As the heart and soul of the DC Universe, it's safe to saySuperman is about as far away from the irreverent, murderous Deadpool as a superhero can get. But in one comic, the Man of Steel shattered the fourth wall by not only noticing he lives in a comic book... but how strange that reality is for the characters inside of it.
These days the 'fourth wall' between readers and comics isn't what it used to be, with both Marvel and DC heroes aware they exist in a comic. Even so, it's difficult for a character as stoic, resolute, and even rigid as Superman to cross such a 'meta' line -- and it would be even harder to cross back over it, once he acknowledged the reality-breaking audience following his adventures. But if anyone were capable of pulling it off, it's Grant Morrison, the acclaimed writer who first had DC's Animal Man look right at the reader, in the first of many meta-textual stories and events he would later create. But he saved an incredible scene just for Superman.
Before fans worry about seeing the image of Superman shaken, it should be pointed out that this scene is delivered in the pages ofGreen Lantern: Blackstars #2, which is set in a rewritten reality, and eventually set back to normal. But not before the Green Lantern--sorry, Blackstar Hal Jordan can face Superman in Earth's orbit. In classic Morrison fashion, Superman complains about DC's depressing universe, referring to actual gruesome events and stories taking place alongside his Green Lantern series. But things are taken one step further when Superman moves from referencing other comics... to the actual contradiction of a comic's panel art and its written dialogue.
It's simple enough for a character like Gwenpool to break reality, or for Deadpool to get a laugh by telling the comic Avengers about Endgame. But Morrison decides to call out the core contradiction that comic books inherently rely on, and is agreed to -- even unconsciously -- by comic book readers. The contradiction that, as Superman himself puts it while literally pointing to the text bubbles through which comic book dialogue is delivered, the limitation of static art means comics play out as if "the visual track is frozen and the audio's still rolling."
Like the best examples of Morrison playing with reality and subjectivity, it's a joke readers can instantly grasp and appreciate... before it actually puzzles the mind, as readers try to perceive how these rules actually would work from the perspective of the characters in the actual scene. It seems strangely fitting that when Superman, the first and greatest of comic book superheroes, decides to break the fourth wall, he delivers one of the most fundamental, mind-numbing paradoxes comic fans may ever encounter.
For the ninth consecutive year, Indian Top Blogs has included 'A Potpourri of Vestiges' in its annual directory of best blogs.
About the listing:
This is the latest (10th) edition of the Directory of Best Indian Blogs, published every year since 2011. Released on 30th May 2020, the blog list has about 250 Indian English blogs that excel in content quality, regularity and overall blog resources, and meet a minimum design standard. They also show the blogger's commitment to blogging.
There are some films you watch when you need a warm hug from a familiar source. There’s no new terrain to explore, no outside world, no alarms and no surprises – they are simply soothing. Since a global pandemic was declared on 11 March, daily life has become so strange that the solace offered by comfort blanket movies is enhanced. In this series, we want to celebrate them, in whatever form they take.
There’s a tradition at weddings – if you haven’t seen it in real life, you’ve probably seen it in a film – where the newly married couple are introduced to a room full of their guests. It’s their first time entering the party as husband and wife, and music plays them in. At my own wedding, we helped choose the music carefully, and we had fun picking a song for this particular moment that might raise a knowing smile in a few of our guests. It was Tony Bennett’s ‘Rags to Riches’. The expansive, sweeping ballad with its soft croon always gives me a little electric jolt when I hear it. And I always hear it in concert with one line, one opening sequence, and one film: Goodfellas.
For the same reason as it seems like an odd choice of soundtrack for a wedding, it might seem strange to describe Martin Scorsese’s gangster classic as ‘comfort viewing’. The phrase entails something cosy, like a warm blanket. For my part, I like those sorts of films, too: Audrey Hepburn in swirls of designer chiffon in Funny Face, Gene Kelly musicals, Heath Ledger and his dimple in 10 Things I Hate About You. But comfort implies something unthreatening, right? Not a brutally violent, blackly comic story of a low-level mob associate turned police informer, which Scorsese took from the real story of mafioso Henry Hill.
From the very start of Goodfellas, the bravura camera work of the opening segment has every intention of hooking the viewer and keeping them wriggling on that hook. Scorsese bamboozles us with the glamour and vicarious thrill of the criminal lifestyle before sending Henry and his cohort on a steep downward trajectory. The restless, roving camera, the dollies, the freeze-frames, the deadpan voiceover, the faultless doo-wop soundtrack; in five minutes it’s pure sensory overload, visual storytelling on so enrapturing a level that any possible stray thought from the external world is pulverised.
