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A website that shows three simultaneous popups on my phone screen...


This time of year:

*looking up from my monitor after a debug session* Who made it dark?



Trailer for Finestkind is on YouTube. The film will be on Paramount+ from 15 December. The great thing: Jenna Ortega is in it!

youtu.be/O8aPzwMl37g?si=tO0afB…
#JennaOrtega #Finestkind





No wonder films often struggle to find funding to be made, since after being made they hardly ever release them anywhere someone can see them so they don't make any money.


What's with the suggestion that the new Doctor Who will not be on broadcast television but only streaming? The official account makes it sound that way, mentioning only iPlayer and Disney+. Will this be the end of my collection?
#DoctorWho


Just saw Pearl, the prequel to X, and it's quite a good film. It's not a prequel in the traditional sense, but something they made on the back of filming X while they were at that location anyway. Basically it seems like after the actress playing Pearl and the director had worked out the backstory, they figured why not film it.

There's an amazing monologue in that film, as well as other great things.

Interesting that they basically put the whole cast and crew of X in the thanks session in the credits here, acknowledging how connected making these films were. (So yeah, technically Jenna is in the Pearl credits)
#Pearl



Looking for an Emilia Clarke film to watch... The Pod Generation is still not available here and neither are the other films of her I still have to watch.

I was already thinking to rewatch Voice from the Stone for Emilia's 37th birthday today, so that one it is. From my own blu-ray, since this one is also not available on the services of course.
#EmiliaClarke #VoiceFromTheStone

in reply to Gidi Kroon

She speaks a lot of Italian...

It's a beautiful story, beautifully made. It's surprising how completely different Emilia's characters are, there's not a hint of Daenerys in Verena yet this is still someone you would like to get to know.
#VoiceFromTheStone #EmiliaClarke

Unknown parent

Gidi Kroon
@Fedi Jedi 👨‍🚀🚀🎬 I have seen it and I liked it, even though I'm not really into Star Wars. But she's not the lead in that one and I was looking for something that's mainly her.


"Mainstream media is not showing this!", right after seeing the very same things on mainstream media.


Opened a substack reader account as yet another rss-like app to probably ignore over time and have new buildup of stuff to read.

From what I can tell so far it really is just rss but with better looks. Except they also have non-free subscriptions, but since credit card is the only option, probably not.

Now trying to remember who of those I follow here said they had a substack.



In honour of Katie Douglas' 25th birthday last Thursday, I'm rewatching Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey. It's moved from Netflix to Disney+, where I've nicely searched for the film via Katie's name so the statistics show why people are watching this (as opposed to any recommendation by algorithm). I've got my tea and popcorn ready.

It's a harrowing story played intensely and touchingly by Katie. The deep misery her character Lisa is in even before she's abducted, then the strength of character Katie portrays to fight her way out of it, make a lasting impression. And it's a true story.

More films of Katie should be released in my country, she's certainly made more.



100 days have passed since the SAG-AFTRA actors strike began. A reminder that as consumer of the entertainment content I stand behind the actors. I expect the money I spend on watching the entertainment content to go to the artists that make it, of course also if it's on streaming. I also expect that if I see an actor's face it's actually their performance and not some AI.



Yasmin Paige is an actress I wish I'd hear more about. She did some great things. She was in the Doctor Who spinoff The Sarah Jane Adventures as Maria and also in Pramface and the film Submarine. She was the reason I watched Ballet Shoes, a film with the very talented trio of Yasmin, Emma Watson (yes, the Hermione) and Lucy Boyton (who I've recently seen is still very good). I saw her first in The Mysti Show (yes, I knew Maria before TSJA).

Now I'm watching this film from that same early time, Tooth. Her name may not be on the cover, but she is as the title character, presumably a young tooth fairy. I like how sparkly this cover is! It changes colour with the light falling on it differently.


#YasminPaige #Tooth #NowWatching

in reply to Gidi Kroon

Yasmin is instantly great as the rather un-fairy toothfairy Tooth, as is Sally as the mother of the family that could use some more money in these days before Christmas than the pennies provided for her kids' teeth. Or the half eaten sandwich found under the pillow, since Tooth is careless like that.
#Tooth #YasminPaige #SallyPhillips


As a lifelong Helena Bonham Carter fan I've of course seen Wings of the Dove already (in the cinema even I think). It's long ago and this is the first time watching it from my own blu-ray.
#HelenaBonhamCarter #WingsOfTheDove #NowWatching

letterboxd.com/film/the-wings-…

in reply to Gidi Kroon

I feel for Susan the chaperone, such characters can never have their own holidays doing their own thing.
in reply to Gidi Kroon

Helena's character in this film is more complex and less innocent than you'd expect from the beginning of the film or the type of film. That I really liked. The nude scene is totally gratuitous and not fitting with the style of the film. That I'm more ambivalent about. But overall it's a good, rich, film.
#HelenaBonhamCarter #TheWingsOfTheDove


The twenty aid trucks have made it into Gaza, that is good. What's bad is that they're needed at all. Cutting off water, food, aid to civilians is not acceptable, no matter how extreme the massacre was that was performed by the people in charge.


