Unpopular Opinion: I don't like La La Land

Okay, before we start let me say a few things: this is just my opinion, film is art and as we know art is subjective; if you like this film that’s great and I definitely don’t want to spoil it for you. Also, I don’t hate musicals, in fact some of my earliest and fondest memories of the theatre have been musicals. And lastly, I don’t necessarily dislike this film just because everyone else seems to love it. There have been high rated films before I was first sceptic about but did like in the end (e.g. The Theory of Everything). Okay, so let’s get going about what I liked (yes of course there are also good things) and didn’t like.

What I liked about La La Land:

- The colours are amazing! The colours are bright and glowing and just overall very nicely arranged and combined. Both the sets and the costumes go together very well and you probably will find yourself thinking more than once “yeah, that looks really nice.”

- The costumes are pretty. Again, the colour scheme here is great and almost anything that is worn in this film is some sort of eye catcher or looks at least quite decent. 

- This whole old school 50s vibe is a nice touch. It has this sort of nostalgia of classic (musical) films and gives the story an overall pleasant look and feeling that also fits the music.

- The cinematography and the way it’s filmed. The film knows how to present its aesthetics and its music. The editing and the transitions run smoothly and you don’t get this feeling of “okay, that was weird…”

- Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling do a decent job with the material they were given. Their dancing looks rather neat and there singing is not necessarily perfect but it doesn’t have to be, it fits the film quite well actually. 

- The music and dancing was good. Not “wow!” but it was at least something you could watch and move your feet to. So, it could’ve been worse.

- The ending is nicely done and at least against this cliché happy ending.

Things I disliked about La La Land:

- The story is flat and almost nothing happens! If after 45 minutes I start checking my watch every ten minutes to see how long it’s already been: that’s not a good sign. Aspiring artists fall in love, break apart because of their different successes and meet again years later. It’s nothing new and they also don’t really add anything to make it seem new or more interesting. 

- There are only two characters and both of them aren’t that interesting. I get that the story is about Mia and Seb, but couldn’t there have been at least one proper side character to have some more and different interaction? The characters of Mia and Seb are also nothing new in the world of film and, to me, there was nothing memorable about them. I found myself rooting for neither of them and honestly didn’t care if Mia was gonna get the role or not.

- The whole relationship felt forced and weird to me. Yeah, I get that this is a love story but at least show me how and why the characters fall for each other. The two meet, he’s rude. They meet again months later at a party, not really knowing each other and have a kind of sarcastic, slightly passive-aggressive conversation. They go home and dance on a hill and bum! they are in love. Like, what?! Then the whole “she doesn’t like jazz thing”. That was fine until they of course have to write that he shows her how great the music actually is and what she’s missing and that she eventually comes to like the music. That would have made a nice contrast, why could she simply not dislike jazz? And then they break up for, to me, very stupid reasons. Every relationship has its ups and downs, but they never really talk about things or apologise or message each other when things are about to go differently. So of course they have to break up! No!

- The music is okay but not “wow!”. It’s entertaining and yeah I tapped to the beat now and then but there was nothing memorable about the music. The only song that kinda stuck out to me was the concert song and even of that I couldn’t recall the melody right now. There isn’t this typical one song of a musical everyone keeps in mind and has heard of. The music is good, but not special. 

- The lack of diversity which also goes hand in hand with the no-secondary-characters-thing. Sure, the very first song of the film is basically a boom of ethnic diversity and we see (apart from our two main characters of course) only black people in the jazz clubs. It’s like they thought that with that first song they could cover diversity for the whole film and then forget about it. I also find it a little weird that we have only black people in the jazz scenes as if no one else enjoys that music. And for the huge amount of black people we see in the jazz scene, there’s only one of them who gets focus for like five minutes (the music group guy) and then he’s somehow badly connotated. Some people also said that the film is racist because a white man safes the music of the black community (“white saviour” discussion). I wouldn’t necessarily agree with that though I have to say that something still felt off to me, though I can’t quite pinpoint it. Also, not to necessarily go with the stereotypes, but a musical film in 2016 and there’s not one queer character? Come on!

