Octavia Spencer - Tumblr Posts
State Of Mind: "The 2012 Oscars"
So, the Oscars were yesterday, and, considering my blog is at least partially film-based, I feel I should chime in. The ceremony as a whole was kind of bland. Billy Crystal wasn't bad, but he wasn't great either. I think after least year's disaster of Anne Hathaway and James Franco, they just wanted a bit of stability back. In terms of the awards and winners, I have a few qualms.
The first one is for a somewhat minor category. Why didn't "Tree of Life" win Best Cinematography? The film was almost completely cinematography and beautiful images! I just didn't get it.
The second is that I think "Bridesmaids" should have won for Best Screenplay. "Midnight in Paris" is good and all, but it's basically Woody Allen being Woody Allen. "Bridesmaids", on the other hand, is truly original. It takes standard romantic comedy tropes and subverts and deconstructs them. Every usual comedic situation makes sense in context and has real world implications. The relationship between Annie and Lilian is the core of the film, and their interactions are based in how people actually talk. The characters are all well-rounded and well-written. How does the script that served as a milestone in the discussion of women in comedy not win?
My next two gripes might just be interlocked. The first is that I think Berenice Bejo should have won for Best Supporting Actress. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely loved Octavia Spencer in "The Help". She was funny, moving, and provocative. However, I felt as though I really connected with Berenice. I became emotionally invested in her relationship with Jean Dujardin's character. When she cried, I felt like crying, and, when she laughed, it made me happy. I wanted them together in the end, and I was actually worried that they might not make it. That's a level of involvement that I just didn't feel with Octavia's character, which I think has more to do with the writing than her portrayal.
My biggest complaint is that Viola Davis did not win Best Actress. Again, I absolutely adore Meryl Streep. She is brilliant in pretty much every role she's ever been given, and she deserves every nomination she gets. However, therein lies the problem. She gets tons of nominations because she gets tons of opportunities to show her stuff. Viola Davis is a slightly older black woman. How many good and powerful leading roles are written for women like her? This was the academy's opportunity to give it to someone new, someone who may not get a chance like this again for a long time. It was bad enough that, not so long ago, they passed over Gabourey Sidibe's incredible debut in "Precious", a movie centered almost entirely around black people, to give the Oscar to Sandra Bullock in "The Blind Side", the movie about a white family saving the black kid. Instead, they did exactly what they did this year: they nominated the two black female leads for the Supporting and Lead categories, gave it to the Supporting Actress, and then snubbed the Lead Actress. In fact, they would have made history by giving Viola the Oscar. She would have been only the second black woman ever, after Halle Berry, to win the Oscar for Best Leading Actress. Wasn't that reason enough to give her the Oscar? That's not even mentioning the performance itself. It did to me exactly what Berenice's performance did: it made me get invested in the fate of the character. She was flawless, and that final scene (which I won't spoil here) is one of the few movie moments to almost make me cry. Just to be clear, I've never cried at a movie before, so the movie and performances that bring me close to it ("Toy Story 3", "Up", Viola Davis in "The Help", Berenice Bejo in "The Artist") are very impressive to me.
I thought that this was definitely Viola's year. It was their chance to reward a brilliant actress for her amazing role in a very good movie. Instead, they chose the safe nominee. That's probably the best word that I can use to describe this year's Oscars: safe. From the host to the winners, everything was being played safe and simple. Some of the nominees were interesting (Jonah Hill, Melissa McCarthy, and "Bridesmaids"'s screenplay come to mind), but it just felt kind of dull overall. I am disappointed in you, Oscars. Viola will hopefully have her moment, it just wasn't last night.
She is an actress who has been in her prime since the very first moment she stepped in front of a camera. A pleasure to watch and will always give absolute effort to a role. From comedy to drama, her characters never fail to inhabit the story and keep one enthralled. Hats off to Alabama native, Octavia Spencer!
2011 Best Supporting Actress, Octavia Spencer for the film, "The Help."
Never forget these awesome moments of black girl magic from 2016 (x) | follow @the-movemnt
Never forget these awesome moments of black girl magic from 2016 (x) | follow @the-movemnt
Mason: "Passengers! As in the beginning, I belong to the front and you belong to the tail. Know your place! Keep your place!"
Curtis: "All past revolutions have failed because they didn't take the engine--now we'll take the engine."
Wilford: "The train is the world. We, the humanity. Curtis, I'm not a leader. This is your destiny..."
The Main Passengers of the Snowpiercer
Japanese Trailer for director Bong Joon-Ho's visionary film, "Snowpiercer".
Snowpiercer Smackdown : Tail Section vs. Front Section Side note: I just learned that the film distributor of "Snowpiercer" for the Philippines is NOT going to be The Weinstein Company, but rather Parkit Films--who will also be handling the release of director Bong Joon-Ho's visionary dystopian sci-fi epic in Malaysia. Which basically means I will definitely be seeing the ORIGINAL UNEDITED VERSION of "Snowpiercer" as opposed to the potential Harvey Scissorhands cut which will likely be serviced to the US, UK, and other English-speaking territories. Excuse me while I proceed to uncontrollably shake and cry with joy at this bit of good news.
