Snowflake Challenge: Day 6

[chibifukurou]

Challenge #6

Share your favourite piece of original canon.

Sooooooo looks at my Ao3 which has an average of 2-3 fics per fandom and my partially written 250 fandoms prompt list. I don't really do 'favorites'

I do types/styles of media and put them in piles based on what I'm feeling like and how many focus spoons I've got. Some canons I enjoy but they take so much focus for such an extended time I consider them more an experience than a canon I'm gonna live inside fandom style. And some that are enjoyable but not engaging enough for my brain to hook onto. My sweet spot are generally a little bit challenging to interface with the first time. But comfortable enough on second watch to let my brain pick out little details to hook into and enjoy once I know what emotions are coming next.

Anyway here is a rundown of three of my regularly rewatched stylized in a way I enjoy, but not necessarily good movies I wouldn't usually have reason to talk about.:

Five Feet Apart (2019 Movie) - I specify movie here because I didn't make it far into the book. The book steps right into my least favorite chronically ill MC trope page 1

Style wise the movie hits ALL my soft spots. It's part silent movie, where while sections are recorded with a music backing where you can see conversations happening and time passing but relationships are shown heavily in body language without stopping to explain every single thing. Bolstered by a soundtrack that uses topical vocal backed found music A lot of the relationships are shown through videos, text convos, and facetime. Which feels very realistic both to current life and people who have limited mobility and need medical help. While the MCs are undoubtably the focus the side characters are all shown having their own lives, relationships, and motivations. And while the MCs do stupid shit to move the plot it's kept in character instead of just whatever would be the 'most dramatique'.

The movie isn't shy about talking about sickness, insurance, survivors guilt, and fears and how that effects your willingness to take risks. You don't usually see a movie that shows multiple medical treatment, the monotany of all the constant treatments needed to keep your head above water. And how sometimes you walk the edge of living life by not treating everything you can. While still being a fast moving non medical drama.

It's billed as a teenage love story ala John Green, but I'd say it's more of a summer camp coming off age archetype. Where you have a first summer romance that will definitely effect your life but it's in what you learn about yourself and what you need in a partner, but you aren't each other's 'one true love' even if first loves often feel that way. Which has it's benefits in keeping things moving and fun despite the darker parts but comes with drawbacks.
TW: Multiple main side character deaths, Suicidal ideation

Drawbacks including spoilers MCs are very white and traditionally pretty. A lot of the secondary characters are POC including the Fem MC's best friend who's the major secondary character. Who is also out only out queer character. Which means when someone dies to drive the dark night of the soul on the third act they kill off the best friend and thus the only major POC/Queer rep.

It's also pretty clear that to keep to the teenage romance demographic the third act got edited down A LOT to hit the 2 hour length at 1 hour 56 minutes. While the ending is well earned and telegraphed through the earlier movie, the movie as a whole would have benefits from them editing the earlier parts of the movie to get more even pacing. Instead of having the big romantic gesture, dark night of the soul, teenage rebellion for love, life saving sacrifice, and long goodbye happen over the course of one night

If You Were the Last (2023 Movie) - Sound track is not as enjoyable outside of the setting, but plays with the same silent movie emotional beat montages set to music way of moving the plot forward.

Outside of the montages though, it is definitely MUCH more stylized. Closer to a recorded stage play than a movie. This is acknowledged in setting and set against a period that uses traditional movie recording/acting to highlight the difference.

I admittedly am MUCH more enamored with the stylized parts. Where the character in universe located on a space ship, but the setting is straight after a 50s earth ship style house with the control deck involving a desk chair and painted on buttons, media stored on 8 track cartridges. A comedically large greenhouse, chicken and a goat who wander the whole place, and a vinyl star gazing bubble.

The MCs make lampshade jokes about the Martian and how the cost of rescuing them is unrealistic. Both regularly use an clearly fake anatomical skeleton who in universe is their dead crewmate as a confidant. Hold dance nights, making band T-shirts and murals from scavenged supplies. And have their own projects, most notably an attempt at a pot pant/berry hybrid and hydraulic drill dildos.

