Hairspray is a John Waters movie that doesn't involve anyone eating dog poo. It stars Ricki Lake, Divine, Jerry Stiller, Colleen Fitzpatrick, Debbie Harry, Leslie Ann Powers, and Ruth Brown.
Set in the 1960s as racial tensions are at a boiling point, Hairspray tells, in the campiest way possible, the story of Tracy Turnblad (Lake), a young "hair hopper" who wants to get on the Corny Collins Show, which is apparently a show where teenagers dance to contemporary music (the concept is a little lost on me, I grant). Tracy manages it by basically shoving her way to the front and dancing well, despite being, as she says, "pleasantly plump," and becomes an instant success and model for a plus-size dress shop. Her mother (Divine) initially resists, but quickly comes to enjoy her celebrity, as does her best friend Penny (Powers), though Penny's hyper-Catholic racist nutbar mother (Joann Havrilla) does her best to keep Penny under wraps.
Tracy gets in trouble at school and winds up in "special ed," or, in this case, "the class with the black kids." She makes friends with them, and with Motormouth Maybelle (Brown), the lady who hosts "Negro Day" on the show, and learns more dances. She becomes a voice for integration, steals the boyfriend of the popular, stage-parent-oppressed Amber (Fitzpatrick), and goes on to win the dance pageant, even if doing that involves kidnapping the governor for a pardon.
The movie is campy as hell, but for John Waters it's surprisingly accessible. I have no idea where I got it; I thought I owned the 2007 musical version with John Travolta, but evidently not. Now I kinda want to see that version, because as campy as this is I can't help but think it would only be improved by becoming a musical.
My Grade: B
Rewatch value: Low
Next up: Happy Feet
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Promethean in the Snow
So! Last time the characters took work at the Angellus Resort to pay room and board for a few nights, until they could figure out what to do about their wrecked van. They met a bunch of people on the shuttle up here, including Babi (the groom), his parents, his friend Damien, and bridesmaid Madison with her husband, Leslie.
The characters took rooms in the staff quarters (girls bunking together, guys bunking together). They got their story straight, but their story was pretty much like the truth - they were headed to Manitou Springs, their car flipped, now they were stuck. Once they got cleaned up, they headed to the main room.
There, they met more people: Serena, the bride, was sitting by the fire with her little sister Stephanie and two other women. Feather used Aura Sight and scanned the room, but everyone there was human. Matt went up and wished her congratulations on her impending wedding, but then the characters met up with Miguel, a ski instructor, who split them up doing tasks. Enoch and Avalon got handed off to Anna, who put them to work setting the tables in the ballroom. Grimm and Matt got told to shovel off the patio outside the main room. Since Feather had expressed interest in working the trails, she went with Miguel on a short hike with Babi, his father, Damien, Leslie, and Mike Amole (the best man).
On the balcony, Matt stared into the shining snow and saw a vision. He was sitting at a banquet, surrounded by people, and folks were passing food around. Some dishes he felt inclined to pass on, but someone behind him put a hand on his shoulder and said, "Try everything."
Grimm tossed snow at him to wake him up, and Matt told him about the vision. Grimm, for his part, thought he hear howls. He caught up with Feather before they left and told her that. She relayed the information to Miguel, but Miguel told her it was probably just the wind - wolves don't come this far up the mountain when the weather's like this.
Enoch and Avalon set the tables, and as they did, a woman entered (wrong room). She introduced herself as Freddie (Winnifred) Gale. Enoch made a comment about the mother of the bride, and Freddie told him to avoid that topic; the May sisters had lost their parents in a car accident two years ago. The rest of the May family was conservative (read: racist) and didn't approve of Serena marrying Babhi, which was one reason the wedding was so small.
Out on the trail, Feather listened to the guys bullshit and trade barbs like old buddies do. And then something drained her Pyros away...she turned and saw something moving in a snow bank. She called it to Miguel's attention, and he took his stick and brushed at it, saying, "Probably just a rabbit."
A huge black-grey wolf jumped out, tackled Feather, and knocked her down the hill, landing on her. She felt the rest of her Pyros drain away, and the wolf growled, "you aren't going to come between me and my prey. Back off." It bounded away just as Miguel reached her.
The group of them headed back, meeting Matt and Grimm, who were now shoveling the walk from the main building to the shed with the hot tub. Grimm expressed an interest in hunting the wolves, but they figured not yet.
Enoch, meanwhile, had been recruited by Peter, the head cook. Peter put him to work peeling potatoes and they chatted a bit (Peter was from Jamaica and had moved around a bit). And then dinner happened, and the characters did some serving things...except Feather, who was off because of her wolf experience. She did slip into the dinner and use Aura Sight again, and this time she saw something. Mixtures of fear, excitement, worry, of course, but Leslie had a mark on his aura. It looked like someone had tagged it, somehow.
