Stuff I Watched on the Plane

[kdsburneraccount]

Went on a trip for the past ten days to China, read and watched some stuff while I was on the plane rides arriving/departing.

Inception - to be honest my brother watched this movie, I just looked at his screen and provided running commentary based on whatever was going on. Also I didn't finish watching the movie. Cillian Murphy is pretty and plays the part of a seemingly unaffected rich brat with daddy issues well. Fork found in kitchen or whatever. The lore for Leonardo di Caprio's character was really unhinged and I just felt really bad. I also kinda suspected he was gonna have some kind of relationship with Page's character but then remembered Leo's character is not him irl so would probably not be dating women below 25. I thought Tom Hardy's character was funny. Kinda fruity? Evidently the fandom thought so.

This resulted in me looking up the Inception fandom and going "why does this have so many fics" and then realizing I have heard of the Arthur/Eames ship from that fandom. I must've missed something because I don't remember Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character interacting with Tom Hardy's character in a gay way (I definitely missed something because I watched like the middle of the movie). Like even then I don't think they interacted that much and they still got over 5,000 fics??? The White Cock goes crazy omg (I swear the link is nothing inappropriate it just explains the fandom phenomenon).

I also watched like part of Across the Spider-Verse and Crazy Rich Asians in a similar matter (looking at what my brother was watching). I think my brother forgot that Spider-Verse is supposed to have a sequel so he watched the chase scene then went "why are there only 30 minutes how will they wrap it up" and I had to explain that. Uh my impressions of the movie:

• it's visually stunning
• Jessica Drew is mother actually (but why did she support Miguel like that... stand up that is not the father of your child. I hope she sides with Gwen later 🫡)
• Why was Miguel such an opp to a teenager... he kind of annoyed me but my brother was on his side for whatever reason (ends justify the means I guess but consider not trying to kill a teenager man)
• On that note I didn't really see much between him and the dad Spider-Man that would suggest a ship but I guess any two guys in a fandom will do that. So whatever I guess.
• Why was MJ kinda... anyways. Good for Peter I guess.
• Oh yeah my brother didn't really like Hobie he thought Hobie was kind of a stereotype/reminded him of Boyinaband or something. I thought Hobie was funny but he seemed like he was in his 20s so a little older than what he actually is.
• I can see the trans allegory with Gwen like damn issues with dad? Yeah that tracks.

Crazy Rich Asians we actually watched part of back in like... 2019 when we were on a plane to Las Vegas. So this was us getting to the ending.

• Rachel had fucking opps omg 😭 like I know Asian people are judgy (I would know I am one) but man when ur a professor at Harvard and that isn't impressive enough for your boyfriend's mega-rich parents... damn.
• The intergenerational oppery is kind of insane but also very believable in Asian families like wdym the grandma's gonna blame the mom for Nick chasing after Rachel when the grandma pretty much raised Nick. Also the mom was kinda insane for meeting Rachel and telling her the backstory about not being seen as enough by the grandma and then saying Rachel would never be enough. Like you really became what you suffered through. I sort of respect that level of oppery.
• Rachel's mom is a G and the mahjong scene kind of gagged me (idk what actually happened, I think Nick's mom won but Rachel was like "I let you win" and the framing was gag-worthy). The frame where Rachel's mom and Nick's mom exchanged a look... I would like to see them interact but also Rachel's mom doesn't deserve that.
• Nick is insanely optimistic (in both a good and bad way, but he was a gentleman so I liked him). I tbh thought that Rachel was gonna say no to the airplane proposal but then I realized Nick had his mom's ring or something so she was fine with it, thus not defying romcom conventions! That scene was cute but also a little corny (like bro there are people boarding the plane!! The irony is not lost on me that I was watching the movie while in an airplane).
• I then realized that Nick did not prepare Rachel for his family bc he was like "oh she's a New Yorker she's used to this" like idk man I don't think she was prepared for a literal dead fish in her bed??? Da cattiness of rich Asians is wild. But besides that he pretty much was the ideal boyfriend.
• Thought that Awkwafina's relative (apparently her brother) was gonna do something weird with the pictures he was taking but ig not.
• Cringed at the scenes of the bachelor party like yeah guys are like that but also ew.
• My brother said this was The Great Gatsby but Asian and like I kinda see it (the opulence). Also said he could not relate to the rich people problems, which. Real.
• Astrid was a real one tbh she deserves better.
• Watched to the credits and was like "where's Harry Shum Jr I didn't see him even tho he was credited" so my brother had to rewind to that one scene in the credits where he appears and looks at Astrid which I guess is enough to get that big casting credit.