- The song the girls sing when they’re getting ready for the party is somehow very cringy to me and just weird and uncomfortable. For once, just once, when a character says “I’d rather stay home tonight, I don’t feel great” can friends please understand that instead of forcing them to go? And of course Mia turns around in the end and gets fancy to get to a party she doesn’t even really enjoy that much in the end. (Only to meet Sebastian)

Okay, so those are my main issues I have with La La Land. It’s not necessarily a bad film but to me it would definitely not deserve the Oscar for Best Picture. An Oscar worthy film has to be more than just look pretty and have some fancy music. Visually the film definitely deserves praise, no doubt about that and the costumes are gorgeous as well. But for me the pretty looks don’t make up for a boring story, flat characters and an overall mainstream appealing romance film. Like I said, if you liked this film that’s great. This is just my opinion on a film that I think is worth checking out but unworthy of all the fuss and Oscar praise.

Everyone seems to be mad at Robin Lord Taylor...

So there's been an interview with Robin Lord Taylor about his role on Gotham and a lot of people were very angry about his phrasing of the Penguin's perception of love:

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/as-seen-on/Robin-Lord-Taylor-Talks-_Gotham__New-York-410542755.html

Okay, I’m gonna say this first so everyone knows where I’m starting from: I love both Robin and Oswald as persons and to me Oswald’s love for Edward is genuine and real, but I’m also not gonna be all out furious about what Robin has said/has been saying about Oswald’s character in connection with love and relationships. I can very well understand why a lot of people are angry with the way Robin phrased his views and I certainly don’t want to discourage those people. Normally I also try to stay away from stuff like this; yes, also as a huge fan there’s just some stuff I’m not getting myself into because it simply doesn’t (maybe shouldn’t) concern me or anger me (wow, that sounds weird but I hope you get what I mean). But since Gotham, especially Oswald and Edward have become something very much important to me and I see people being angry about this, I just feel like giving out my view of the whole thing. Because I’m always trying to see everything in an objective way, even with stuff that enrages me or makes me happy, I’m always trying to see both sides and be fair about everything. You can take from this whatever you like, that’s just me thinking out loud and you’re very much welcome to talk to me about this whether agreeing or disagreeing. This is probably gonna be quite long so bear with me. Okay, let’s do this... 

I watched the interview this morning after hearing all the turmoil about it and my initial reaction was: “Okay, yeah, I wouldn’t say it like he did but seriously: that’s what everyone’s going crazy about?” It’s important to note that I don’t always fully agree with what Robin has said (now and in the past). To me Oswald’s feelings for Edward are genuine, honest and come from a good intent. However, I can also see where Robin’s point of view is coming from and I can even agree with him on some of those aspects. And after all, it’s Robin’s character and his perception; he’s just as much an interpreter of the character as we are so he also has a very different understanding of Oswald.

Thinking about what has happened to Oswald it would be generally wrong to say that he isn’t a fucked up person, he doesn’t have a normal understanding about a lot of things (or at least not anymore). This is a man who has had everything and nothing; a man who saw both of his parents die in his arms; he has lost the only two people who have shown him love and for whom he felt the deepest kinds of emotions; Oswald has had people taken from him, and he has been betrayed, it’s not always easy for him to trust someone 100% or to invest in someone emotionally. In season 3 he is (after a long time) back on the top of his game after having his father taken from him, killing the murderer of his mother (again) and encountering Fish Mooney. He frees Edward from Arkham because they’ve grown very close over the past months and they obviously do care for each other to some degree.

Now, skipping forward to the episodes in which the statue of Gertrude gets destroyed, people are being bribed to vote for him while others try to overthrow him. The statue being destroyed might not be a big thing but to someone like Oswald it obviously means a lot, it hurts him, it reminds him of his mother; and at the same time he has to deal with a gang that tries to kill him and is led by someone knowing Oswald. Oswald is a man with a broken character, he gets upset and enraged by things most of us would find very strange or not so important; he is a man who deep inside is probably fighting big demons every day, a man who is desperate AND depressed to some degree. And in such a time there’s this one guy, Edward Nygma, the one guy who (apart from his parents) has ever shown genuine, honest interest and affection for Oswald and helped him simply because he wanted to. So of course Oswald holds on to that, he’s alone and broken and there’s this man who keeps encouraging him and who’s nice. In those sad moments of Oswald’s life there happens to be Edward and in those moments of deep, intense emotions and desperateness Oswald sees what Edward does for him and of course he doesn’t want to lose that. He’s never gotten that kind of love from anyone else, he’s always been alone most of his life especially in those desperate times.