Lying in her room, listening to Avalon's clock tick, she had her own vision. In the vision, it was pitch dark. Someone led her by the hand, and then switched to a hand on the small of her back. And then she fell, and she realized as she fell that she had been tricked, but that that wasn't the end of the world.
Dinner ended and the characters were off for the night. They and the guests hung out in the common room. Matt engaged in conversation with Leslie (Feather had explained what she'd seen). Matt came on a little strong, using his good looks and famous face to get into the conversation, and Leslie got up and headed for the bathroom. Closest one, as it turned out, was near the room where Feather was resting. Feather heard the clock get louder, and opened the door to see Leslie. She chatted with him a moment, asking if he was OK. He said he was, and headed back to the group.
Meanwhile, Enoch used Sense Pyros and Sense Flux while staring out of the window. He didn't sense anything with Pyros (other than the Prometheans), but when he sensed Flux, he got multiple hits. Pandorans, maybe? He also knew that Flux could infect living things...including, presumably, wolves.
Avalon chatted with Richard "Ollie" Ollenbeck, one of the groomsmen, who was sketching. She showed him her artwork, and he was fascinated by the drawings she did using her Device. She demonstrated, but just went really, really slowly.
At this point, Miguel poked his head in and asked if the characters wanted to play cards. Matt excused himself, thanking the girls for their kind words (and earning a milestone: Graciously accept a compliment). The characters are really just killing time, though, until they can slip out and go hunting wolves.
And now, some notes:
The characters took rooms in the staff quarters (girls bunking together, guys bunking together). They got their story straight, but their story was pretty much like the truth - they were headed to Manitou Springs, their car flipped, now they were stuck. Once they got cleaned up, they headed to the main room.
There, they met more people: Serena, the bride, was sitting by the fire with her little sister Stephanie and two other women. Feather used Aura Sight and scanned the room, but everyone there was human. Matt went up and wished her congratulations on her impending wedding, but then the characters met up with Miguel, a ski instructor, who split them up doing tasks. Enoch and Avalon got handed off to Anna, who put them to work setting the tables in the ballroom. Grimm and Matt got told to shovel off the patio outside the main room. Since Feather had expressed interest in working the trails, she went with Miguel on a short hike with Babi, his father, Damien, Leslie, and Mike Amole (the best man).
On the balcony, Matt stared into the shining snow and saw a vision. He was sitting at a banquet, surrounded by people, and folks were passing food around. Some dishes he felt inclined to pass on, but someone behind him put a hand on his shoulder and said, "Try everything."
Grimm tossed snow at him to wake him up, and Matt told him about the vision. Grimm, for his part, thought he hear howls. He caught up with Feather before they left and told her that. She relayed the information to Miguel, but Miguel told her it was probably just the wind - wolves don't come this far up the mountain when the weather's like this.
Enoch and Avalon set the tables, and as they did, a woman entered (wrong room). She introduced herself as Freddie (Winnifred) Gale. Enoch made a comment about the mother of the bride, and Freddie told him to avoid that topic; the May sisters had lost their parents in a car accident two years ago. The rest of the May family was conservative (read: racist) and didn't approve of Serena marrying Babhi, which was one reason the wedding was so small.
Out on the trail, Feather listened to the guys bullshit and trade barbs like old buddies do. And then something drained her Pyros away...she turned and saw something moving in a snow bank. She called it to Miguel's attention, and he took his stick and brushed at it, saying, "Probably just a rabbit."
A huge black-grey wolf jumped out, tackled Feather, and knocked her down the hill, landing on her. She felt the rest of her Pyros drain away, and the wolf growled, "you aren't going to come between me and my prey. Back off." It bounded away just as Miguel reached her.
The group of them headed back, meeting Matt and Grimm, who were now shoveling the walk from the main building to the shed with the hot tub. Grimm expressed an interest in hunting the wolves, but they figured not yet.
Enoch, meanwhile, had been recruited by Peter, the head cook. Peter put him to work peeling potatoes and they chatted a bit (Peter was from Jamaica and had moved around a bit). And then dinner happened, and the characters did some serving things...except Feather, who was off because of her wolf experience. She did slip into the dinner and use Aura Sight again, and this time she saw something. Mixtures of fear, excitement, worry, of course, but Leslie had a mark on his aura. It looked like someone had tagged it, somehow.
Lying in her room, listening to Avalon's clock tick, she had her own vision. In the vision, it was pitch dark. Someone led her by the hand, and then switched to a hand on the small of her back. And then she fell, and she realized as she fell that she had been tricked, but that that wasn't the end of the world.
Dinner ended and the characters were off for the night. They and the guests hung out in the common room. Matt engaged in conversation with Leslie (Feather had explained what she'd seen). Matt came on a little strong, using his good looks and famous face to get into the conversation, and Leslie got up and headed for the bathroom. Closest one, as it turned out, was near the room where Feather was resting. Feather heard the clock get louder, and opened the door to see Leslie. She chatted with him a moment, asking if he was OK. He said he was, and headed back to the group.
