Nocturnal Animals

 (spoilers!)
2016 is officially the worst year ever. Not only a whole bunch of awful and tragic stuff happened but with the exception of The Witch every single movie I was waiting for and had its very own header on this website sucked. The Revenant. Suicide Squad. And now this.

Westworld 1x10 The Bicameral Mind

Well bravo, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. I practically live on the subreddit for that show and I can tell you that from what I have seen not a single person predicted the ending of Westworld's season finale. Hell, I made some guesses and I was spectacularly wrong.

For 9 weeks people had 7 days between each episode and they used that time to form theories, look for clues, assume where it was all going. And while we predicted the reveal that the man with the charisma of a wash cloth (no offense but seriously what the hell?) will turn into Ed never-take-off-that-tuxedo-sir Harris, we hardly predicted anything else.

Westworld 1x09 The Well-Tempered Clavier

This week largely focused on Dolores and Bernard. Despite me having some massive issues with characterization of William I'd say this was my favorite episode so far. The last 20 minutes of it were pure brilliance in every single possible way.

Ed Harris Appreciation

Edward Allen Harris

28 November 1950 (Tenafly, New Jersey, USA)<

Acting is not a competition to me. One of the first things I learned about acting was, the only person you compete against is yourself.

Westworld 1x08 Trace Decay

This week in Westworld things were a little less depressing than last week when we got the ultimate episode of doom and gloom. Unfortunately, the writing leaves a lot to be desired this week and I ain't talking about the two dumb technicians. Dumb is possible to explain. You know what is not possible to explain? Big ass maze showing up in the field for no reason with Ed Harris standing there probably looking at it (we're not even sure), mesmerized, also for no comprehensible reason. I gave it a chance assuming that it is me who is stupid but after asking on reddit and getting no satisfactory answer I'm gonna assume that what is stupid here is the writing for this one particular sequence.

But let's start with everything else:

Westworld 1x07 Trompe L'Oeil

So first of all the show has been renewed for the second season! Yey! Happiness! Unfortunately it may not air until 2018 which means I have to try and stay alive until then.

Westworld 1x06 The Adversary

So first of all kids, don't watch this show drunk. I am currently on my holidays but I didn't know the Americans turned their clocks back or whatever so instead of 2 AM the episode aired on 3 AM my time. By that time I was smashed. I still watched it but man did I not got anything. Fortunately I blocked out that dead dog shot. Unfortunately I still had to see it upon rewatching.

Westworld 1x05 Contrapasso

Last night's episode of Westworld is hailed as the best one yet by majority of the reviewers but since I am shallow as hell I did like the pure old Western fun and the jail break sequence of last week a little more than Contrapasso. That said this episode took us perhaps the furthest down the park and ironically we didn't spend a moment in the main town of Sweetwater.

Westworld 1x04 Dissonance Theory

This is my favorite episode so far. The show took it easy on the whole mindfuck aspect of it this week and focused on good old fun. I sincerely hope you all watched it on Sunday instead of The Walking Gorefest.

Soooo damn much happened in this episode that instead of going through it scene by scene I'll just split this recap into what happened in each storyline. My least favorite scenes were Dolores' and though they were all intriguing perhaps her arc is just not as thrilling as whatever is going on with Man in Black and Maeve. Anyways Dolores is having another conversation with Bernard and he tells her of the game - the maze. He tells her that if she can get to the center of it, she can be free.

Westworld 1x03 The Stray

New episode of Westworld was definitely the most confusing one yet. I sit here, feeling dumb, waiting till someone responds to my questions on reddit or our board.

We open with another one of the secret chats between Dolores and Bernard. Bernard has a gift for her - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He asks Dolores to read several passages and wants to know what she thinks about them. He also tells her he used to read this book to his son. We then see Dolores wake up and start her daily loop.

Westworld 1x02 Chestnut

Welcome to the nightmare.

This week we were made privy to another secret of Westworld - turns out Bernard is having private chats with Dolores. His voice also wakes her up and guides her and in the last scenes of the episode we see Dolores find a gun - a gun that is most likely capable of shooting guests.

Westworld 1x01 The Original

And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, 
Which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness
And in the taste confounds the appetite.
Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so.
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow. 
- Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, scene 6

It seems that after some trouble (trouble thy name is Vinyl) HBO finally landed their next great hit - the first episode of Westrworld premiered to 3,3 mln audience last Sunday. Will it continue to have such a big audience? I'm not sure. While watching the fantastic premiere I was often reminded of another disturbing big budget HBO show - Carnivale. Because of huge cost and not big viewership the visionary series was cancelled after merely two seasons. Westworld's first episode sparked so many theories and ideas after only one episode I have never seen anything like it when it comes to HBO show. Hopefully the audience chooses to engage in this mysterious, puzzling narrative instead of finding it too complex for their liking.

Visual Parallels: The Neon Demon + Black Swan

I know it's technically cheating since I already used Black Swan in a pair with Shame, but that was years ago and as for potential pairing up with Suspiria, Swan has way more visual parallels with Refn's latest, so I went with that one.

The Neon Demon

Nicolas Winding Refn is a weird guy. We all heard of his bizarre feud with Lars Von Trier. Apparently throughout production the of The Neon Demon, when filming was to resume, he wouldn't yell "Action!" to set things in motion. Instead he yelled "Violence, motherfuckers". Then there is the fact he is one of the directors who uses the color best in modern movies, yet apparently he is color blind and can only perceive contrast. Then it turns out he is one of those dudes who would use those takes that went a bit too real than they were supposed to - Abbey Lee accidentally punched Elle Fanning for real. Because of Fanning's genuine reaction, Refn ended up using that take for the final cut.

Suicide Squad

Well, fuck.

It's finally time for Harley Quinn!

It's been so long. And in less than a bit more than two weeks we will finally see Harley Quinn on the big screen. A lot has been said on occasion of Batman vs Superman premiere earlier this year about how disgraceful it is that it took so long for Wonder Woman to have her own movie (which is finally happening next year). But what about Harley? Other than short lived TV series Birds of Prey, her appearances in video games and animated series, Harley hasn't been depicted on movie screen, or even referred to, in either of Batman movies released so far.

And now it's finally happening.

Harley Quinn has always been my favorite villain from Batman stories, as you probably noticed even the ratings in my reviews uses the images of her. I find that Batman comic books have the best villains - there is usually so much more to them, some sort of tragic story. They began as good people but because of what happened to them they crossed to the dark side. But Harley's story is a bit more twisted than that.

Harrison Ford Appreciation

Harrison Ford

July 13, 1942 (Chicago, Illinois, USA)

Margot Robbie Appreciation

Margot Elise Robbie

July 2, 1990 (Dalby, Queensland, Australia)

“I became an actor so I can show you characters and never have to show you me.”

The Conjuring 2

Three years ago James Wan gave us one of the best horror movies in recent years in The Conjuring which introduced us to new horror heroes Lorraine and Ed Warren, gave us the spin off in Annabelle and got everyone afraid of the clapping sound. And now Wan and the main characters return in The Conjuring 2, a film that, while only slightly, is actually better than the predecessor.

Garbage is just garbage.

Lady Stoneheart hype is dead. There were some leaks over the weekend that point to finale being a rushed mess. Benioff and Weiss are going to be bending over backwards to make sense of everyone in Riverlands on collision track now. Because for some strange reason (are they retarded?  are they misogynistic? are they both?) they just didn't want to bring her in.

Season 6 just like season 5 started so well. And now, as usual, it started derailing. There were all those desperate theories to explain Arya's idiotic behavior last week. People were arguing it was Jaqen pretending to be Arya because Arya would never be this stupid because it would be bad writing. Guess what?

Game of Thrones 6x07 The Broken Man

We open for the very first time, since (I think) season 4 premiere, with cold open. We see a bunch of happy people building some sort of construction. And then we see a God among men himself, Swegen Ian McShane gracing this unworthy show with his presence. And then we see someone else....it's Sandor Clegane, last seen engaging in crotch kicking match with Brienne of Tarth and being left for dead by Arya is season 4 finale. And Sandor is indeed not dead. No, he is hanging out with Westerosi hippies.

