un-unmoored-ness

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Returned to working first thing in the morning and it's already helped ameliorate the sense of unmoored-ness that's been omnipresent the last several months – even before autumn's project management of another death and subsequent emptying (12th move in 23 years). Haven't really had a day alone in months, since the end of last school year: no matter how much I love the company, it wears on me. Apparently I need to be removed from the world when it's dark and skulk about in those of my own creation to prepare me for life in daylight; the work of others can – must – wait.

Eggers’s NOSFERATU - first image

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Definitely nails the feel of Murnau’s original. Love that, according to Eggers, “It’s even more Ellen’s story than previous versions.” Can’t wait for this.

Rather than a mere sprinkling of horror inflections, Eggers is confident in what his Nosferatu sets out to do. “Yeah, it’s a scary film. It’s a horror movie. It’s a Gothic horror movie,” he tells Empire in the 2024 Preview issue, featuring the world-first look at the film. “And I do think that there hasn’t been an old-school Gothic movie that’s actually scary in a while. And I think that the majority of audiences will find this one to be the case.” It won’t just be viewers experiencing pure terror – as seen above, Lily-Rose Depp’s Ellen Hutter, the wife of Nicholas Hoult’s estate agent Thomas, will be petrified by the power of the bloodthirsty Count Orlok. “It’s even more Ellen’s story than previous versions,” teases Eggers. “And Lily-Rose is absolutely phenomenal.”

sitrep/20231120

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After being in various stages of fuck if I know for much of the year, moved the main story for second PRESS (A) TO START release from the brain-vomit of my Obsidian canvas to a single text document for revisions and making it read less like the semi-assembled scraplings emergent between two distinct epochs (before my grandfather died and after) and more like something worth reading (though still possessed of my glitchy, channel-changing rhythm, if you think that's readable to begin with).

Grandfather house emptying continues though now I'm past the "disassemble everything except the pool table and depersonalize it so you don't feel like you're working in a mausoleum" stage and have moved to the "preparing it for people to help so you can concentrate on disassembling the pool table" stage which is more difficult than doing all of it by myself.

SCOTT PILGRIM TAKES OFF is all kinds of wonderful. A bit strange, though, hearing the same voices as Wright's film with different music...

BLUE BEETLE (Ángel Manuel Soto, 2023)

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(Directed by Ángel Manuel Soto from a script by Gareth Duner-Alcocer; starring Xolo Maridueña, Belissa Escobedo, Bruna Marquezine, Adriana Barraza, Damián Alcázar, Raoul Trujillo, George Lopez, and Susan Sarandon. Released 15 August 2023; watched 2023w47 via Max )

Blue Beetle hovers above Earth.

If you'd've told me ten years ago that the best film in the DCEU would be BLUE BEETLE, I wouldn't have believed you. Yet here we are - and it is, by far, the best: a perfect balance of heart, humor, and thrill. A shame it was lost to the box office undertow of the end of the DCEU and its (much-needed) rebirth into the Gunn/Safran DCU, but hopefully BEETLE finds the audience it deserves in streaming (ironic, given its origins) and physical release. Relief, too, that Xolo Maridueña will continue as Jaime in the new canon; here's hoping for his return sooner rather than later. Wonderful film.