Meanwhile, Enoch used Sense Pyros and Sense Flux while staring out of the window. He didn't sense anything with Pyros (other than the Prometheans), but when he sensed Flux, he got multiple hits. Pandorans, maybe? He also knew that Flux could infect living things...including, presumably, wolves.
Avalon chatted with Richard "Ollie" Ollenbeck, one of the groomsmen, who was sketching. She showed him her artwork, and he was fascinated by the drawings she did using her Device. She demonstrated, but just went really, really slowly.
At this point, Miguel poked his head in and asked if the characters wanted to play cards. Matt excused himself, thanking the girls for their kind words (and earning a milestone: Graciously accept a compliment). The characters are really just killing time, though, until they can slip out and go hunting wolves.
And now, some notes:
Friday, November 29, 2013
Movie #227: Guys and Dolls
Guys and Dolls is a 1955 movie based on the stage musical of the same name, and starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, Vivan Blaine, Stubby Kaye, and Robert Keith.
So, if you've been to high school in the US, you know the story: Nathan Detroit (Sinatra) is trying find a venue for his floating craps game, but the local police, in the personage of Lt. Brannigan (Keith) is cracking down on such things. Meanwhile, his long-suffering fiancee, Adelaide (Blaine) is getting impatient and he's promised to give up the game. But, he's managed to find a possible venue...but he's short on cash. So he bets another gambler, Sky Masterson (Brando) that he can't take a particular woman to Havana - and the woman he picks is Sarah Brown (Simmons), a missionary.
So Masterson does take Sarah to Havana, where she gets drunk and they fall in love. The game happens (more than once), Sky faces his feelings, Nathan reconciles with Adelaide (more than once), and it all ends in a double wedding (Sky and Sarah, Nathan and Adelaide).
That's a brief summary for a long movie, though. There are a lot of memorable songs ("Luck Be a Lady," "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat," "Fugue for Tinhorns," and so forth). The movie changes a few things around, but it remains pretty faithful to the original script. It cuts "My Time Of Day," which is a shame, because I like that song (I played Lt. Brannigan once), but the most significant change is one I approve of.
See, in the stage show, Adelaide meets up with Sarah and they commiserate about how they love their respective men, but they wish they could change them. They then resolve to "Marry the Man Today" (and changes his ways tomorrow), and proceed to do just that - at the end of the stage show, Sky, already married to Sarah, has joined the mission, and Nathan has resolved to go straight. But in the movie, Sky talks with Adelaide and points out that if she loves Nathan, she needs to love who he is, not what she thinks she could make of him, and when they all marry, Sky is still Sky. I think that's a better message overall.
It's a 50s musical, so it's very much a product of the time (the scene in Havana is not, shall we say, the most culturally sensitive thing in the world), but it's classic and the songs are fun. It's also really, really long, much longer than I remember the stage show being, but that's probably because I was in it and I could go hang out in the green room during the boring bits.
My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: Low
Next up: Hairspray
So, if you've been to high school in the US, you know the story: Nathan Detroit (Sinatra) is trying find a venue for his floating craps game, but the local police, in the personage of Lt. Brannigan (Keith) is cracking down on such things. Meanwhile, his long-suffering fiancee, Adelaide (Blaine) is getting impatient and he's promised to give up the game. But, he's managed to find a possible venue...but he's short on cash. So he bets another gambler, Sky Masterson (Brando) that he can't take a particular woman to Havana - and the woman he picks is Sarah Brown (Simmons), a missionary.
So Masterson does take Sarah to Havana, where she gets drunk and they fall in love. The game happens (more than once), Sky faces his feelings, Nathan reconciles with Adelaide (more than once), and it all ends in a double wedding (Sky and Sarah, Nathan and Adelaide).
That's a brief summary for a long movie, though. There are a lot of memorable songs ("Luck Be a Lady," "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat," "Fugue for Tinhorns," and so forth). The movie changes a few things around, but it remains pretty faithful to the original script. It cuts "My Time Of Day," which is a shame, because I like that song (I played Lt. Brannigan once), but the most significant change is one I approve of.
See, in the stage show, Adelaide meets up with Sarah and they commiserate about how they love their respective men, but they wish they could change them. They then resolve to "Marry the Man Today" (and changes his ways tomorrow), and proceed to do just that - at the end of the stage show, Sky, already married to Sarah, has joined the mission, and Nathan has resolved to go straight. But in the movie, Sky talks with Adelaide and points out that if she loves Nathan, she needs to love who he is, not what she thinks she could make of him, and when they all marry, Sky is still Sky. I think that's a better message overall.
It's a 50s musical, so it's very much a product of the time (the scene in Havana is not, shall we say, the most culturally sensitive thing in the world), but it's classic and the songs are fun. It's also really, really long, much longer than I remember the stage show being, but that's probably because I was in it and I could go hang out in the green room during the boring bits.
