angelophile: (The Thinker)
Angelophile ([personal profile] angelophile) wrote2010-08-13 03:24 pm
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry
  • Current Mood: bored
Entry tags:

Baaaa. Meme time.

Stolen, in my case, from [livejournal.com profile] wal_lace

Ask me my Top Five Whatevers. Fannish or otherwise. Any top fives. Doesn't matter what, really. And I will answer them all in a comment.

Go to!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[identity profile] wal-lace.livejournal.com 2010-08-13 03:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Top five plot twists that you genuinely did not see coming.

[identity profile] angelophile.livejournal.com 2010-08-13 04:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Er... That's a tough one.

Lets see. I'll list the source, but not the twists, to avoid spoilers. In no particular order.

1. The reveal towards the end of Barton Fink.
2. The ending of The Usual Suspects.
3. The ending of Fight Club.
4. The ending of The Landlady, by Roald Dahl.
5. The reveal at the end of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Psycho discounted because I knew the ending because I saw the movie, but still a fantastic twist.

There's others, no doubt, but those are the ones that spring immediately to mind.

[identity profile] angelophile.livejournal.com 2010-08-13 04:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Like, damn, the ending to Life on Mars. That has to be up there.

[identity profile] scottyquick.livejournal.com 2010-08-13 10:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Queer characters!

Love stories!

Canadian film stars!

[identity profile] angelophile.livejournal.com 2010-08-16 09:53 am (UTC)(link)
I'm gonna tackle one of these at a time then...

First up, Canadian film stars. In no particular order.

1. Michael J. Fox
2. Ellen Page
3. Leslie Nielsen
4. William Shatner
5. Eugene Levy

I assumed you meant "still living", so I discounted the wonderful John Candy, alas.

[identity profile] angelophile.livejournal.com 2010-08-16 10:47 am (UTC)(link)
And onto queer characters. (I'm going to assume by queer you mean the entirety of LGBTQ characters and not just characters that identify specifically as queer.)

I tend to gravitate towards characters that are characters first and LGBTQ second, rather than LGBTQ first and characters second. What I mean is there's a lot of characters where the sexuality is the starting concept for the character (for example "lesbian Batwoman" coming first and the character being built around that.) So, instead of "queer character" I tend to prefer "character who happens to be queer".

I hope that makes sense and doesn't sound dismissive of sexuality as an inherent character trait.

No order again.

1. Leonard Pine, from Joe R. Lansdale's Hap and Leonard series of gonzo crime novels. An unapologetic, masculine, gay POC vietnam vet.
2. Dr. Kerry Weaver from E.R. As is always the way with E.R., I loved character that started out quite straightforward and developed layers over the years. Kerry's mobility impairment and discovery and then confidence in her status as a gay woman were aspects of an already layered character.
3. Mystique in the X-men books. I love villains with many shades of grey and Mystique's wonderfully ambiguous.
4. Hector in The History Boys. A tour de force by Richard Griffiths, who portrays the eccentric teacher as a brilliantly complex character, weak and repressed and charismatic and wonderful.
5. Gay Perry in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. The hard boiled private investigator who has a skill for brilliant, sarcastic put downs and kicking arse. Val Kilmer's greatest role by far. "Okay, you've got 30 of my fucking seconds. Thrill me."

Karolina Dean, Tara Maclay and Wiccan all just nudged out of making the list.
Edited 2010-08-16 14:06 (UTC)

[identity profile] angelophile.livejournal.com 2010-08-16 03:25 pm (UTC)(link)
And love stories. This is a really tricky one. I don't really do romance particularly and love stories are more incidental to the stories I like than an integral part on the whole. So what to include. Hmmm!

Here goes:

1. The Princess Bride. Okay, this is cheating, because it's as much a joke about love stories as it is a love story. But nonetheless, since I'm struggling, I'm going to count it.
2. A Matter of Life and Death - David Niven is the WWII pilot seemingly killed when his Lancaster is shot down. However, a mix up in the afterlife means that he lives on and only the true love of Kim Hunter is able to save him when the afterlife tries to claim him.
3. June Carter and Johnny Cash - You didn't say they had to be fictional love stories.
4. Juno. Okay, not purely a love story, but at its heard there's a few love stories - the love of mother for child and the love story between Juno and Paulie Bleeker. Offbeat romance, maybe, but I'm still counting it.
5. Lost in Translation. Very much a story about love and making a connection, although whether it's a story about sexual or physical love over spiritual love is up to interpretation.

Moulin Rouge just misses out for playing the overblown, tragic love, everyone dies schtick of Romeo and Juliet just a little too hard, even though Ewan McGregor is as adorable as a puppy in a pile of kittens.
Flat | Top-Level Comments Only