On countless occasions, bad or good or just terminally bored, I’ve curled up on the sofa to see the pure, unravelling id of Joe Pesci’s Tommy and his murderous rages; Henry and Tommy bickering in the car as they comically forget to abscond from the scene of mob-sanctioned arson; that unforgettable camera tilt from the ground up, revealing Ray Liotta for the first time, leaning on the back of his car; or the moment where Karen (Lorraine Bracco) bleats, “I thought he was obnoxious.” And there she goes picking up the voiceover, unexpectedly and commandingly taking charge of the story.
I’ve always had a particular soft spot for Karen Hill, the ride-or-die gangster’s moll with lots of brains and a big mouth. Scorsese unequivocally presents Henry and Karen as a duo, working in tandem, and she is afforded a subjectivity that goes beyond the limited viewpoint of the men in this world. She explains to us exactly why and how she’s drawn to the mafia life, and how it excites her; she admits at one point that it “turns her on”.
She even tells us about her early misgivings trying to fit in with the other mob wives, and her fears about prison. “Don’t play the babe in the woods routine,” an FBI agent tells her later in the film. He’s right: she’s no innocent bystander. She’s not willing to let go of this life easily, whatever the costs. Her character – and the way Bracco plays her, full of energy and crackle – makes Goodfellas among the most insightful of its genre when it comes to women.
I find myself ever more drawn to the movie – and to the gangster genre in general – lately. There’s something undeniably comforting about them, in spite of their violence and ugliness. These are films which present a world that operates by strict codes; here the lines are clear. Everyone has their place in an admittedly crooked and morally corrupt hierarchy. We understand how these people operate, and on some level we probably wouldn’t like to admit, we can relate or project or identify with something in them.
Maybe not the part that has them stab someone to death in the trunk of a car. But in a looser sense: wouldn’t it be fun to behave so badly and be rewarded so fabulously for it? To be treated like you were special? To have the nerve to act so decisively in the face of betrayal or insult? It’s the same feeling of forbidden glee that audiences probably had when they first saw James Cagney fall with a thud to the floor at the end of 1931’s The Public Enemy.
I once knew someone who told me that he loved these films, films like The Public Enemy and Goodfellas and Blow, but that he never watched the endings, when the bad guys got their comeuppance. “They always get a happy ending if I turn the film off early,” he would say. But that’s not most of us. Most of us like the thrill of watching people live outsized lives, and the familiarity of knowing exactly where those outsized lives are headed.
There’s another thing that makes Goodfellas feel particularly comforting: familiarity. It’s up there with my most frequently-watched films, and it’s been a regular source of communal pleasure with people I know. Whether it’s my husband or my teenage sister, when we’ve watched the movie together it’s impossible not to elbow one another and pre-empt our favourite lines: “Fuck you, pay me,” and “It was outta RESPECT.”
Now that we’re under lockdown, my sister and I are separated for who-knows-how-long by a pandemic and a whole ocean. So not long after lockdown began, we decided to do a weekly Netflix Party viewing. The app allows you to view a film in real-time together, and to comment on it in a side-by-side chatbox. No surprise that Goodfellas was the first movie we chose, so we could type the quotes to each other in all-caps instead of yelling them at each other. To accompany it, we dreamt up our own version of mob wife outfits, draping ourselves in fur and gold jewellery and low-cut wrap dresses, uploading photos and commenting on them with deep-cut quotes like: “One night, Bobby Vinton sent us champagne!” It brought us together – let us feel a sense of occasion and community around moviegoing that we won’t actually have in person for a long time.
Together, we revelled in the little shared details and trivia from umpteenth viewings, like the beautiful bow on the back on Karen’s black cocktail dress during the Copacabana kitchen sequence, or the way Scorsese’s mama – playing Pesci’s mama in the movie – accidentally glances to camera and bursts out laughing while the guys around her ad-lib, or the nod to Crazy Joe starting a war that Marty would later follow through on in The Irishman.