My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: Low
Next up: Hairspray
Turn and Face the Strange (P-P-Pirates)
Last Monday was Pirates. S'pose I should do the write-up.
So! We were on this island, going through the Cliffs of Blood. There we were, in the jungle, when suddenly, drums!
The trees around us erupted with darts, felling a couple of our NPCs. Blaine boosted Maddie up into the trees to engage the enemy, and then jumped up himself and starting punching motherfuckers. Jamison, our guide, hid. Morgan stood front and center and shot at one of them in the trees, and that got a reaction, but the reaction wasn't "run away!", sadly.
They continued to shoot darts at the pirates. Francois climbed up a tree to engage and cast his armor charm (which helped). The natives were tough, though, and hard to hurt, even for seasoned combatants like Blaine. So then their chief came charging out of the brush, wearing repurposed Conquistador armor and a big ol' face mask.
So Blaine swung out of a tree, landed on him, and jammed a blowgun (that he'd commandeered from another native who no longer needed it because Blaine threw him out of a tree) into the chief's neck, and communicated his intent to kill him if the others advanced.
The natives relented, and then the communication problems began. They spoke no English (or French), and we spoke no whatever they spoke, but Jamison spoke Spanish to them and that seemed to work. They told him that the temple, the golden helmet, is beyond the waterfall - so that's where we headed. Blaine took some of the indigo dye and put a blue handprint on the chief, and instructed Jamison to tell them that if he wished to, he could call down lightning any time and kill the "marked" chief.
And into the waterfall we went.
So! We were on this island, going through the Cliffs of Blood. There we were, in the jungle, when suddenly, drums!
The trees around us erupted with darts, felling a couple of our NPCs. Blaine boosted Maddie up into the trees to engage the enemy, and then jumped up himself and starting punching motherfuckers. Jamison, our guide, hid. Morgan stood front and center and shot at one of them in the trees, and that got a reaction, but the reaction wasn't "run away!", sadly.
They continued to shoot darts at the pirates. Francois climbed up a tree to engage and cast his armor charm (which helped). The natives were tough, though, and hard to hurt, even for seasoned combatants like Blaine. So then their chief came charging out of the brush, wearing repurposed Conquistador armor and a big ol' face mask.
So Blaine swung out of a tree, landed on him, and jammed a blowgun (that he'd commandeered from another native who no longer needed it because Blaine threw him out of a tree) into the chief's neck, and communicated his intent to kill him if the others advanced.
The natives relented, and then the communication problems began. They spoke no English (or French), and we spoke no whatever they spoke, but Jamison spoke Spanish to them and that seemed to work. They told him that the temple, the golden helmet, is beyond the waterfall - so that's where we headed. Blaine took some of the indigo dye and put a blue handprint on the chief, and instructed Jamison to tell them that if he wished to, he could call down lightning any time and kill the "marked" chief.
And into the waterfall we went.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Board Game: Pandemic
The game that should scare the bejeesus out of you, especially if you know any anti-vaxx idiots.
The Game: Pandemic
The Publisher: Z-Man Games
Time: 20-30 minutes
Players: Me, Michelle, John and one other player
Gameplay: You're all CDC workers! Four diseases (blue, yellow, black, red) have broken out across the world (North America/Europe, South America/Africa, Middle East, Asia). Every turn, you infect a few cities, but if a city has too many disease cubes, it outbreaks, spreading all adjacent cities (which can outbreak in response). Characters can move around the world, charter flights to cities (if they have the proper card), build research stations, treat diseases, and research cures. But it's a race against the clock.
If you run out of any kind of disease, if you run out of cards, if you have too many outbreaks, YOU LOSE. The disease spreads and kills millions. It is really easy to lose this game.
Winning requires curing all four diseases. Curing a disease requires getting five cards matching the disease's color and then getting to a research station. After that, if you remove all the cubes of that disease from the board, you eradicate it entirely, which is nice, but eradication usually wastes more time than it's worth.
Each character has a special ability, by the way. The Medic (nickname: Jesus) can cure a whole city for one action, rather than burning an action on each cube.
Opinions: I really enjoy this game. Like most co-op board games, there's a chance that one player who thinks he knows it all will try and run the table, but with a group that recognizes what "cooperative" means, it works just fine. And it's hard. It's not like Forbidden Island where there are definite strategies that can work, a bad run of cards can just screw you. That said, it's a challenge I enjoy, the artwork is beautiful, and the little disease cubes are fun to play with.
Keep? Yes.
The Game: Pandemic
The Publisher: Z-Man Games
Time: 20-30 minutes
Players: Me, Michelle, John and one other player
Gameplay: You're all CDC workers! Four diseases (blue, yellow, black, red) have broken out across the world (North America/Europe, South America/Africa, Middle East, Asia). Every turn, you infect a few cities, but if a city has too many disease cubes, it outbreaks, spreading all adjacent cities (which can outbreak in response). Characters can move around the world, charter flights to cities (if they have the proper card), build research stations, treat diseases, and research cures. But it's a race against the clock.
