Update 30/03/2023
Good afternoon!
I've been buzzing away in the background this week sending off some subs to publications and magazines - if you have any recommendations for favourite publications that are currently looking for submissions, I would love to hear anyone's favourites!
We're getting closer and closer to EasterCon, which I'm super excited about, and if anyone is gonna be at EasterCon and would like me to sign their copies of Heart of Stone or anything like that, definitely feel free to tap me on the shoulder and I can do that for you! Otherwise just absolutely come chat with me, I'm hype to go around and explore.
BristolCon, which is a Bristol-based one-day convention that runs every October, are back to doing Fringe events every month and we went to an excellent horror and sci-fi reading in the week, and if you're Bristol-based or regularly come through Bristol, I definitely recommend giving those events a try!
For film recs this week, I have a big mix:
The Favourite (2019, dir. Yorgos Lanthimos) - This was obviously a favourite sweep when it was released back in 2019 but I simply hadn't gotten around to watching it yet, and it's a favourite of my partner Lewis' - and rightly so! It's class! This whole piece is full of sharp, biting dialogue and so much acerbic wit and political back-and-forthing - there's something about the way that Queen Anne is depicted, grotesque and pathetic and cruel and ultimately just fucking sad and sick, that was so relatable to me whenever she was just at her most pathetic. There's several scenes where she's just lying on the floor sobbing because everything hurts and the state of her body, chronic illness wise, is utterly miserable, and I was just like, wow lmao BIG mood. I can't think of many films that really treat this kind of chronic illness as part of a person's personality, including the lashing out at people out of frustration, but still treats that character with significant compassion and empathy for her position? And I quite liked that aspect of it. Every character in this is fun and sharp, it's very much not just Anne, she was just my favourite. Another film I recced a little while ago, but enjoyed for similar reasons, was Young Adult (2011, dir. Jason Reitman).
The Kindergarten Teacher (2018, dir. Sara Colangelo) - This movie had me feeling so sick literally lke ten minutes into the movie and I was like, "wow, great sign," and it just got worse. I really liked it. Maggie Gyllenhaal is just a performer and a producer where as soon as she's attached to a project, I'm on board - she's got this razor-sharp understanding of trauma and the painful subtleties of abuse and mental illness that really shine through in this piece. It's fucking guttural and so carefully and subtly played out - the over intimacy the teacher has with her kids, rubbing their backs for too long, one particularly unpleasant moment where she's petting through the hair of one of her Black students, the constant denial and self-deception, and especially the pain and isolation of the child... It's just fucking good.
The Zookeeper's Wife (2017, dir. Niki Caro) - This one makes a few odd choices and it's by no means gonna be like, one of my favourite movies or even one I rewatch, probably, but I just felt that it really achieved what it set out to do, worked well as a dramatised biopic, and was well-paced, well-acted, well-balanced, straight-up well-made. It's sad and it's visceral and it just really punches through a lot of its emotional targets well.
Rent-A-Pal (2020, dir. Jon Stevenson) - Salem Void pointed out in his review of this movie that it really does what Joker (2019) set out to do in regards to really honestly depicting what this sort of isolation and loneliness does to someone, and I really agree with his take - I don't want to just compare the two side by side, because I honestly think Joker is garbage whereas this movie is genuinely really fucking good, but that comparison really stood out to me. Rent-A-Pal is so well-paced, so well-acted, and it really doesn't pull its punches when portraying something which is not a hugely uncommon experience - an abuse victim whose greatest abuser was his mother, feeling trapped as her caregiver once she becomes sick in later life. The elder abuse, the loneliness, the emotional stuntedness, the desperation for companionship and connection, the difficulty to be kind and compassionate in the face of not just hardship but repeated acts of cruelty, the psychological toll... All of it is so fucking well-done and well-paced, and I really enjoyed this movie's plot progression and its sense of balance and focus with it.
Some other movies I don't have as much to say about but were alright to watch this week were Girl With A Pearl Earring (2003, dir. Peter Webber), where the emotional performances fell somewhat flat for me (I care little for Scarlett Johansson, and this is far from Colin Firth's best performance), but it's worth watching purely for many of the shot compositions, the use of light, and especially the costume work; A Monster Calls (2016, dir. J.A. Bayona) where again, the plot is a little overdone, but stunning visuals in the animation work make up for it; and The Grifters (1990, dir. Stephen Frears), which I thought was a so-so movie and feels a bit unfinished (esp compared to Frears' usual work), but it's nonetheless compelling and has some aspects to it re: the cons and the dynamic between mother & son and also son & mother-look-a-like girlfriend that I've continued turning over and over again in my head.
New Works Published
Just two weird fantastical porn fics this week. I've got elf holes on the brain - next week will be a bit of a change, I promise!
Erotic Short: Milking Cow
An elf is processed at a breeding & milking facility.
1.8k. Trans M/cis M, an elf being processed at a facility where he’s going to be impregnated & used for milk. Manhandling, size difference, bondage, breeding stands, impregnation, aphrodisiacs, nipple play, anal, humiliation, penis gags, objectification, obviously the inherent sex work, mentions of belly bulging, belly riding, and come inflation.
Read on Patreon / / Read On Medium
Erotic Short: Slime Breeder
An elf is used as a distraction as his party fight a gigantic slime.
3.5k. Rated E. A trans masc elf getting fucked from all ends by a giant slime creature, used as a seedbed by it, then played with by his variously gendered friends in the aftermath.
Mildly to very dubious consent here, but Sam is absolutely enjoying himself by the end of it - featuring a giant slime monster, aphrodisiacs, tentacle sex, encasement, choking, oviposition and egg-laying, cumflation, overstimulation, anal, oral, and vaginal penetration, objectification, lactation, milking. All that fun and beastly stuff!