Inside The Snowpiercer 03 : Greenhouse Section + Classroom Section Nearly midway through the train lies the verdant Greenhouse Section, which is officially considered as part of the Front Section. This area houses an impressive display full of plants, fruits, and vegetables. Yet the flora and edible food cultivated here is minimal and strictly controlled since the car was never designed to provide speedy production food supplies. Only the privileged few from the Front get to taste the produce cultivated in the Greenhouse. This car serves nothing more than an exhibition and leisure space, offering the Front Section passengers to enjoy a bit of greenery in contrast to the barren and icy world outside the confines of the Snowpiercer. As the train ride prolonged, the adults of the Front Section raised needs for proper education to their young children. But the curriculum, however, is drastically different from what was previously taught on a pre-ice age Earth, as the lessons learned by the children of the Front covers the history of the train and unquestioned veneration for Wilford--the creator of the Snowpiercer. The Classroom Section is more of a daycare school where the Front Section adults merely drop off their kids while they enjoy their leisures in peace. The design of the car itself--from the hyper-saturated color scheme, wooden desks, and an organ altar in the front reserved for the Teacher (Alison Pill)--highly suggests that the train's academic institution was built with a religious function from the very beginning. On the subject of children, there is a distinction between those who were born on Earth before the new ice age began and those who were born within the Snowpiercer once the nuclear winter destroyed the planet. The latter youths are known as "Train Babies"--generations conceived and birthed aboard the train and have never stepped foot on Earth. For the Train Babies, both from the Front and the Tail, the Snowpiercer is the only world they know. Having been born on the very first year that the train departed, Yona (Ko Ah-Sung)--the daughter of Namgoong Minsu--represents the first generation of the Train Babies. But considering the extreme class division within the confines of the train, the lives of the children from the Tail Section are vastly different from the kids living in the Front. Only the kids from the Front benefit from a pampered lifestyle and receive the cult-like education in the Classroom Section, while the Tail Section children are forced to deal with the hardships of their miserable existence together with their elders, and are subject to a mysterious event that allows the Front to seize selected youths away from their parents by force and be carted off to parts unknown within the Snowpiercer.
Inside The Snowpiercer 01 : Tail Section + Prison Section The Snowpiercer is composed of sixty (60) cars and its last twenty (20) make up the Tail Section. When the world froze, people with no tickets hopped onto these cargo sections. After the Front Section seized control of the food and other useful resources from these cars, people have reinvented the space into residential areas. These sections are overcrowded, are scarce of water, and lack proper heating. While the passengers of the Front enjoy comfortable and affluent lives, the people living in the Tail are trapped in such hellish conditions as access to the Front is denied to them by heavily armed soldiers. +++ The Plaza : Tail Section people are summoned here to receive their rations or sit through humiliating public announcements from the Front Section authorities such as Minister Mason (Tilda Swinton). This is also where the people line up to receive their daily ration of protein blocks from the soldiers. Public Area : Next to the residential area is a communal space for the Tail Section people. It houses bathrooms with very limited water access, a hospital where minimal treatment is available, and a corner known as Painter's Place where the Tail Section's artistic historian resides. Residential Area : This portion of the Tail Section was reconstructed by the passengers with leftover material from the then cargo areas that the Front Section didn't bother to take away. Between a long and narrow corridor stand multi-story beds housing thousands of people. The extremely limited space have forced at least two or three people to share a single bed, with others having to improvise a sleeping sanctuary with hammocks hung between the upper levels of the bedspaces. The Slum : This communal area of the Tail Section is where the passengers go about their everyday lives aboard the train--kids zigzag through narrow corridors, wise men play chess, devotees gather for prayers, and women trade goods with each other. Gilliam's Tent : On the very end of the Snowpiercer resides the guardian of the Tail Section, Gilliam (John Hurt). His tent sits on the complete opposite end of the train as opposed to the Engine Section, where Wilford (Ed Harris) lives. The tent is guarded by the twelve (12) great elders of the Tail Section. Prison Section : Originally, smaller cages housed pigs and chickens while the bigger cells carried horses and cows. The cells now carry political prisoners or criminals who have disturbed the peace of the train, such as Namgoong Minsu (Song Kang-Ho). When the Front seized control of the Tail Section, this area became the border between the Front and the Tail within the Snowpiercer. The armed guards who patrol the Tail Section are required to cleanse themselves in the Quarantine Section.
