Driver taking care of Irene and Benito, taking them out for drives, to cool places, helping fix her car, etc.
Driver caring so much about Irene that he helps her HUSBAND rob a pawn shop, knowing that if this robbery goes well he wont have a reason to stick around anymore.
Driver taking the money to her instead of using it to get away from everything.
Driver saying I COULD come with you, not I WILL come with you, showing how desperately he wants to be with her and how much he wants to leave this place yet still cares about her before anything else.
Driver risking his whole way of life not even to be with Irene, but for a CHANCE to have her get away from all the violence surrounding her, knowing that the only way for her to truly be safe is without him UGHH MY GOD I CANT I CANT
Today I learnt against my will that Sandra Bullock and Ryan Gosling dated when he was 20 and she was 37. They met on set for a movie where he played someone in high school. Like 20 is an adult obviously but that’s a little… odd.
I’ve been on tumblr for like ten years and I still don’t understand the etiquette. If someone reblogs something I post with a response in tags and I want to respond to them how do indo that? Reply? To my own post? Reblog it again???? Currently I just sigh and give up
I’m breaking up my thoughts on Only God Forgives into multiple posts because it’s too long and intense to do in one go. Thoughts on Chang’s relationship to Julian below the cut.
CONTENT WARNING: sexual violence themes but no details
So Chang is obviously a God/angel metaphor. He delivers justice but also mercy in various forms throughout the film. My thesis is I think the greatest mercy he gives Julian is to free him from his violent acts but also from unwanted sexuality and sexualisation.
The first time this happens is when Chang fights him and drastically alters his appearance without killing him (which is probably what Julian was hoping for). I think there is an interesting bit of meta-reference happening when your ‘sex-symbol’ lead actor spends a third of the film with his face completely fucked up. It’s a bit of a challenge to the audience to ask what the problem is if Gosling isn’t pretty the whole time (a challenge many don’t seem to rise to based on reviews).
Then Chang kills Crystal, freeing Julian from his abuser and the need he feels to obey her. That one doesn’t really require further explanation.
Finally, Chang cuts off his hands. We see Julian commit many acts of violence with his hands but they are also the only part of him we see used in sex acts in the film. It’s not a coincidence that this is the part of Julian that he offers up to be severed. We see how he can’t escape Crystal during those scenes and Chang is able to offer that escape. It reminds me of that fact about how all my cells are replaced every seven years so in seven years I will have a body my abuser never touched. It’s as if you can have that all in one moment with one swing of a blade.
Julian goes to Chang asking for a fight, asking to be killed. Instead Chang frees him, cuts away the brutality of his past, and offers him forgiveness. This film is a hard watch but so cathartic.
Just watched Only God Forgives and tonight I will write a character analysis on the film and Julian that is so incomprehensible and confused it will blow the heads clean off of every dumbass who thinks he wants to screw his mum. Send post.
"My friends think I like to fight, but it's just not true... I'm not a violent dog. I don't know why I bite"
- Isle of Dogs (2018)
See scale and Drive (2011) ramblings under cut
Pencil and thumb for scale. This was so unbelievably fiddly. The lighting on the face was bad enough but the jacket oh my lord why is it so shiny.
Drive (2011) truly took me out. A completely devastating take on the cycle of violence and exploitation. This shot has been haunting me for days. It’s the moment before the elevator doors close between Irene and Driver after he stomps the gangster to death. It’s the doors closing on Driver’s chance to escape the cycle of violence before it too late for him.
He reminds me of a street dog who just mauled a man to death for Irene and is asking her not to abandon him in the cold again. But he’s too feral to be a house dog anymore. Of course she has to leave but it breaks my heart that he ends up alone again.
Driver is basically alone at the start, surrounded by scorpions and he doesn’t seem to understand the scope of that. I’m sure this is an unpopular opinion but Shannon is absolutely exploiting him. I get the impression that Driver is just obsessed with cars and possibly doesn’t understand the value of money which has made him quite vulnerable to others. Driver reads as autistic with medium-ish support needs and without a proper support network I think he got pulled into the cycle (like so many are) without really knowing what he has signed up for. That’s not to say that he isn’t responsible for his actions but it’s an interesting portrayal of how isolation can make us vulnerable and dangerous at the same time. In the book it’s made explicit that Driver had a very violent childhood that shaped his aggression and black and white worldview. Long story short I have much love for writers that pair him off with a nice character from another franchise to be loved and accepted and allowed to heal.
I am currently trying to sketch this shot from Drive 2011 that absolutely destroyed me. It’s from just after the elevator murder scene when the lift is about to close between Driver and Irene, sealing their separate fates for good.
I think it’s the desperate street-dog-like ‘please don’t abandon me even though I mauled this guy in front of you’ look that just ruins me. Literally watching the door close on Driver’s escape from the cycle of violence is just….
I will elaborate on my thoughts on this once the sketch is done (for my many thousands of adoring fans who all care so much about my bullshit) but my main problem atm is actually just that the lighting of this shot is insane and I am struggling. Why is he lit from three different angles and none of them are front!!!!
one thing from project hail mary the book that i really wish theyd made clear in the movie is that when grace makes the decision to save rocky instead of go back to earth, he is prepared to die. like i understand why the movie had to cut a lot from the book for pacing and it wasnt exactly necessary to include the whole sub-subplot where rocky and grace figure out that there is nothing on erid that is safe for humans to consume, but it would have been worth a passing mention at some point, because grace goes back for rocky knowing that even if rocky takes him to erid, he will still die there, because there is nothing he can eat. the only reason he survives is by eating taumoeba, which is a solution rocky comes up with only after grace saves him and admits to him that he came to his rescue fully prepared to die.
the movie really breezes past rocky's rescue and the time skip, and it never explains why choosing to save rocky is so monumental in the first place: it answers the central question grace is grappling with for the whole movie. "who would i die for?" he doesn't just go back for rocky because it's the right thing to do. he sacrifices himself to save rocky. he is ready to die if it means rocky will live.
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