage! This time at Bag End

I watched it last night, and honestly found it kind of a mixed bag (the danger of high expectations, probably). I expect it would be more meaningful to someone who was already familiar with her prior work. To me, it came off as comedian turning an ostensible comedy show into a fire-and-brimstone sermon about why she doesn't want to do comedy anymore. The actual comedy parts were quite funny, and the sermon made a number of good points (in particular the one about the dangers of already-marginalized people resorting to self-deprecating humor), but a lot of it struck me as little more than ranting. I also had trouble following her train of thought in quite a few places. She'd say five angry things in rapid succession, but I couldn't understand how thing five followed from thing four followed from thing three etc., or what larger argument connected them.

I don't know; I'm still mulling it over a bit...

I like Hannah Gadsby – I like her wry, understated wit. She’s clever in her observations – and Nanette was all this too, but on a bigger, darker and much more confronting scale.

It was definitely challenging to watch. The anger – I don’t deal with other people’s anger very well, I tend to shrivel up and avoid it even if I’m watching it through the medium of a screen, and I’m safe in my own little space!

But it’s stayed with me. And given the nature of the ‘endings’ she described, it probably will for some time yet.

Hannah has always been off-beat in her comedy, walking that line of making the audience squirm without apology.

Powerful, intelligent woman. Stand up never seemed to sit comfortably with her.

Sent from a tiny phone keyboard via Tapatalk - typos inevitable.

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Mornings wouldn't suck so badly if they came later in the day.

I generally go to fiction for entertainment and non-fiction or news for angst.

Watched Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation while trying to decide whether I want to see the new one in the theater. I think the impossible part refers to the physics of the movie, but it's a sufficiently good bad movie.

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“It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.”

- Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens

If you are an eighth grade girl, have ever been an eighth grade girl, have ever known an eighth grade girl, or are currently alive, I highly recommend this little movie, Eighth Grade.

One of the most poignant, sweet, loving, heartbreaking movies I can ever recall. It will definitely be among my favorites of the year.

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I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

Netflix?

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The Vinyamars on Stage! This time at Bag End

Sorry, meant to post to the trailer:


No Netflix for now. One of those small movies that probably only plays arthouse friendly movie theaters.

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I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

then reliving the eighth grade is right at the top of your nope list.

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“It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.”

- Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens

As someone who has seen the movie - THIS IS NOT AN UNREASONABLE REACTION.
As I said in a mini-review elsewhere, the movie will break your heart - but then it will put it back together.

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I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

Went to see the new Mission Impossible last night. It's rightfully getting a ton of praise for it's very impressive action set pieces and daring stuntwork, but somehow I found the whole thing more tedious and exhausting then thrilling.

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I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

I’m not surprised. My immediate reaction to a friends suggestion to see that movie: Yuck.

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*title copyright: Teremia

'You just said "your getting shorter": you've obviously been drinking too much ent-draught and not enough Prim's.' - Jude (as Merry)

The same could be said for many of the current crop of action movies. Everyone's getting burned out by the endless fights and chases.

How about some...I dunno...character development? More plot, fewer plot holes?

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When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.

There's room for both. Based on the box office numbers I think its pretty clear not everyone is burned out by action movies!

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The Vinyamars on Stage! This time at Bag End

I do know that the fifty-minute nonstop battles are more than I can take or even follow, particularly with a cast of dozens of superheroes. Black Panther was a little more restrained, with characters I cared about, and I had a great time watching it.

I would mention the new Planet of the Apes movies as SF action that is about characters. I found the first two quite powerful, look forward to finding time to see the third. But of course, they have Andy Serkis at the center. I hope I live to see him win a damn Oscar.

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“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

Including me! I'm not complaining about too much action in general, but somehow this one didn't feel fun to me despite generally being well done. YMMV!

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I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

The problem with modern action movies is that they are basically cartoons. So much of it
is computer generated that the action sequences are no longer limited by human physical capabilities. Or physics. Very occasionally, the visuals are sufficiently imaginative to make up for it, as in Avatar.

It's why I like Jackie Chan movies, where he does most of the stunts and I can be amazed at his physicality. Also one of the reasons Mad Max: Fury Road was impressive, with the real vehicles and the guy really playing a real flamethrowing guitar.

But cartoons can be fun to watch, too.

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“It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.”

- Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens

And why Mission Impossible is getting so much praise - Tom Cruise is doing all these super crazy stunts for real and it really is super impressive. I think part of the problem may just be my inability to care about Tom Cruise, even if he really is dangling from the bottom of that helicopter.

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I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

Is he doing the stunts? That's the other problem with modern action movies - sometimes it's hard to tell even when the actors are doing something impressive. There are some behind the scenes of Chris Evans that look more amazing than the finished film with effects applied because you realize that while the robots aren't real, that horizontal spinning kick is. Or, in one of the fast and furious movies, they actually dropped the cars off the airplane, although without the actors.

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“It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.”

- Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens

Oh yeah, Cruise is famous now for doing most of his own stunts and the marketing materials for the movie push that a lot. There must have been moments where it's faked but if there were, I couldn't tell as it always looks like Cruise is totally the one jumping out of that plane or weaving the bike through on-going traffic. If it is him doing it like they say, it's some of the craziest stunts I've ever seen. Like an early crazy skydiving scene that they're saying, yup, Cruise genuinely jumped out of a plane with a camera strapped to his chest. It's nuts.

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I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists