samvara

Nosferatu (2024)

Sun, 02 Mar 2025 16:18:33 GMT

Directed by Robert Eggers, holy fuck its got extra gothic on its gothic gilded gothic.

The attention to detail and the german occultism almost beats out Coppola's Dracula from 1992 and I saw that on opening night on acid. Who needs weird metal head cages when you have Lily-Rose Depp's appalling vulnerability, Willem Dafoe's everything, and Simon McBurney's willingness to bite the head off a pigeon wtf. Does not quite beat the bat scene from Shadow of the Vampire.

Graphic, jumpscares, grotesque, gorgeous, overwhelming. Watch at own risk.

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Undercover Blues (1993)

Sun, 02 Mar 2025 16:12:18 GMT

Remains one of my comfort movies, I showed it to vampire movie club in lieu of the planned vampire movie because one of the godlings couldn't make it. Jane (Kathleen Turner) and Jeff (Dennis Quaid) are retired espionage agents turned devoted parents who can't quite manage to make the retiring stick. It's an american action comedy with great pacing, music, and choreography. Both Novacek (Fiona Shaw) and Muerte (Stanley Tucci) make excellent comedic villains (the restaurant scene with the oysters makes me cackle every time). The thing that makes this movie special is the relentlessly wholesome, respectful, passionate relationship between Jane and Jeff that shows how unnecessary unlikable protagonists and toxic masculinity are to great entertainment. Their smiles. My heart.

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Underworld (2003)

Sat, 15 Feb 2025 04:12:59 GMT

American vampire-werewolf action horror based on a story by Kevin Grevioux, Len Wiseman, and Danny McBride.

Directed by Len Wiseman with Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Michael Sheen, Shane Brolly, and Bill Nighy. Selene, a vampire warrior unravels the history of an ancient war between the vampires and lycans while falling in love with a human.

I totally rec this for over the top gothic vibes and Kate Beckinsale in tight leather, like, all her clothes are leather, it's great. Michael Sheen does a great job of being really, really messed up and twitchy, and Bill Nighy's gradual evil follicular regrowth is a thing of wonder.

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Twilight (2008)

Sat, 15 Feb 2025 03:58:58 GMT

American romantic fantasy based on 2005 novel by Stephenie Meyer.

Directed by Catherine Hardwicke. With Kristen Stewart, Sarah Clarke, Matthew Bushell, Billy Burke. When Bella Swan moves to a small town in the Pacific Northwest, she falls in love with Edward Cullen, a mysterious classmate who reveals himself to be a 108-year-old vampire.

Can't rec, not well made enough to compensate for unaddressed misogyny and rape culture. I recognise the franchise punched an entire generation in the ID, and I get that the fantasy of getting to have intimacy while existing in that culture is powerfully attractive. I'm glad so many people got pleasure from it. For myself, I'd rather engage with fantasy where the default is not misogyny and rape culture.

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Let the Right One In (2008)

Sat, 15 Feb 2025 03:37:19 GMT

Swedish romantic horror based on 2004 novel John Ajvide Lindqvist.

Directed by Tomas Alfredson. With Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, Henrik Dahl. Oskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl.

This is unquestionably good, it's well written and well made. I'm only on the fence about recommending it because the psychological horror elements fall into the genuinely upsetting zone for me personally. The contrast of supernatural and human evil, the cruelty to children, and the grooming were very well done and if you're into those themes this is a masterpiece.

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Shadow of the Vampire (2000)

Sun, 03 Nov 2024 03:25:59 GMT

I rec this so hard. Produced by Nicolas Cage, and starring John Malkovich, Willem Dafoe, Udo Kier, Cary Elwes Cary Elwes, Catherine McCormack, and Eddie Izzard.

Mockumentary about the creation of the 1922 Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror which was a silent German Expressionist unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. This is exquisite, hilarious, and horrifying in turns. The plot hinges on movie Director Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's (John Malkovich) obsession with authenticity that drives him to hire a real vampire and pass them off to the crew as a method actor. Willem Dafoe absolutely nails Count Orlok / Dracula (name changed due to blatant copyright infringement) with a gleefully unhinged portrayal of a vampire playing an actor playing a vampire.

Watch back to back with Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922) for maximum effect.

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Kalki 2898 AD (2024)

Sun, 30 Jun 2024 02:48:28 GMT

Movie rec; I am not saying Kalki 2898 AD just kicked the entire Star Wars franchise's arse but wow is it an excellent addition to the scifi tech-wizard high-epic pantheon. Gorgeous visuals, very high production values and so, so integrated in the genre. I, too, require a pair of lightsaber whips and a watch that is also a personal slingshot-speed-bike. CW for Mad Max levels of forced pregnancy... Mad Max levels of everything actually. Also it's part 1 of 2, and you'll have to wait 3 more years to see what I expect to be an awe inspiring sequel. I will watch this again, soon.

In a post-apocalyptic world (simultaneously exquisitely future-tech), a chosen few struggle to find and save the unborn child of lab subject SUM-80.

Bachchan is fabulous, as is Prabhas who is obviously having a ball, I wish Padukone had more to work with, but Patani is a gem, and Suresh (who is voicing an AI) is perfect.

...if you don't already kinda remember the Mahabharata it would not hurt to casually refresh on key characters like, oh, Arjuna, Krishna, Karna, and Ashwatthama...

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Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon (2003)

Sun, 31 Mar 2024 04:09:12 GMT

English: I am crazy about Prem (Prem also means love). This is important or you miss some plot and puns.

Romance comedy drama written and directed by Sooraj Barjatya and made special by Sanjana (Kareena Kapoor) the most EXTRA young woman who is definitely not hoping for an arranged marriage. Enter Prem Kishen (Hrithik Roshan) via Sanjana's sister's connections who is charming, outgoing, and utterly lovable. Sanjana's suitor-repelling pranks are hilarious and ineffective and a connection forms but ALAS, THERE IS MORE PLOT. Props to Johnny Lever for a great comedic job and to Abhishek Bachchan for bringing exactly the right kind of gravitas and unspeakable hotness.

This is so much fun, and so, so extra, I adore Kareena Kapoor's over the top acting in this, when she gets bullied into singing for him by her mother and just SCREAMS it's fantastic. Balanced by some truly tender end-game plot. Ridiculous and delightful. The stuff about the feet and hands, the couple who keep making out in the car, the scream.

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Haider (2014)

Sun, 31 Mar 2024 03:46:03 GMT

Is an exquisite, exquisite gem although not for the faint of heart. It's the best Hamlet adaption I've ever seen and I am both a Shakespeare nerd and married to one. Haider is third in director Bhardwaj's trilogy after Maqbool (2003) and Omkara (2006)... Macbeth and Othello respectively. I will definitely try to see Maqbool, not sure I would survive Omkara.

Directed and co-written by Vishal Bhardwaj with Basharat Peer (author of Curfewed Night, a memoir of the ongoing anti-India insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir). Haider is set in Kashmir in the mid-90s where the ongoing anti-India insurgency in Kashmir has resulted in a massive Indian security presence, insurgency by multiple militarised groups, and Kashmiri youths crossing into Pakistan for arms and training. The violence and human rights violations killed tens of thousands.

Some of the fun is in learning who plays what roles as you watch so I'll skip any recap and just say it's brutal, well-paced, beautifully adapted and very, very well written. The women have much richer roles and more agency, and the ghost's truth is cruelly multi-layered, transforming the revenge narrative into something a little more complex. The scarf, the mousetrap, the flashbacks. Wow.

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Crew (2024)

Sun, 31 Mar 2024 03:41:23 GMT

Is excellent and showing right now so if you have a chance to see it say yes. The genre is comedy-heist and it's about three women with complex lives who are friends working together as cabin crew for Kohinoor Airlines. They get involved in something and struggle together to extricate themselves. The writing is top notch and nothing is wasted, like, this is gorgeously integrated. I am angry not all movies are this good. I am trying not to spoil but it goes from intrigue to even more intrigue and it was SO GOOD.