If you run out of any kind of disease, if you run out of cards, if you have too many outbreaks, YOU LOSE. The disease spreads and kills millions. It is really easy to lose this game.
Winning requires curing all four diseases. Curing a disease requires getting five cards matching the disease's color and then getting to a research station. After that, if you remove all the cubes of that disease from the board, you eradicate it entirely, which is nice, but eradication usually wastes more time than it's worth.
Each character has a special ability, by the way. The Medic (nickname: Jesus) can cure a whole city for one action, rather than burning an action on each cube.
Opinions: I really enjoy this game. Like most co-op board games, there's a chance that one player who thinks he knows it all will try and run the table, but with a group that recognizes what "cooperative" means, it works just fine. And it's hard. It's not like Forbidden Island where there are definite strategies that can work, a bad run of cards can just screw you. That said, it's a challenge I enjoy, the artwork is beautiful, and the little disease cubes are fun to play with.
 |
| We cured three diseases, and then lost to outbreaks. TWICE. |
Keep? Yes.
Monday, November 25, 2013
Monsterhearts, episode 2
I'm a little bleary (it's early) and I have to go to work soon, but I'm awake and I have coffee so let's do this.
Last time, which was a while ago, the characters were getting ready for the bonfire. Well, three of them were. Genesis was in the ocean, having just discovered a body, and Dora was sneaking back into school.
Genesis swam down to the body (remember, she's a Selkie, otherwise she couldn't free-dive this; this becomes important later). Dora, meanwhile, has entered the school and gone to her sanctum, and, using a CD she stole from Kevin Gable's car (Kevin was the high school student that punched Dora and then vanished from school mid-day). She casts the hex, but there are some unintended side effects. She can see through Kevin's eyes, and sees...water. She looks up, and sees Genesis swimming to "her."
The body moves, and Genesis realizes it's Kevin. She holds steady, and then swims to the surface for more air. She swims back down, and realizes Kevin is chained to an anchor by his ankles. She works at freeing him, all the while Dora is trying to grab for Genesis kind of blindly (this hex doesn't normally allow motor control - side effects!). Unable to undo the chains, Genesis uses ocean's breath to have the ocean give her something to help her - and it sends her a tiger shark.
The shark swims in, bite Kevin, ripping him from the chains and taking him out to sea. On the way, Dora/Kevin lashes out physically against the shark, beating it, but it doesn't help much. Dora comes to, spitting up a lot of seawater. Genesis swims to shore, where the bonfire is already happening.
Rook and Skylar were at Pi, the pizza place, and go to the bonfire together. Cassi and her clique are already there, dancing. Skylar is drinking beer, getting buzzed, and Rook calls him to dance. Skylar initially refuses, but then says she will after this beer. Rook responds, "Promise?" and Skylar agrees.
Genesis comes up out of the water and starts screaming that she needs a phone. Cassi gives her hers, and Genesis calls the police, telling them that she found a body in the water. Someone (we're not sure who) grabs the phone and flings it into the surf - the kids are all drinking, after all. The music stops, as does the dancing (meaning Skylar broke his promise to Rook, meaning Rook gains two Strings on Skylar). Gensis tells the others what she saw, and reactions range from horror to outright disbelief to Skylar's reaction, which is "fuck Kevin." He says this to Genesis trying to shut her down, but fails, and I trigger Skylar's Darkest Self - Skylar vanishes, and no one can see her. Unwilling to let this go, Skylar upends a beer over Genesis' head (everyone assumes someone threw it), and uses unresolved trauma since people are talking about dead bodies and such, placing the blamed condition on Genesis and Rook.
Cassie, at some point in here, also tries to shut Genesis down, and places the narc condition on her (gaining the bitch condition for her trouble). She calls her father and manipulates an NPC into getting him to contact the police and explain that this was a crank call. Genesis, angry and without a phone, stomps off toward the school to find someone to help her. Some of the football players follow her. The kids hear sirens, but they stop (apparently getting word that it was a crank call). Rook actively looks for Skylar, and this allows the Darkest Self to fade; Skylar returns to visibility.
The kids at the bonfire tear everything down, figuring it's over for the night. Skylar, Rook and Cassi talk about what to do next, and Rook turns Skylar on. Cassi, not to be outdone, turns Skylar on as well, and the three of them head back to Cassi's place.
Meanwhile, back at the school, Genesis runs into Dora, who confesses that she saw the whole thing through Kevin's eyes and believes her. The police, in the personage of Officer Feldner and his unnamed partner, show up and Genesis tells them what she saw. When they hear how far out she was when she saw the body, though, they're incredulous; it's not possible for a person to be swimming that far, that deep, and not be dead from pressure or sucked out to sea by the undertow. They put Genesis in the back of the car to deal with her, and talk to Dora, but all Dora says is that she was heading to the bonfire, but is now going home.