I hope someone somewhere finds a solution for the Israel/Gaza problem, but the only ones I can make up are utterly unrealistic. Of course the militants and instigators of the 7 October massacre need to be brought to justice (not necessarily by Israel). And of course the Israeli military needs to safeguard Palestinian civilians and definitely not block water and food. But with Hamas operating among civilian populations and no other Palestinian authority being present in Gaza to arrest and try them, any military action by Israel against Hamas can only be (and already is) disastrous. So hoping that Israel will stop its military actions and its siege is hoping for a miracle, but hoping for a miracle is all I've got.

And eventually, will Israelis and Palestinians be able to coexist? Will the factions that want to eliminate the other side give in? Or is this also an impossible dream of mine.



I liked iCarly (the new one) season three. Shame no season four is coming... 😢
#iCarly


I'm not sure I got this correctly, but I think I just saw the headline that US Republicans voted to stop speaking, which may be a good thing.




It's after midnight so we should/could have Dove Cameron's first single from her first album. Unless they count US midnight. Starting up the pc now to check.
#DoveCameron #Alchemical
in reply to Gidi Kroon

We get 8 songs on this volume 1, with three already unlocked and the album 'expected 1 December'.
in reply to Gidi Kroon

You need to listen to Dove Cameron's Lethal Woman on better head/earphones. So much is lost on the cheap ones I had attached to the pc, I assume the same is true when playing it as background music (I guess if you're a streamer you're going to need to use TIDAL instead of Spotify for the sound quality). Now done my standard copying to phone, tablet and nas, and listening to it on my tablet.

She already said this song is quite different from what the other songs on the album will be. And indeed, it sounds somewhat chaotic in a way that I like and doesn't seem to have an obvious hook that her popular songs had (again, I like that).
#DoveCameron #Alchemical #LethalWoman



It's something very now that people who have read stuff on social media and formed their opinion, when faced with a different story from journalists with their access and their verification skills learnt in journalist school, blame 'obvious bias from the mainstream media' for the discrepancy.


Dafne Keen is going to be in a film called Whistle. She just posted a screenshot of what I think is a Deadline article announcing it, but when I look for it I can't find it (and the rss feed didn't show it up either). So no link, no further details, just the title.
#DafneKeen #Whistle


HG = Hit Girl

Yes, I'm watching Kick Ass 2 again since Chloë Grace Moretz is so great in it. I think I can tell she does a lot of her own stunts too. This film focuses a lot more on her character and less on Kick Ass himself.
gidikroon.eu/2018/12/22/8562/
#ChloëGraceMoretz #KickAss2



'Baby-proof' they say on the battery packaging... Almost Gidi-proof. They prepare for some really determined babies.


Proud of Lindsay Armaou running the half marathon in Manchester today and raising a lot of money for breast cancer research.
instagram.com/p/CybGJ4lsQ1J/

#LindsayArmaou


Now watching Death Note, the 2006 Japanese film. I understand this story has rather a high status here on fedi, but that's likely because of the manga this film is based on. I don't know much about the story though, going in fresh, except that I'm surprised there isn't a fediverse account posting posts each with just a single name of one of the world's bad persons on it.

Though this is probably one of those things where you shouldn't mix fantasy and reality.

No particular actress I'm watching this for this time, just that way back this dvd was 3 for €25 at the shop.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_…
#DeathNote #NowWatching

in reply to Gidi Kroon

Almost all female characters have no personality whatsoever if they exist at all, I dislike that in a film. The subject matter could have done with more depth of the emotional consequences of the actions, it's now all so lightweight.
in reply to Gidi Kroon

The ending being unsatisfactory is being explained away by there being a sequel, but I'm not sure I want to see it.

Read some reviews that were essentially like: 'much better than the Netflix one, 2 1/2 stars'. Actually the reviews were quite mixed, some people who already knew the characters from the original really liked this film, and didn't seem to notice that the characters barely existed here.