Kareena Kapoor is delightfully cynical and just a little lightfingered, Kriti Sanon who I last saw in Diwale (2015) has seriously lifted her acting chops (to be fair Diwale did not give her the same opportunities) and between her outfits and her ability to shoulder-lock arse slapping travelers she is thoroughly enjoyable. Tabu was also rock solid and last seen by me in Haider (which was an exquisite, exquisite gem). 9:52 AM Also passes the bechdel test so thoroughly it's past the finish line and in a bar with a giant bottle of champagne and two lobsters.

I'm just sad Rajesh A Krishnan (director) and Nidhi Mehra & Mehul Suri (writing team) don't have any other collaborations but I'm now eyeing off Lootcase (2020) by Rajesh A Krishnan and Veere Di Wedding (2018) by Nidhi Mehra & Mehul Suri.

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Buŋgul

Sat, 08 Feb 2020 14:02:33 GMT

Amazingly lucky to see this. I can't even begin to talk about it but here's the write-up.

Created on country in North East Arnhem Land with the Yunupiŋu family, Buŋgul is a ceremonial celebration of one of the transcendent albums of our time. You’re invited to experience the traditional songs, dances and paintings that inspired Gurrumul’s final album, Djarrimirri (Child of the Rainbow), in a live performance by Yolŋu dancers, songmen and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra directed by Senior Yolngu Don Wininba Ganambarr and Nigel Jamieson.

Djarimirri was Gurrumul’s gift to the world. An astounding achievement of music acclaimed the world over, it presented traditional songs and harmonised chants from his traditional Yolŋu life with hypnotic orchestral compositions. Now, in his honour, his family add a further cultural and immersive visual dimension to this historic work, performing the songlines that have forged their identity and every aspect of their existence since the beginning of time.

Buŋgul represents a majestic union of two disparate worlds. It points to a potential contemporary Australian identity grounded in and drawing upon the extraordinary knowledge, understanding and wisdom of First Nation People that inspires us all listen to and care for the precious land we share.

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Oh. Yeah, I ATE'NT DEAD.

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 05:31:32 GMT

Last year me, Sertraline (Eleva, Zoloft), Agomelatine (Valdoxan, Melitor, Thymanax), Bupropion (Wellbutrin, Zyban), Apo-Atomoxetine (Strattera), Vortioxetine (Trintellix, Brintellix), Lurasidone (Latuda), Lamotrigine (Lamictal) and Ritalin did our best to keep my neuro-chemicals fit for purpose where the purpose was to stay alive and person on the regular. Looks like that might finally be working out. Yay!

I read a book, I'm reading another one!

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Happy Snak by Nicole Kimberling

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 01:24:47 GMT

Sweet, fun, a little bit goofy, first-contact science fiction with a tang of earthy (heh) pragmatism.

Gaia Jones just wants to run a snack bar and what better place to do it than the giant alien facility built by their brand new... 'friends?' from outer space. Her somewhat antisocial life-style takes a hit when she assists an alien with an illness and inadvertently takes on a lot more than she expected.

Mad points for plausible interesting aliens and alien contact.

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Everfair by Nisi Shawl

Thu, 22 Mar 2018 11:46:59 GMT

*glee* The steampunk alternate history of Belgium’s invasion of the Congo if the natives had known a lot more about steam technology. Air canoes! Mechanical bicycles!

Queer women, women being awesome.

Read everything she has written, there's lots.

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The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson

Thu, 22 Mar 2018 11:37:01 GMT

Intensely personal, rich in nuance. Women finding their places in the world.
Queer women. Cruelty to women. Slavery. Read it anyway.

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The Island of Lost Girls by Manjula Padmanabhan

Thu, 22 Mar 2018 10:58:10 GMT

Rock solid dystopian future writing and worldbuilding, fabulous bio-mechanics. Interesting body and gender identity stuff. Cruelty to women. Diversity of opinion among women who continue to work together as if women do that.