They take Genesis to the police station. Dora heads home and gets Genesis' pelt, and uses it to cast the same hex, this time successfully. She sees through Dora's eyes as she's taken to the station and interrogated a bit. Eventually, the cop returns with Principal Miles, of all people, who also tells Genesis that she couldn't have seen what she saw. The police finally agree to get a boat and go looking, and drive Genesis to Dora's house (they earlier claimed that she was staying with Genesis, although on paper, Genesis is staying with a crazy old lady who lives near the beach).
Meanwhile, sex! We had the fun of sussing out sex moves when three PCs have a three-way, which I can't imagine is the only time that's ever happened in Monsterhearts. Cassi's is easy; Skylar and Rook gain the condition one of them, meaning they're effectively part of Cassi's clique and she can read their minds. Rook asks both of them to promise to do this again (which they do), and Skylar gets to ask them both a question (and get one asked in return). They ask each other about crushes and distrusts in the classroom (Skylar has a thing for Angela McAdams, the field hockey player; Rook distrusts Dora), and then go to sleep.
Over at the Marquez place, something similar is happening. Dora returns Genesis' pelt, and then turns her on. Their sex movies are likewise resolved; Dora takes Genesis' bikini top (as a sympathetic token) and Genesis gets a string on someone Dora has slept with - in this case, Omar Diaz (whom, you'll recall, Genesis snogged with last episode).
All of that craziness over, the characters sleep, then wake up the next morning/afternoon. Dora is left in charge of her two little brothers. Cassi and Rook had plans to take Genesis dress shopping today, so Cassi (using a new cell phone from daddy) calls Dora to find out if she knew where Genesis was (this made sense in context, I just don't remember why). Genesis is, of course, there, which causes some raised eyebrows, and Genesis agrees to meet them to go shopping, though Dora declines.
Cassi, Rook and Skylar pick Genesis up, they get lunch, and head for the mall. While there, a woman approaches Cassi, and asks if she goes to Perdido High. She introduces herself as Kevin Gable's mother, and explains, tearfully, that Kevin has been missing since yesterday and he isn't answering his phone (Cassi has that phone, of course, but it's long powered down by now). Cassi says that she doesn't know where Kevin is, and his mother says that someone talked to the police, and does Cassi know where that person is?
Skylar, at this point, runs away, and the scariest person there (Cassi) gets a String on her. Cassi attempts to hold steady and fails, so she flubs a bit and points out Genesis. Mrs. Gable talks to Genesis, trying to find out what she knows, but Genesis says she should talk to the police first, as Genesis doesn't feel right telling her. Mrs. Gable nods, not quite understanding, and leaves, digging for her phone to call the police.
Dora, meanwhile, drops her brothers at a playground and goes into the school. She finds the janitor's closet and steals a couple of things she figures could be tokens, and then goes to her sanctum and uses her watching hex to see through his eyes. All she sees is cold and dark; he appears to be dead. Confused, she drops the hex, and hears footsteps outside the nurse's office. When they pass, she leaves, and sees black, sticky, footprints, already fading. She follows them and and sees Mike the janitor going into the basement.
Not wanting to go down there alone while he's there, she leaves, and heads back to the playground. Her brothers are missing. She asks another boy where they are, and he says they got into a cop car a minute ago. Dora panics for a second, and then the car returns, and her brothers get out unharmed and head for the monkey bars. Officer Feldner waves at Dora, and then does the "I'm watching you" hand signal.
Roll credits.
Last time, which was a while ago, the characters were getting ready for the bonfire. Well, three of them were. Genesis was in the ocean, having just discovered a body, and Dora was sneaking back into school.
Genesis swam down to the body (remember, she's a Selkie, otherwise she couldn't free-dive this; this becomes important later). Dora, meanwhile, has entered the school and gone to her sanctum, and, using a CD she stole from Kevin Gable's car (Kevin was the high school student that punched Dora and then vanished from school mid-day). She casts the hex, but there are some unintended side effects. She can see through Kevin's eyes, and sees...water. She looks up, and sees Genesis swimming to "her."
The body moves, and Genesis realizes it's Kevin. She holds steady, and then swims to the surface for more air. She swims back down, and realizes Kevin is chained to an anchor by his ankles. She works at freeing him, all the while Dora is trying to grab for Genesis kind of blindly (this hex doesn't normally allow motor control - side effects!). Unable to undo the chains, Genesis uses ocean's breath to have the ocean give her something to help her - and it sends her a tiger shark.
The shark swims in, bite Kevin, ripping him from the chains and taking him out to sea. On the way, Dora/Kevin lashes out physically against the shark, beating it, but it doesn't help much. Dora comes to, spitting up a lot of seawater. Genesis swims to shore, where the bonfire is already happening.
Rook and Skylar were at Pi, the pizza place, and go to the bonfire together. Cassi and her clique are already there, dancing. Skylar is drinking beer, getting buzzed, and Rook calls him to dance. Skylar initially refuses, but then says she will after this beer. Rook responds, "Promise?" and Skylar agrees.
