This is actually why I think it is "underrated". I mean it isn't a good movie or even a good story to begin with, but this insanity seems so intentional, so meta, so self destructive - it's worth seeing.
Also, call me crazy but I think that it would have made an unironically interesting theater play. A lot of scenes scream theater and would have worked much better in that setting. The whatshisname the french guy blabbing his monologue during that fighting scene is so obviously theatrical, and the clips from the first movie being projected in a theater would also work with just half the cringe.
I had the same experience and always wondered whether I lived in a weird bubble. Maybe there's a couple of weird bubbles out there. But no one I know in my generation or the adjacent generations has ever been told or pressured into having kids. Hardly anyone had parents who took it for granted they'd have grandchildren. It was more like school first, career first, stability first, happiness first, self fulfillment first, and then maaaaybe you can think about whether you want a kid in your life but we don't recommend. All the sex ed throughout school was focused on how to avoid pregnancy and STIs and how to pleasure oneself and your partner (which I don't want otherwise, just pointing it out).
That was a very interesting read. Do you have any examples of queerbaiting or portrayed relationships that are commonly mistaken for queerbaiting in shows? Being a very boring stereotypical heterosexual, I've never paid attention to that, and I admit I haven't heard the term before today.
I really hope you'll have enough time to meet her one day. I'm a Russian living in Germany (always have). I've made "peace" with the fact that I won't see my grandparents again. And only if we are very lucky, my daughter gets to meet her grandpa.
Every now and then, I meet other Russian moms on a playground or so. Then they're telling me how they went to Russia through Turkey (or plan to) - with their infants or toddlers - to visit family. The dads usually stayed in Germany to "be safe".
My immediate thought is always, man, how are they not scared. After all, God knows. They might be held back in Russia. They might have their kids held back. They might even end up in prison. Aren't they scared? Don't they care?
Then, after a while, I usually realize the thing. They're apolitical. They don't care what's going on. They care as far as how it has inflicted their lives, how it made travelling harder. What a shame Grandma has a harder time getting a visa to visit. They don't care about the dangers of travelling because there is no danger for them. They will be fine. They have never thought against, let alone voiced anything about their country's current situation. They have not ever partaken in any demonstration for Ukraine, they have never donated a cent to Ukraine, not even to OVD Info. There is virtually no danger to them, they are the kind of citizens the regime likes. They don't care, they don't oppose and if they did, the inconveniences it would cause to actually do something are too big. Go vote on March 17? Nah, that means standing in line. Putin will win anyway, why bother.
Everyone who stayed in Russia had their future taken. There are kids being bombed, orphanages being destroyed in Ukraine, and they care about how much of a hassle it is to fly through Turkey.
I understand the pain of not seeing your relatives again. I really do. But it should be more than a hassle for you. It should be dangerous. If it isn't dangerous enough for you, you have not done enough. Do your fucking part.
(Any moms in Leipzig who want to meet up and yell obscenities about Putin?)
That’s why older porn is so jarring sometimes because of the weird habit of cutting to the guy’s moaning face in the middle of everything. Like, what the fuck was the thinking behind that “technique”?
So, I am pulling this out of my ass (no pun intended) but I got a theory here. I think the way porn is consumed and its intention have shifted along with our perception and experience of sex.
Older porn seems to be more like "a movie depicting people having sex". So it shows the woman and the man having sex, touching, kissing, enjoying. Both are crucial parts of the act. It also appears like the main function is to get you horny, not to get you off. I remember overhearing older people talking about watching porn together before having sex. I know this can still be a thing, but I'd argue that most modern porn is neither made for that purpose nor directed/designed in a way that would work for this.
Modern porn, in its insane abundance, is to be consumed alone for the purpose to jerk off to, to activate some dopamine receptors or whatnot, and its notorious addictiveness that makes you want more and more intense stimuli. You don't need people for that, you need bodies.
The other thing is that sex - maybe because of the oversexualization, social media, internet, being wired 24/7, or maybe because of hookups having become so common, anonymous and risk free - has become somewhat sterile. Almost like an out of body experience. I forgot who said it - something like "we fantasize about fucking our partner while we fuck our partner". We're not in touch with ourselves and don't experience the sex we have while we have it, we are almost disconnecting from the experience. It's absurd but common.
You find this "sterility" in modern porn too; perfect bodies with no hair, no shadows, no marks of any kind, almost no body contact except the genitals. Just because there is a cumshot somewhere doesn't make it less sterile or more intimate. You paraphrased this when you described the guy standing in for the viewer, being objectified even more than the woman, being this background thing doing repetitive motions.
(Disclaimer: I'm talking about a modern "we" and and older "they" in very broad terms here. Obviously people 30 years ago had disconnected sexual experiences and anonymous hookups and people nowadays also experience concentrated, fulfilling sex in which they are very much in touch with themselves. Definitely porn was used to be wanked to in the 70s just like some couples enjoy watching porn together today. And within its insane abundance you can most definitely find modern porn that is not sterile.)
I swear my toddler is growing up to be Jim, she just plays standing all day. Hardly ever sits on the floor and the whole table-chair-concept is being ignored. Whenever she's eating it seems like she belongs next to a food truck.
Well but in your defence, you probably don't just carry around something like cetirizine but something more rash/hive specific like Idk desloratadine, which would not be the first choice for seasonal allergies... I'd guess (also not an expert in allergy medicine but you get the gist I think)
This is actually why I think it is "underrated". I mean it isn't a good movie or even a good story to begin with, but this insanity seems so intentional, so meta, so self destructive - it's worth seeing.
Also, call me crazy but I think that it would have made an unironically interesting theater play. A lot of scenes scream theater and would have worked much better in that setting. The whatshisname the french guy blabbing his monologue during that fighting scene is so obviously theatrical, and the clips from the first movie being projected in a theater would also work with just half the cringe.