So, (without trying to be mean or discouraging or anything like that) of course Oswald’s feelings are confused to some extent in that regard because he’s never been in such a state. This is both new and intensely difficult for him. Love is something very complex, problematic, rare and messed up for Oswald. His perceptions of such feelings have been shaped in a very fucked up way. I’m not saying he’s completely incapable of feeling love, but in such situations as described above, it wouldn’t be too wrong to say that his feelings are basically all over the place and going crazy and maybe not functioning in a way we’d consider “normal”.

Now, going from the fictional world to the real world. And mind you this is gonna be quite difficult because I couldn’t possibly say what Robin is really thinking, I don’t know him and none of us have any idea what’s actually going on with him or what he really wanted to say or what he could tell us about Oswald and upcoming stuff on the show.

First I just want to say that we should take into account that Robin is allowed to have his own interpretation of the character; art isn’t objective so everyone sees things differently and I’m pretty sure there are also some people who would agree with what Robin said in that interview. Maybe that really is Robin’s perception of the Penguin’s psyche, we don’t know. It’s an opinion (maybe a strangely formulated one but hey), it’s Robin’s opinion and we should know better than to discourage and ignore it. Sure, it might not be an opinion we agree with and it’s hard to hear it from Robin himself but we should still be able to accept it if it’s truly what Robin’s thinking.

Robin isn’t in an easy position here. He’s the main star of the show, a lot of people look up to him and pay very close attention to what he says. He’s an openly gay man who portrays a very famous comic book character who falls in love with another male iconic character. That’s some big stuff going on, we have all seen the comments on the whole Nygmobblepot relationship and Robin knows about those too. He wants to make this good, Oswald obviously means a lot to him and as a member of the LGBT+ community it’s probably safe to assume that Robin cares about that story-line for his character.

Robin has had personal experience with hate for the LGBT+ community and he’s been known to support gay rights openly. Now, Oswald is a broken, fucked up super villain and murderer, who kills the girlfriend of the guy he loves and that’s only one of the many bad things Oswald has done. The Penguin has done some horrible things and it’d be wrong to ignore that, Oswald isn’t/can’t always be the cute innocent bird we like him to be. As a gay man Robin would obviously want the people to not get a wrong picture of the gay community, it could very well be that he’s afraid of people getting encouraged in their homophobia so he’s somehow trying to make the best of it. And maybe that didn’t turn out the way he wanted it to. It can happen, we all make mistakes, Robin’s phrasing wasn’t the best and yes it isn’t very nice to listen to (especially as an Oswald fan and/or Nygmobblepot shipper). I’m honestly not thinking that it came from a place of homophobia (seriously, how could it?), maybe it’s simply difficult for Robin to explain what exactly he means, maybe he’s trying to make it right for everyone but doesn’t know how to  and thus ends up in situations like this one right now.

Okay, I’m somehow trying to wrap this up now. I’m not trying to discourage or disagree with those who are angry with Robin, in fact I very much understand that. Again, I myself don’t really agree with him, to me Oswald’s love is genuine and real. But I’m not gonna hate on Robin now, even if his words also upset me a little, because I know that I have my opinion and he has his and I know that I don’t have to be angry with him just because he happens to be the man who plays my favourite character. In that regard he’s also simply another man voicing his opinion of the character so I just do what I always do whenever I encounter someone who says something I don’t agree with (no matter who it is): I acknowledge the other view, still stick to my personal opinion and move on. Yes, personally I’d also say that maybe someone should call Robin out on his way of phrasing but I’m also saying that you should try to see both sides of the argument and not get too caught up and full mode furious about all of this.

I know I might have upset some people now and I would totally understand that. As I said in the beginning, you’re welcome to discuss the issue with me, this here is simply what I think about the whole affair. If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Feel free to comment, like, hate whatever, I don’t care. After all: we all have the possibility to voice our opinion.    

Gotham "Blood Rush": Is everyone gonna go crazy?!

The effects of a recent incident begin to cause Barnes to go mad; Nygma is over his head in his relationship with Isabella; Carmine Falcone throws an engagement party for Lee and Mario.