At this point, Goodfellas isn’t just a comfort movie, but a whole private club that me and my loved ones can share. I think a lot of people (and there are a lot of us) who love Goodfellas feel the same. We get to be part of something – that reprehensible but oh-so-thrilling secret world of gangsters and guns and Lufthansa heists. We don’t mistake Henry or his friends for heroes, but the world’s got enough of those, anyway.
While businesses across the country are slowly starting to re-open, there is still a giant question mark about the movie theater industry. Top theater chains are looking to re-open in about a month. One of the films that have kept the faith and stand firm on their release date is Waner Bros.
For four seasons on AMC and Netflix, fans of 'Better Call Saul' have watched Jimmy McGill crystallise into the 'Breaking Bad' attorney Saul Goodman.
It has been a bumpy journey, with the smooth talking conman brushing up against corporate law firms and a brother that felt he was unworthy of the legal profession.
Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould's 'Breaking Bad' prequel has been compelling from the off - piecing together the lives of some of the best loved characters from the previous show.
Not only have we revelled in the transformation of Bob Odenkirk's Jimmy into the corner cutting Saul but we have been able to enjoy the back story of Jonathan Banks' world weary henchman Mike Ehrmantraut and how he came to be in the grip of Giancarlo Esposito's calculating businessman Gustavo Fring.
Then there is Rhea Seehorn's Kim Wexler, a character who only surfaced in 'Better Call Saul' but is one of the richest female roles in television today.
Michael Manda's Nacho Varga also fascinates - a streetsmart operator in the Salamanca drug gang whose loyalties are tested when his law abiding father is threatened.
'Better Call Saul' has for four seasons looked set to join the pantheon of great US dramas like 'The Sopranos', 'The Wire', 'Game of Thrones' and 'Breaking Bad'.
Season five arguably achieves that.
All of those dramas cemented their greatness with memorable individual episodes that could hold their own against the best Hollywood movies.
Fans of 'The Sopranos' will often cite 'The Pine Barrens' as its finest hour - a brilliantly executed piece of macabre comedy involving Michael Imperioli's Christopher Moltisanti and Tony Sirico's Pauly Walnut getting stuck in snow covered woods when a piece of routine Mob business goes badly awry.
However you could also point to the trippy 'Funhouse' episode in which James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano has surreal food poisoning induced dreams while Vincent Pastore's Big Pussy Bonpensiero meets his maker or 'College' when Tony takes Jamie-Lynn Sigler's Meadow on a trip looking at perspective universities when he spots an informant living under an assumed identity.
'Game of Thrones' had its 'Red Wedding' episode. 'The Wire' had 'Middle Ground' with Idris Elba's Stringer Bell proving major characters in such series were expendable.
'Breaking Bad' also had the heart wrenching 'Ozymandias' episode in the final series and the Pine Barrens-esque '4 Days Out' instalment in Season 2 where Aaron Paul's Jesse Pinkman and Bryan Cranston's Walter White's plans for a marathon meth cooking session in the desert go spectacularly wrong.
For 'Better Call Saul' the outstanding episode comes this season in episode eight when Jimmy is sent by Tony Dalton's Lalo Salamanca to go into the desert to act as a bagman to collect $7 million in bail money.
In the Gordon Smith written and Vince Gilligan directed episode, Jimmy is ambushed by a rival gang who try to intercept the money, only to be rescued by Mike who flees the scene with him on foot through the New Mexico desert to avoid capture from the rival gang.
With its 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' echoes, it is a brilliant piece of writing by Gilligan that is thrillingly acted and directed which also has huge implications for Jimmy's uneasy relationship with Lalo.
Season Five of 'Better Call Saul' finds Jimmy embracing his legal alter ego Saul Goodman, offering discount legal services to felons.
Kim continues to work on the Mesa Verde corporate law account, while undertaking some pro bono cases.
Inevitably, Jimmy's dodgy legal services bump up against Kim's noble intentions but, as in previous series, she also eventually flirts with the unethical.
Jimmy's nemesis, Patrick Fabian's Howard Hamlin tries to woo him back to the world of corporate law.
(SPOILER ALERT FROM SERIES 4)
Meanwhile Mike is wrestling with his feelings about Gustavo Fring's decision to have him execute Rainer Bock's German engineer Werner Ziegler for running away from the construction of the crystal meth cooking factory under a chicken chilling facility.
And this also attracts the interest of Lalo Salamanca whose truce with Fring remains uneasy.