Past Lives - this was a good movie, my mom was watching it next to me with Chinese subtitles which may or may not have altered my enjoyment of it because she thinks sort of old-fashioned and could've been unsatisfied by the ending (also the point of view is very much from the point of view of an immigrant, and definitely reflects a certain perspective that I'm not sure she would've related to). But me personally I liked it! Definitely some deconstruction of romance genre conventions, and I think the exploration of identity as an immigrant was done well. I enjoyed the more philosophical moments. It's a slow movie but with the slowness there is contemplation I think.

Clueless - silly! Watched this bc I know the ending but there were some parts I didn't watch earlier. I feel like the realization that Cher liked her ex-stepbrother came about kind of quickly and there weren't a lot of hints in the beginning but whatever. It's a goofy movie and there are still a lot of funny lines. The stoner dude looks like Trevor Lawrence actually. The scene where Cher gets mugged was deeply unserious because the guy doing the mugging was a complete noob at it but like it does set up stuff idk. Skipped over that scene where the one dude is trying to make a move on Cher. Also I asked my brother if Christian was straight based on how he entered with the movie and he said it was hard to tell. So I guess my brother's gaydar isn't completely broken (for the record, Christian kinda has gay face is that mean to say. Like his face sorta reminded me of Lando Norris? Anyways). But yeah I thought this was an enjoyable watch. Lighthearted and stuff. The dad kinda looks like someone else but he seemed to be a mostly okay dad. Cher's driving is bad to the point I cringed watching her in that driving test. I think that was the point.

From Hollywood with Love - listening to the audiobook since I watched an Answer in Progress video and they interviewed the author about rom-coms. It's pretty interesting, even if I haven't heard of some of the movies. Learning of Brett Favre being the third choice of star QB for There's Something About Mary was funny (Drew Bledsoe and Steve Young being the top choices... Steve Young was a #serious Mormon I fear). And I guess Richard Curtis was responsible for like a bunch of well known rom-coms bc I heard his name a lot.

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments - anthology of essays by David Foster Wallace that I read bc there was stuff about tennis in it and I was intrigued to read about it. The other essays aren't bad either, learned a lot about David Lynch in one essay and about Midwest fairs. Don't necessarily agree with all of his points but I think the arguments are compelling enough. I appreciate the dedication to sincerity, I think. Postmodernism writing does seem rather cynical in general. The tennis essay I may discuss more later in another post, it brought up interesting points about the nature of being an athlete and I can see why people would be drawn to tennis (not that I'm not, but more in a philosophical way I guess). He also was kind of dissing some players (why did he have to do my little guy Michael Chang like that 😔) but I can kinda sorta respect the hater-ism directed toward Agassi... dunno if I'd use a certain homophobic slur to describe him but I too am not the biggest fan of Agassi. Like he did kinda slay and the tennis itself is fine but the vibe was kinda not it at times. Didn't really like the way he treated his ex-wife. Just my opinion, and at least he seemed self-aware from what I've heard in his autobiography. 

But yeah these are some things I looked at while I was on the trip, wasn't sure where to put these thoughts so here they go.

Comments

[littlerhymes]

You missed literally nothing in Inception, they exchange 1 flirty line and then have little to no further interaction and yet! Same thing as Clint/Coulson in MCU tbh.

I love your username lol

[kdsburneraccount]

Thank you!! When I was making an AO3 account I wanted the username to be funny and the Kevin Durant burner account incident was on my mind so 😭 here we are!