Then they hit the third act, making it back to earth from where they were stranded and get snapped back into a more 'realistic' movie style straight out of any of a dozen astronaut movies. Heartfelt reconnections with loved ones, trying to put people at ease when talking about their trauma. Explaining why dildos and pot have scientific merit to Nasa. Hiding things from the press.

It's not nearly as fun as the first parts but does an amazing job highlighting how being immersed in society is its own kind of trapped. Different but not dissimilar to the way they were trapped on the ship making their own reality.

The ending is faster than I'd like but does a good job paying off both halves of this narrative

TW: infidelity, off screen side character death and animal death of one of the farm animals on the ship.

Drawbacks including spoilers Definitely were trying for something with the character archetypes they used, with logical emotionally cutoff female lead and softer emotionally aware male lead. Whether because of direction or limits from the actors they just didn't pull this off.

In the last third they end up just shoehorning in a relationship out of any second chance romance where an emotionally neglected woman find 'emotionally aware' man who pursues her irressistable.

Which just doesn't fit with two married people trying to deal with the inherent infidelity to possibly having sex because you are trapped alone for likely the rest of your life. And if becoming sexually intimate will ruin the relationship you've built with your only support network. Which makes up the emotional lift of the first two thirds.

Like they could still have had the ending where they didn't know how to live apart/outside of the confines of the shared world they created without the weird romcom relationship drama in the middle if the movie hadn't been so comphet.

Americal Ultra (2015 Movie) - Oh look another Soundtrack/Montage heavy movie, who would have guessed? This soundtrack is definitely the most movie specific, I'd say only about half the songs are able to carry emotional beats outside of the movie itself, but they go HARD on the frenetic pacing and more modern sounds you don't see in most movies trying for in universe realism.

It has Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart as leads because they were both going through the period in their career where they were trying to break out of their clean teen romance lead pigeonhole. But didn't have the reputations to pull major movies yet.

Which means the acting is exceptionally solid for the genre and the distributer absolutely didn't know how to advertise the movie at all.

Trailers: This is a stoner action comedy romance!

Actual movie: Survive the night spatterpunk interspersed with a solid non comedy romance.

The montages in this one are less emotional beats than the previous two. And more heavily stylized splatterpunk fights set to music. From a fight set in a grocery store using household items, to a police station playing with one way glass and prison bars, to an underground blacklight gym, these are not at all trying to sell realism.

Which makes them more jarring when set against a surprising well acted series of romantic flashback showing a not particularly healthy but loving relationship between the leads. Giving emotional weight to the conversations and truths that are revealed over the course of the night.

As someone who likes splatterpunk movies and fucked up but trying romantic relationships, I really really enjoyed both parts. But think I still would have struggled to enjoy the movie if it haf a less solid cast or editor. But all the actors carry the emotional and action beats with an equally deft hand. And the Editor did an amazing job not only pacing the action montages but juxtaposing them so that the plot gets a chance to slow down and let the characters breath and deal with the emotional fallout before ramping up again.

Absolutely worse social commentary than Fury Road and I'm not saying watch this if you liked that one, but a very similar type of pacing and musical usage.

TW: Flashing lights, blood/gore, brainwashing, poorly handled mentally ill characters, stereotypes

Drawbacks including spoilers Splatterpunk is notoriously not good about characterization, accurate race politics, or mental health awareness. And this movie is no exception. 90% of the characters are barely painted over stereotypes because if characters are going to be killed or killing everyone on sight within 5 minuted of meeting them having emotional investment isn't ideal.

The first section is very stoner romance and drops you into spatterpunk with pretty much no warning. You go from low stakes two poor kids in a small town having a loving but unhealthy relationship culminating in a planned proposal with illegal fireworks to an entire police station getting wiped out in a frenetic strobe light and thumping music bloodbath. You need the first section to act as a catalyst and carry the emotional beats for the rest of the movie, but could be triggering if you don't know this is a splatterpunk which I don't think most people did.