Genesis comes up out of the water and starts screaming that she needs a phone. Cassi gives her hers, and Genesis calls the police, telling them that she found a body in the water. Someone (we're not sure who) grabs the phone and flings it into the surf - the kids are all drinking, after all. The music stops, as does the dancing (meaning Skylar broke his promise to Rook, meaning Rook gains two Strings on Skylar). Gensis tells the others what she saw, and reactions range from horror to outright disbelief to Skylar's reaction, which is "fuck Kevin." He says this to Genesis trying to shut her down, but fails, and I trigger Skylar's Darkest Self - Skylar vanishes, and no one can see her. Unwilling to let this go, Skylar upends a beer over Genesis' head (everyone assumes someone threw it), and uses unresolved trauma since people are talking about dead bodies and such, placing the blamed condition on Genesis and Rook.
Cassie, at some point in here, also tries to shut Genesis down, and places the narc condition on her (gaining the bitch condition for her trouble). She calls her father and manipulates an NPC into getting him to contact the police and explain that this was a crank call. Genesis, angry and without a phone, stomps off toward the school to find someone to help her. Some of the football players follow her. The kids hear sirens, but they stop (apparently getting word that it was a crank call). Rook actively looks for Skylar, and this allows the Darkest Self to fade; Skylar returns to visibility.
The kids at the bonfire tear everything down, figuring it's over for the night. Skylar, Rook and Cassi talk about what to do next, and Rook turns Skylar on. Cassi, not to be outdone, turns Skylar on as well, and the three of them head back to Cassi's place.
Meanwhile, back at the school, Genesis runs into Dora, who confesses that she saw the whole thing through Kevin's eyes and believes her. The police, in the personage of Officer Feldner and his unnamed partner, show up and Genesis tells them what she saw. When they hear how far out she was when she saw the body, though, they're incredulous; it's not possible for a person to be swimming that far, that deep, and not be dead from pressure or sucked out to sea by the undertow. They put Genesis in the back of the car to deal with her, and talk to Dora, but all Dora says is that she was heading to the bonfire, but is now going home.
They take Genesis to the police station. Dora heads home and gets Genesis' pelt, and uses it to cast the same hex, this time successfully. She sees through Dora's eyes as she's taken to the station and interrogated a bit. Eventually, the cop returns with Principal Miles, of all people, who also tells Genesis that she couldn't have seen what she saw. The police finally agree to get a boat and go looking, and drive Genesis to Dora's house (they earlier claimed that she was staying with Genesis, although on paper, Genesis is staying with a crazy old lady who lives near the beach).
Meanwhile, sex! We had the fun of sussing out sex moves when three PCs have a three-way, which I can't imagine is the only time that's ever happened in Monsterhearts. Cassi's is easy; Skylar and Rook gain the condition one of them, meaning they're effectively part of Cassi's clique and she can read their minds. Rook asks both of them to promise to do this again (which they do), and Skylar gets to ask them both a question (and get one asked in return). They ask each other about crushes and distrusts in the classroom (Skylar has a thing for Angela McAdams, the field hockey player; Rook distrusts Dora), and then go to sleep.
Over at the Marquez place, something similar is happening. Dora returns Genesis' pelt, and then turns her on. Their sex movies are likewise resolved; Dora takes Genesis' bikini top (as a sympathetic token) and Genesis gets a string on someone Dora has slept with - in this case, Omar Diaz (whom, you'll recall, Genesis snogged with last episode).
All of that craziness over, the characters sleep, then wake up the next morning/afternoon. Dora is left in charge of her two little brothers. Cassi and Rook had plans to take Genesis dress shopping today, so Cassi (using a new cell phone from daddy) calls Dora to find out if she knew where Genesis was (this made sense in context, I just don't remember why). Genesis is, of course, there, which causes some raised eyebrows, and Genesis agrees to meet them to go shopping, though Dora declines.
Cassi, Rook and Skylar pick Genesis up, they get lunch, and head for the mall. While there, a woman approaches Cassi, and asks if she goes to Perdido High. She introduces herself as Kevin Gable's mother, and explains, tearfully, that Kevin has been missing since yesterday and he isn't answering his phone (Cassi has that phone, of course, but it's long powered down by now). Cassi says that she doesn't know where Kevin is, and his mother says that someone talked to the police, and does Cassi know where that person is?
Skylar, at this point, runs away, and the scariest person there (Cassi) gets a String on her. Cassi attempts to hold steady and fails, so she flubs a bit and points out Genesis. Mrs. Gable talks to Genesis, trying to find out what she knows, but Genesis says she should talk to the police first, as Genesis doesn't feel right telling her. Mrs. Gable nods, not quite understanding, and leaves, digging for her phone to call the police.