I'm seriously asking myself why I even bother to come up with all these insane predictions, Gotham screws us over anyway every week. I guess it's a coping mechanism to bridge the time between new episodes and trying to make sense of things. But then: this is Gotham, we never know what will happen so let's see what they're trying to do to us tomorrow:

Let me just say that it's wonderful to see Jim back with the GCPD and Bullock. I missed the dynamic between the two and I do hope that we get to see some old-school Season 1/2 moments. However, I don't believe that Jim will have time to calmly ease into his old position again, something's going to come up and it's going to be something personal.

The focus of this episode however, is going to move away from Jim a bit because the Mad Hatter has been captured, but there's still his sister's blood and what it did to this guy:

(Source: tvfanatic.com)

I believe tomorrow we will see what truly has happened to Barnes, his powers are going to come out for real this time. And we also see him talking to the Mad Hatter in Arkham Asylum, there might be some sinister things going on between the two. Jervis looks very excited and interested about Barnes' transformation, seeing the connection to his sister in those new powers. Jervis will definitely try to fuel those strange feelings/thoughts within Barnes, who will try to deny them but eventually be unable to control them. I think that tomorrow we might finally get to know who Barnes has really become. if he is going to be Bane (still don't think so) or someone completely else? And the Mad Hatter certainly has his hands in their somewhere so I believe we will see more of Barnes' transformation in connection to Jervis.

(Source: tvfanatic.com)

Somewhere else in Gotham Lee is trying to live her new life. But in a city like Gotham, even an engagement can mean something horrible. The engagement party is most certainly not going to be 100% care-free. Lee still has some feelings for Jim (who also still loves her), Mario is part of the Falcone family (which says it all) and in the trailer we see a two old girlfriends getting together again: Lee and Barbara back together. Presumably Barbara is just there to troll Lee, teasing her about Jim and her past and new life. It's going to be interesting how the two women will interact after all this time. Mario and Jim also seem to crash once again. It's imaginable but daring to think that Jim will actually turn up at the engagement party. I'm already calling the awkwardness and the anger between Jim and Mario. Something bad is about to happen...

(Source: tvfanatic.com)

Let us come to our (well, certainly my) favourite topic when we talk about Gotham: what's up with Oswald and Edward? I was pretty much Oswald in the last episode: jealous, angry and trying very hard not to kill Isabella. But maybe she's soon going to disappear by herself because: did you fucking see that real-looking Kristen?! Once again I'm calling it: something is very fishy and weird about that Clone-Kristen and I think tomorrow we're going to see why. Did you see her devilish, sneaky look in the trailer when she picked up those glasses? And guess who's glasses those are?! Could be Edward's, but I'm almost 100% sure those are Kristen's which Edward kept after her death. And who do we see in the mirror and shitting our pants just like Edward: suddenly old Kristen is back!

(Source: tvfanatic.com)

I'm telling you, that Clone-Kristen is about to do some very weird and fucked up shit. Perhaps she is so much into Edward and especially his dark side that she finds out about the original Kristen and dresses up as her in order to surprise Edward and do something (I have no idea what) to him. Edward doesn't seem too thrilled by that whole scenario. Sure, we see him kiss that Kristen in the trailer, but his hand is on her throat and he obviously seems very unsettled by all this.

(Source: tumblr.com)

Maybe Clone-Kristen is stepping up her game in seducing and manipulating Edward, which would play even more into the theory that she's some sort of honey-trap send my Butch or I don't know who. If we're are lucky Edward is perhaps slowly realising that this Clone-Kristen isn't good for him and that there's actually a certain someone who truly loves him.

(Source: tvfanatic.com)

And all the Nygmobblepot people (me included) are like: AHHHHH!!!! I don't think they will make the feelings between these two mutual (yet) but maybe there's going to be another nice moment between Oswald and Edward. Maybe Edward is in doubt over his relationship with Clone-Kristen (because she starts to get creepy) and Oswald comforts him, maybe even seeing his chance of coming back into the game. With a bit of luck and hope we might even see Edward starting to discover his own feelings for Oswald and perhaps he'll be in some kind of confusion over his feelings for both those people. I believe there's an emotional roller-coaster waiting for Edward and maybe the Nygmobblepot-ship is still going to happen. (Hopefully) Let's just hope our dear little Oswald doesn't keep looking like this for much longer:

(Source: tvfanatic.com)

I think the next episode might truly be about going crazy, there are some interesting and creepy surprises waiting for us tomorrow. Let's hope Gotham won't kill our souls. Again. (Okay, they always do that)