Game of Thrones 6x06 Blood of my Blood

This week has given us a truly wonderful episode with the best flow of the season - it felt like one long movie filled with rich sequences setting up what is hopefully going to be even better rest of the season. And one of the biggest highlights? No Lady Bolton this week.

Game of Thrones 6x05 The Door

One episode. That is the duration in which I liked Sansa in 6th season. After this episode she is my least favorite character again. Fortunately everything else was fantastic. Well other than the writers forgetting about some things about their own show. Again.

Game of Thrones 6x04 Book of the Stranger

This entire episode could have been just Tyrion wasting time or increasingly boring Ramsay is cruel scenes and it would still be 10. Why? Because we got that Stark reunion and it was everything.

Game of Thrones 6x03 Oathbreaker

Jon Snow is back. In a scene that got a lot of women gasping because of Kit Harington's naked butt Jon rises from the dead after Melisandre brought him back in the last episode's ending. Davos discovers him and the look on his face was just priceless. Melisandre comes in, shocked. She asks Jon what did he see, what lies beyond death and much like Beric in season 3, Jon tells her there is nothing. Melisandre tells him that Stannis was not the Prince that was Promised but maybe he is and that the Lord of Light brought him back for a reason.

Hit Me with Your Best Shot: Death Becomes Her

 For this week Nathanial asked us to choose a best shot from Robert Zemeckis 92' classic Death Becomes Her. For me the choice was easy:

Game of Thrones 6x02 Home

I don't say that often, in fact I'm not sure I ever said it since the Red Wedding but last night's episode of Game of Thrones must have made even the book fans happy. Mind you, book fans like me who appreciate when the show is faithful to the book material and throws in familiar book lines our way, not book fans who go insane at every little change and seem to only focus on the negative.

Game of Thrones 6x01 The Red Woman

Like in any toxic relationship me and so many others are back for more abuse in this season of Game of Thrones.  Because again it's Stoneheart watch this year. For 4th fucking time. So as usual I'm looking for clues and feeding my hype.But this year my goodwill is over. I used to give them benefit of the doubt. When I witnessed Sansa first agreeing to marry Bolton and then getting raped I kept thinking all right maybe the writers have some purpose or at least good reasoning for it. Maybe there will be some pay off. There was none. So, now I'm just gonna call it as I see it.

The ending of The VVitch is one of the most stunning things you'll ever see

I have been eagerly waiting for the movie since I first heard about it last year when the first news and rumors from Sundance started pouring in. I love the horror genre and movies about witches and there is really not enough of the latter. We have one half decent show on TV (Salem) and time and time again someone does new spin on The Crucible. But that's it. There are generic money grabbing uninspired spins on the witches, portrayals of modern witches which are incredibly insulting (how Wiccans were portrayed in season 4 of True Blood) or interesting concepts trapped in a meddled mess (AHS: Coven). So when I heard that there is honest to God (well...) good story out there about witches set in the most fascinating time you can possibly set a story like that in I couldn't wait.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan Appreciation

Jeffrey Dean Morgan

April 22, 1966 (Seattle, Washington, USA)

Oh that voice. Those dimples. That smile. That fierce masculinity.

Today we are celebrating the 50th birthday of beautiful Jeffrey Dean Morgan who is on his way to steal your girl ALL of Norman Reedus and Andrew Lincoln's fangirls on The Walking Dead.

Hit Me with Your Best Shot: Witness

I wrote about Witness and Harrison Ford's great work in it not that long ago. The film is truly beautiful, seductive and ethereal. It is gorgeously shot by John Seale, who did last year's amazing cinematography for "Mad Max: Fury Road". Witness has so many gorgeous and striking shots, loaded with meaning - like the shot of Rachel's bonnet after she takes it off (symbolizing her choice that sadly gets a lot of its power taken away by the film's ending).

But there is one particular shot in the film that shows something I wanted to write about:

Is it time for Red Wedding 2.0? Watch the new trailer for Game of Thrones season 6

Well....hype? Trailer 2 for Game of Thrones season 6 just dropped and the above image featuring the long time no see Walder Frey seem to suggest that the event so many book readers have speculated will happen. Red Wedding 2.0 - only this time with the Freys dying in a massacre - is coming.