Dora, meanwhile, drops her brothers at a playground and goes into the school. She finds the janitor's closet and steals a couple of things she figures could be tokens, and then goes to her sanctum and uses her watching hex to see through his eyes. All she sees is cold and dark; he appears to be dead. Confused, she drops the hex, and hears footsteps outside the nurse's office. When they pass, she leaves, and sees black, sticky, footprints, already fading. She follows them and and sees Mike the janitor going into the basement.
Not wanting to go down there alone while he's there, she leaves, and heads back to the playground. Her brothers are missing. She asks another boy where they are, and he says they got into a cop car a minute ago. Dora panics for a second, and then the car returns, and her brothers get out unharmed and head for the monkey bars. Officer Feldner waves at Dora, and then does the "I'm watching you" hand signal.
Roll credits.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Movie #226: The Guardian
The Guardian is a pretty terrible horror film from William Friedkin, the director of The Exorcist. Don't let that fool you into thinking it's any good, though. It stars Jenny Seagrove, Dwier Brown, Carey Lowell, and Brad Hall.
The movie opens with title cards informing us that druids used to sacrifice people to trees and those trees had guardian spirits or some shit, and they we see a couple leave for the night, leaving a nanny to watch their two kids (one probably four and one just a baby). They come back to retrieve forgotten glasses and OH NOES BABY MISSING! An unseen woman takes the baby to a tree, the baby disappears and becomes a wooden "carving" in the tree, boom, movie starts.
Phil (Brown) and Kate (Lowell) are a young couple who move from Chicago to LA so Phil can take a job at a marketing firm (maybe). Kate is pregnant, and has their son Jake about 20 minutes into the movie. They go through the normal baby issues; not sleeping, money troubles, earthquakes (LA), and meet the architect who designed their house (Hall). They decide to hire a nanny (Seagrove), and you see where this is going, the nanny is actually a tree-spirit-guardian who controls coyotes (they sure looked like wolves to me, but whatevs) and, in four weeks when "the blood changes," she'll take little baby Jake to the tree to sacrifice him.
Along the way, we see her kill some biker would-be rapists with the tree's help, and the unfortunate architect, who pulls a full-on Acteon and follows her to the grove. But then she tries to straight-up take the baby from the hospital (where he's being non-responsive, but we never really learn why), and Kate stands there completely useless while a crazy druid lady takes her baby, but then Phil comes back and acts like an actual parent, i.e., knocking the nutty woman the hell down.
Oh, and then he goes after the demon-tree with a goddamn chainsaw. That's how you get shit done, yo.
This movie is terrible. It doesn't make a lot of sense on the face of it (you'd think the police would notice frequent child disappearances, all involving the same nanny, all in the area of this one particular stretch of forest), and the characterizations are just south of horror-movie stupid. Oh, and there's a lot of poo-pooing of breastfeeding, which of course annoys me. And there's the bit where Phil makes himself a root beer float in the middle of the night, which I always forget when I watch this movie, because then I want one. So bleah.
My Grade: D
Rewatch value: Low
Next up: Guys and Dolls
The movie opens with title cards informing us that druids used to sacrifice people to trees and those trees had guardian spirits or some shit, and they we see a couple leave for the night, leaving a nanny to watch their two kids (one probably four and one just a baby). They come back to retrieve forgotten glasses and OH NOES BABY MISSING! An unseen woman takes the baby to a tree, the baby disappears and becomes a wooden "carving" in the tree, boom, movie starts.
Phil (Brown) and Kate (Lowell) are a young couple who move from Chicago to LA so Phil can take a job at a marketing firm (maybe). Kate is pregnant, and has their son Jake about 20 minutes into the movie. They go through the normal baby issues; not sleeping, money troubles, earthquakes (LA), and meet the architect who designed their house (Hall). They decide to hire a nanny (Seagrove), and you see where this is going, the nanny is actually a tree-spirit-guardian who controls coyotes (they sure looked like wolves to me, but whatevs) and, in four weeks when "the blood changes," she'll take little baby Jake to the tree to sacrifice him.
Along the way, we see her kill some biker would-be rapists with the tree's help, and the unfortunate architect, who pulls a full-on Acteon and follows her to the grove. But then she tries to straight-up take the baby from the hospital (where he's being non-responsive, but we never really learn why), and Kate stands there completely useless while a crazy druid lady takes her baby, but then Phil comes back and acts like an actual parent, i.e., knocking the nutty woman the hell down.
Oh, and then he goes after the demon-tree with a goddamn chainsaw. That's how you get shit done, yo.
This movie is terrible. It doesn't make a lot of sense on the face of it (you'd think the police would notice frequent child disappearances, all involving the same nanny, all in the area of this one particular stretch of forest), and the characterizations are just south of horror-movie stupid. Oh, and there's a lot of poo-pooing of breastfeeding, which of course annoys me. And there's the bit where Phil makes himself a root beer float in the middle of the night, which I always forget when I watch this movie, because then I want one. So bleah.
My Grade: D
Rewatch value: Low
Next up: Guys and Dolls
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)