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Turbulence by Samit Basu

Thu, 22 Mar 2018 10:27:27 GMT

Thoroughly enjoyable romp.

A fun look at what happens when an entire airplane worth of passengers get superpowers - not the most sophisticated writing but good idea and good characters. Fun!

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The Woman Who Thought She Was A Planet by Vandana Singh

Thu, 22 Mar 2018 10:26:28 GMT

Run, don't walk, and read this lady's short stories.

Thoroughly interesting and enjoyable. Some body-horror. Yes, she does think she is a planet. No, I don’t want to spoil it.

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The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola

Mon, 15 Jan 2018 12:16:47 GMT

All kinds of awesome.

The unnamed protagonist meanders through a fabulous mosaic of folk tales. Reminds me of books like the Red Fairy Book by Andrew Lang (1890), The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952) has that same delightful lack of self-consciousness and weird, rambly lack of adherence to more conventional and more modern writing traditions.

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Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh

Mon, 15 Jan 2018 12:06:39 GMT

Opium wars, the high seas, imperialism and colonialism. The Ibis, an ex-slave ship is re-fitted to carry opium and indentured servants, becomes the focal point of the story as far-flung characters start to converge. Deeti is fleeing her dreadful rapey brother-in-law, Zachary has fled racism and accidentally jumped up a class or two, Neel is on his way to prison and Paulette, too seeks a better future.

This is rich, evocative, and full of complex language and details. I can see why it was Booker shortlisted, they all seem to have that intensely personal, wordy style.

I want to love this more than I do, the (realistic) sexual violence makes me angry and sad and my willingness to experience it in fiction when I have to put up with it in life is very low.

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Tail of the Blue Bird by Nii Ayikwei Parkes

Sun, 24 Dec 2017 09:28:31 GMT

Rich, complex and earthy. It sounds more like I'm trying to describe a wine but seriously, this is beautiful, vivid storytelling. At it's simplest this is a whodunnit, but there's so much more going on... family and culture, myths and legends.

"Sonokrom is a place that has not changed for hundreds of years; the men and women speak the language of the forest, drink aphrodisiacs with their palm wine and commune with the spirits of their ancestors. However, the woman's intrusion and ensuing events lead to an invasion from Accra, the capital city, spearheaded by Kayo; a young forensic pathologist convinced that scientific logic can shatter even the most inexplicable of mysteries."

Warning: cruelty to woman, cruelty to children

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Stalking, social networks and scripts

Sat, 24 Jun 2017 03:46:20 GMT

*taps mic* is this thing still on?

Two things

I'm gonna need to vent for a few days (weeks?) until I stop having all these feelings
This was SO MUCH LESS HORRIBLE because I had support and advice and information so I am paying it forward.

In brief: I went to a tech conference, I got a call in my hotel room on my hotel phone at 11pm from a man with an American accent who said he’d been watching me, it looked like I was having fun in my hotel room, and how about he join me in my hotel room. I declined and hung up. My chat group validated my initial horrified reaction and supported me through calling hotel security, getting my room changed, and his eventual discovery and expulsion from the hotel.

On stalking: It is never OK to do this kind of thing, it is not funny, it is not sexy. It made me feel unsafe. It meant the next day, until he was gone, that I second-guessed every interaction at that conference (of which men were probably 90% of the attendees) and wasted a lot of energy managing anxiety when I could have been benefiting from that very expensive conference ticket. I’m probably going to be having feelings about this for a long time.

On social networks: I was too busy being half awake and alarmed to have an effective response when this happened. It took time to process, it was my social network who prompted me through calling security and requesting the room change, I asked for my conference ID badge to be redacted on my own, but it took a few hours before I was thinking strategically and not just feeling overwhelmed. They validated my feelings, made me feel like it was OK to ask for what I needed, and meant I never felt alone.

THANK YOU.

Treasure the good people you meet in your life, nurture those relationships and share your strength when you can.

On scripts: Being prepared, having a response, knowing what I could say or do or expect can make a huge difference to my emotional well being, and to how I choose to act. It enables me to act rather than freeze up in difficult situations, it means I can protect myself, and it means I can stand up for myself and others.