Fring, meanwhile, has Nacho working as an inside man working his way up the ranks of the Salamanca gang and soon Jimmy's prowess as a smart, smooth talking lawyer also brings him inti the radar of Lalo.
All of these elements bubble up nicely, with occasional appearances from other characters in the 'Breaking Bad' universe.
Dean Norris' DEA agent Hank Schrader and his partner Steven Michael Quizada's Steven Gomez have their first encounter with Jimmy in his Saul persona and end up on a stakeout to disrupt the Salamanca operation.
Laura Fraser's Lydia Rodarte-Quayle returns briefly as the Madrigal business executive who is the corporate link with Fring's elaborate drug operation.
In the signature black and white flash-forward that begins every series' opening episode, the late Robert Forster delightfully reprises his 'El Camino' role as Ed Galbraith, the vacuum cleaner repairman with a lucrative sideline in smuggling people out of the country with new identities.
Gilligan and Gould and their fellow writers Smith, Alison Tatlock, Ann Cherkis, Heather Marion, Thomas Schnauz and Ariel Levine effortlessly weave these characters in and out of the narrative.
Gould, Gilligan, Smith, Bronwen Hughes, Norberto Barba, Michael Morris, Jim McKay and Melissa Bernstein comfortably step into their directorial duties.
As for the cast, Odenkirk continues to brilliantly portray a lawyer living on his wits, often at a cost to those around him.
Seehorn proves she is every bit his match as a character also with a penchant for cutting corners and who could easily turn good or bad.
Banks remains a delight as the grouchy old tough guy, while Esposito's icy detachment makes Fring one of the most unsettling villains on TV.
Manda is effective as Nacho treads a dangerous double life, Fabian is suitably stiff as Howard, while Dalton pulls off being a smooth and sinister figure with consummate ease.
It is a particular delight to see return of Norris and Quizada reprise their 'Breaking Bad' double act.
And there is a wonderfully spiky appearance by former 'Northern Exposure' star Barry Corbin as a stubborn homeowner blocking the Mesa Verde call centre development.
With one more season to run, 'Better Call Saul' continues to be one of the most intelligently crafted drama series on television.
Quite how it has not picked up an Emmy or a Golden Globe just yet is a bit of a mystery.
Not that any of that really matters.
With its cinematic sweep and expert blend of comedy and sinister drama, 'Better Call Saul' continues to set a high bar for any comedy or drama show considering spin-off prequel or sequel.
Feeding off Odenkirk's undoubted charm, it could yet eclipse 'Breaking Bad'.
A big final season beckons.
('Better Call Saul' Season 5 aired on AMC in the US from February 23, 2020 to April 20, 2020 and was made available on Netflix one day later in other territories)
Colton Underwood and Cassie Randolph have joined the long list of couples who met on The Bachelorand didn't go the distance. They announced their breakup on Friday.
Colton and Cassie were never engaged. Once Cassie reached the final three in Colton's season, she decided she was going to break up with him right before the fantasy suites. At the time, Colton was a virgin. It seemed, he was prepared to lose his virginity to Cassie. But she ended things with him, leading to the infamous fence jump. He realized the only thing he could do to win Cassie back was to dump his remaining two women, Hannah Godwin and Tayshia Adams. It worked. But ever since their post-show relationship began, Colton always seemed more into Cassie than she was into him. The relationship never looked like it was one that would advance to the altar. And they may have decided to split at the perfect time, when our country is preoccupied with far more urgent matters at present to invest too much time into piecing together what may have gone awry.
The twin Instagram posts, which has become the en vogue way for Bachelor couples to announce breakups, relayed a message that the two plan to remain close even after they go their separate ways. Colton wrote the two plan to stay friends, adding, "This isn’t the end of our story, it’s the start of a whole new chapter for us."
Cassie's post was much longer. She said neither of them were prepared to discuss the matter, but it's quite possible they were worried about the news leaking had they not released statements on their own. She acknowledged that their silence led some to believe the two had gone their separate ways. She said, With all that we have gone through, we have a special bond that will always be there. I love Colton very much and have an enormous amount of respect for him."She added, "We have both learned and grown so much these past couple years, and will always have each others back. Always."
Colton notably spent time with Cassie's family while he was recovering from coronavirus. It had been four weeks since either of them had shared a photo with one another on Instagram. The writing was on the wall. Now, our attention turns to who Cassie and Colton will date next. It should be interesting if one of them returns to the Bachelor Nation dating pool.
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