Frasier (1993-2004) / Hannibal (2013-2015)

Disco Elysium is pretty pessimistic, and I think that's why it works so well, but the conversation with the Phasmid felt so hopeful. Here is this impossible creature that's real. It speaks to you. You were born for the same purpose. It tells you your kind's existence coincides with what will end the world, and it doesn't hate you. It lets you touch it, ever so gently. Have you been able to be gentle before now? There's even an implication that you can fix things, after everything.

I will not blink. I will keep looking at you, you wonderful monstrosity of nature. This incredibly sensitive instrument exist to detect things that are beautiful. You are the promise I wrote on the wall, and I will be there again when something beautiful is going to happen.

The casual intimacy of being single, living by yourself, and drinking in the bath. Unparalleled.

Hot take: Bird Box: Barcelona was better than the OG Bird Box

you are not unloveable you are just sad and a little bit angry. let’s go have some soup

Detachment (2011)

Amores perros (2000)

Dogs shouldn’t have to put up with us.  The characters in Amores perros create a cruel world, or perhaps they think they can only succeed in an illegal manner.  But there are dogs in all of these people’s lives, too.  They come in many forms, but they suffer in similar ways.  Cofi is a rottweiler who has a very “no thoughts head empty” energy during many scenes.  But he is a killer.  In another world Richie is like a toy but suffers because his masters are incompetent.  He gets lost under the ground and maybe dies. Iñárritu understands the experiences of his characters and uses them to great effect.  The dogs in this film are vessels for empathy.  They distill their owners’ existences down to the most powerful truth.  Much blood is spilled but the dogs are constant.  It is a cruel experience for the audience because there is no rest for them; they simply have to survive the film. 

Amores perros represents Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s best and worst instincts.  It has all his talent but also all his worst impulses.  He adopts a narrative structure like the films of Quentin Tarantino or others, a tapestry of characters interweaving.  The camera moves with a hand-controlled panic to pull us into the world. We constantly bump into other narratives, one line intersecting with the other as these characters affect each other in small or large ways.  Minor details in one moment are important in others.  Iñárritu creates a trap for his characters and then has doubts if he wants to engage.  At times he has great power.  It’s exciting and sad.  I too aspire to be a radical liberal turned doggo-tor.  But it’s incredibly hard to watch the scene when all the dogs in our protect die because Cofi only knows one way of life.  Humans destroy the lives of dogs.  I openly cried for the final minutes.  We cannot learn.  We cannot change.  Young people never learn to find healthy outlets for their emotions.  The only way to succeed is to offend and cause suffering.

THE RULES

SIP

Someone says ‘Cofi’ or ‘pandejo’.

Grainy TV footage.

Crazy baby toys.

An advertisement for Enchant appears somewhere.

Sick ‘00s beat drops.

A sum of money is named.

BIG DRINK

A part title appears onscreen.

The narrative jumps perspectives.

A scene isn’t abjectly miserable.

WATCHED IN 2023:

Նռան գույնը The Color of Pomegranates (1969), dir. Sergei Parajanov

MELKON ALEKSANYAN as THE POET AS A CHILD

the poet as a child & books

Just finished watching Sweet Home. Overall I enjoyed the series but was kinda disappointed we didn't get more information about certain characters like the priest. I was left a little confused about how the priest and Seon hwa knew each other. To be honest, I thought there was going to be more to those two characters but I guess not lmao. I will definitely start reading the webtoon when I have time as I'm sure it will answer some of the questions I still have.

You think disaster just falls over the sky? No. We have come step by step towards this fate.

FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE 霸王別姬 (1993, Chen Kaige)

It's genuinely so baffling to me when people think it's weird or sad that I want to stay single forever or that I'm going to "die alone". I have tried not being single I truly don't understand how people do it. What do you mean there's another person just like. In your house. Where you live. All the time, even when you get home from work?!? Just. I guess do you and chase your bliss and whatever but damn. Couldn't be me. No fucking thank you I'm good.