"They do have a right to defend themselves, but they don't have the right to breach international humanitarian law"

That's well put by the Irish Taoiseach, I was looking for these words myself.



Interesting, WordPress hashtags that work on Friendica and Mastodon, do not come through on Pleroma. Same for edits.
in reply to Gidi Kroon

Extra interesting how a WordPress post gets displayed once received. The post itself is sent as the excerpt plus its link (my current settings). The display then tries to add a meaningful link preview for the link, which is again the excerpt. Yet another reason to limit link previews on the receiving side.


Teaser trailer for Orphan Black Echoes, coming in 2024. This “Was I asleep?” is very Dollhouse


Teaser trailer for Orphan Black Echoes, a new series with Krysten Ritter in the Orphan Black universe, coming in 2024.

gidikroon.eu/2023/10/13/orphan…





Miranda Cosgrove introducing the hashtag #GirlsLeadSTEM for Girls Lead STEM Month, in this Instagram reel.

(Let’s see what following the hashtag outside of the major platforms does…)


#MirandaCosgrove #GirlsLeadSTEM

in reply to Gidi Kroon

Missed out the caption:
From the Instagram reel by Mission Unstoppable (@cbsunstoppable): instagram.com/reel/CyRHPWeK6D3…


I still don't manage to upload a working video to Friendica, but at least I've figured out a way to 'fix' the broken upload flow for media on WordPress:

Upload the file. Find that it doesn't show on posts because it hasn't been uploaded to CDN. Click Purge from CDN, even though you want the opposite. Find that you now have many errors in the purge queue indicating none of the purges succeeded. Find that magically the media now does show because it has been uploaded to CDN.

Previously I had to reupload the whole media library to CDN, which took about half an hour, each time I added one image or video.

in reply to Gidi Kroon

But I can steal the video url from the blog post and use it in a Friendica video tag...
in reply to Gidi Kroon

If I recall, Friendica limits uploaded videos to some very small size, like 2M or something like that. These limits were removed around 2013 for other branches of that software family tree such as Hubzilla and streams; but I think they are still in place for Friendica. Might ask one of the current developers to verify this but I did see somebody mention it just a month or two ago.


Content Warning: recent violent events in Israel

Thinking about the horrific event a few days ago where 260 young people at a party were gunned down with machine guns in cold blood, in a planned attack.

The organisation that planned that and the people that celebrate that can't count on my sympathy. The ordinary people on either side that suffer as a result, can.



Watching Wednesday for only the fifth time ever. Jenna Ortega is so good!
#JennaOrtega #Wednesday
in reply to Gidi Kroon

It's the episode with the second of two cello scenes by Jenna in the series. It's my understanding many more were filmed in the series, but they had to be cut because the episodes ran too long. I so hope we get to see them some day.
#JennaOrtega #Wednesday
in reply to Gidi Kroon

It's also the episode of the extreme camera angles in front of the fireplace.


Can the server not go down when I don't have time to fix it?


I have so many alerts set with JustWatch, to notify me when something I want to watch is finally available in my country, but mostly they remain silent. Just now, however, I got the notification that Women Talking is on Amazon. A film with Jessie Buckley and Claire Foy, how can you not want to see it. Watching it now.
#ClaireFoy #JessieBuckley #WomenTalking #NowWatching
in reply to Gidi Kroon

It's a really impressive film. The women of a religious colony discuss their options after generations of abuse by the men. These discussions go deep into matters of morality, religion and personality. I like that the film has as narrator/pov a young girl who isn't just the observer but who the writer allows to be more involved and occasionally inject into the discussions things like 'why are you making it so complicated!'. The character played by Claire Foy has some really fiery dialogue and it's not often that a film throws you against the back of your seat by the sheer fire of the lines and their performance, and the truth of them.

Regarding content warning you need to know that, even though the abuse is never shown on screen, the aftermath is (sometimes rather graphically) and the level of abuse discussed is of an extreme sexual nature, targeting women and very young children.
#WomenTalking

in reply to Gidi Kroon

Spoilers for Women Talking
It happens more often that a young girl is used as point of view, where she represents the next generation that is as of yet unaffected and can still be saved by changing the world. Of course I could have known that wouldn't be the case in this film. The moment it was mentioned that a child of four years old was abused, you realised that our pov would also not have escaped the horrors, something the end of the film makes even clearer. But maybe the very beginning, where the film is narrated 'to her daughter' should already have told us enough.