My proposed future Script

Complain to hotel security, that’s what they are for
Request a room change, a different room when someone creepy knows where you are is A Good Thing.
Complain to the police - I am sad I did not do this, awful!person could have been going home with a police record that might contribute to a future someone’s safety.

This is gonna work better from some humans than others, I’m going to wield being a white woman-ish person as hard as I can given it’s what I have to work with.

On positive action: One of my coping strategies is to try and find a positive action I can do, it helps me channel fear and anger into something that generates better feelings, and makes me feel less helpless when faced with something awful. My positive actions for this event are:

To share this with you; may this be in some way useful or empowering for you
To inoculate my workplace (via complaining about this a lot) in order to a) share my script with female coworkers and b) let my male coworkers know this is not OK and has consequences.
To reflect on how lucky I am to have such excellent support networks, that there were responsive hotel staff, and supportive conference staff

( Chat transcript )

Gah. The End.

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Media

Fri, 22 Aug 2014 06:36:02 GMT

zorana provided her invaluable self to a couple of marathons and I have now caught up on some of my shows.

Arrow - attempting to catch up and made some great progress while auditing my music collection (now in two folders called "sorted" and "pit of voles"). Ollie is still ridiculous but Felicity and Diggle are so much fun
In the Flesh - liked episode 1, not fluffy watching, will have to ration carefully
Grimm S03 - up to date and still in love, have forgiven sudden attack of the stupid to set up the S03 cliffhanger on account of Munroe and Rosalie awesome and potential to explore Nick and Juliette being able to choose the Grimm lifestyle voluntarily. Babygrimm FTW!
Orphan Black - up to date and deeply invested, so many issues, so many questions, so much plot. Maslany was robbed at the Emmy’s
Teen Wolf - did not have to marathon as cupidsbow and I have a standing weekly TW watching date which also gives me a front row seat on the fabulous meta being produced

Movies

Guardians of the Galaxy - surprisingly good
X-Men: Days of Future Past - eh
Top Hat (Ginger Rogers & Fred Astaire) - adorable and fluffy
Casablanca - rewatching for the upteenth time

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New Hobby – playing Elder Scrolls Online

Wed, 20 Aug 2014 05:38:28 GMT

Born out of many happy hours playing Skyrim before ESO launched in April. Initial exposure waszorana's fault, closely followed by maharetr who also got into Skyrim and brother J. who pointed out ESO was about to go live and enthused at me over the Beta.

BEST THING: The thing that blows me away the most is that I have now become accustomed to constantly seeing female non player characters of every race performing all the roles. It took me over 200 hours of gameplay to start taking the abundance of female characters for granted. That’s over 200 hours that I spent feeling surprised and delighted every time I met a new female NPC. Now I just get the odd burst when I encounter another married same-sex couple engaged in gay activities like fighting pirates, memorialising their long, happy life together, or dealing with the health issues associated with being a secret werewolf.

NEXT BEST THING: gaming group with maharetr, ascetic_hedony and A. after we all realised we were more invested in roleplaying Khajiit then we were in optimising for racial bonuses. We meet once or twice a week and Do All The Quests or run around Cyrodiil (the player killing map) screaming and dying together. There is no situation that cannot be improved by a fireball trebuchet.

WORST THING: No ‘reason’ field when you add a character to your ignore list. It’s not essential, but it’s an excellent indicator a complaint is accurate if an account has a lot of ignores and comments like ‘gold farmer’ ‘sexist jerk’ or ‘troll’ associated with them. Having said that, the chat tone is surprisingly good and I've seen some nuanced social policing going on.

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Greens Pool, William Bay WA

Wed, 20 Aug 2014 04:41:28 GMT

Birthday present for zorana after we took a trip together and I scoffed at the notion of her buying a painting while we were there. I have now successfully finished a painting AND made a birthday present AND made good on my promises. Wondering if I should now dismantle my little painting nook or line up another challenge. Many thanks to chaosmanor for the lovely (and far nicer) photography.

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