Inside The Snowpiercer 02 : Protein Block Section + Water Supply Section While the elites in the Front enjoy a luxurious array of food options, the only food rationed to the people in the Tail Section is a substance called a "protein block". It is a large, black, and translucent jelly bar which looks similar to a Japanese red bean dessert. The ingredients that make up a typical protein block remain ambiguous to the Tail Section people, but they are resigned to resort to eating these tasteless bars on a daily basis. Protein blocks are the sole source of nutrition and contain the bare minimum required for survival among the people of the Tail Section. The protein blocks themselves are produced in the area adjacent to the Greenhouse Section of the Snowpiercer. Previously, the machines in this car created fertilizer, but it has since been modified to manufacture the protein bars that are distributed to the Tail Section. Since all the foods are controlled by the Front, the jelly-like substance made in the machine housed in the Protein Block Section is the only lifeline for the Tail Section people. Also produced within the Protein Block Section is a substance called "kronole". These are small, greenish cubes which are highly flammable and give off a hallucinating effect when inhaled. Kronole is now considered as a popular new form of recreational drug, replacing the now-extinct cigarettes, that is abused by both the indulgent elites in the Front and the derelict addicts in the Tail. Close to the Greenhouse and Protein Block Sections of the train is the Water Supply facility. As the train perpetually circles the globe, it constantly encounters large barriers of ice and compacted snow which the train easily pierces through with sheer force (hence the name, Snowpiercer). The head of the train was designed to catch large chunks of ice and snow and goes through an intricate system and ends up in the Water Supply section. It is here that the melted ice and snow is cleansed, filtered, and sterilized before it is redistributed to the Front Section. But while the collected water is transported to the Tail Section as well, the water is barely usable as the amount the Tail dwellers receive is extremely scant and the pipelines running toward the back of the train are poorly managed.
"Passagers! Je ma place est l'avant. Vous avez la votre à l'arriere. Restez votre place!" // "Passengers! I belong to the front. You belong to the tail. Keep your place!" - Mason "Toutes les révolutions ont échoué car ils n'ont jamais atteint la Machine. D'ici à l'avant du train. D'une seule traite..." // "All the past revolutions have failed because they couldn't take the engine. From here right in front of the train. Everything in one stroke..." - Curtis "Le train est le monde. Nous sommes l'humanité. Je ne suis pas un meneur. Curtis, c'est ta destin..." // "The train is the world. We, the humanity. I'm not a leader. Curtis, this is your destiny..." - Wilford
SPOILER ALERT FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN "SNOWPIERCER" YET!!!
So basically Madison Montgomery's iconic quote happens to be so fucking applicable to the fucktastic finale to Bong Joon-Ho's "Snowpiercer" when that polar bear is all like "SURPRISE BITCH" all up in Yona's (Ko Ah-Sung) face who's all like "Whuuuuuuuuuuuuut?!" LOL.
And before you ask... YES. These GIFs I made are indeed taken from the third act of the film, so yeah. SURPRISE BITCH! ;)
The original unedited version of "Snowpiercer" finally premiered in the Philippines and I could not be any happier about this! Saw the film and it more than exceeded my already high expectations despite me already knowing the plot from my other friends around the world who saw it before me. That being said, I highly guarantee you should all watch this extraordinary film in its full and intact version.
In the meantime, please do take the time to read my spoiler-free review of "Snowpiercer" which you can read by clicking this link here:
Film Review : Snowpiercer (Or Should I Say, SLAYPIERCER!)
LOOKS LEGIT! <3
OH AND ALL OF YOU ON TUMBLR BETTER HARDCORE STAN FOR FUCKING SNOWPIERCER (HD LEAK IS NOW OUT) BECAUSE IT IS MAD AWESOME AND WILL SLAY YOUR FUCKING MINDS OFF, BITCH.
THAT IS ALL.
"This is so disappointing! Passengers, this is not a shoe. This is disorder. This is size ten chaos! This, see this? This is death. In this locomotive we call home, there is one thing that goes between our warm hearts and the bitter cold. Clothing? Shields? No! Order. Order is the barrier that holds back the frozen death. We must all of us, on this train of life, remain in our allotted station. We must each of us occupy our preordained particular position. Would you wear a shoe on your head? Of course you wouldn't wear a shoe on your head! A shoe doesn't belong on your head, a shoe belongs on your foot! A hat belongs on your head. I am a hat, you are a shoe! I belong on the head, you belong on the foot, yes?! So it is! In the beginning, order was prescribed by your ticket: First Class, Economy, and Freeloaders like you. Eternal order is prescribed by the Sacred Engine. All things flow from the Sacred Engine: all things in their place, all passengers in their Section, all water flowing, all heat rising—pays homage to the Sacred Engine in its own particular preordained position. So it is! Now, as in the beginning, I belong to the FRONT. You belong to the TAIL. When the foot seeks the place of the head, a sacred line is crossed. Know your place! Keep your place! Be a shoe!" - Minister Mason's separatist speech to the Tail Section passengers, "Snowpiercer" +++ A tour through the compartments of the Snowpiercer's Front Section (gifs by moi) Greenhouse + Garden || Aquarium + Sushi Bar || Zoo + Abattoir || Classroom || Luxury Guestrooms (Library, Dental Office, Custom Clothing Room, among others) || Lounge + Beauty Salon || Swimming Pool + Sauna || Nightclub + Kronol Den
"The train is the world... We, the humanity."
- Wilford
+++
The ultimate fate of the Snowpiercer: derailment via massive avalanche.
The Main Passengers of the Snowpiercer 02
+++
Octavia Spencer as Tanya
Ewen Bremner as Andrew
Ko Ah-Sung as Yona
Alison Pill as the Teacher
Oh, so we're just conveniently forgetting Ewen Bremner in this gifset whose right arm just HAPPENED to be frozen into a block of ice and then shattered by a sledgehammer?
