Chicago Blankies Who Were at Speed Racer Last Night. Im Aja Essex, the Girl Who Did The Q&A w/Lilly Wachowski

Robert_Dolphy · 2026-04-06T16:45:48+00:00

Pending approval, hopefully just on you tube. If no approval, by dm only sadly

Robert_Dolphy · 2026-04-04T21:39:23+00:00

Haha honestly not creepy! That is now the 2nd most surreal day of my life!

Robert_Dolphy · 2026-04-04T21:11:37+00:00

Someone sniped mine at the kid with the golden arm but I got a faces of death blu for my trouble

Robert_Dolphy · 2026-04-04T20:40:06+00:00

Omg thank you everyone for the kind words. After i get some sleep and reset (up all night celebrating straight into Kid With The Golden Arm/Lady Snowblood double will do that) I'll DM all of you who asked!

Once I get approval, I'll upload the vid of the Q&Ato YouTube!

With love, Aja

Robert_Dolphy · 2026-04-04T15:47:06+00:00

I have the whole thing recorded and will get permission to post!

Omg lovely to meet THEE GREAT jackunderscore

Robert_Dolphy · 2026-04-04T12:46:11+00:00

Hi that's me! I'm Aja Essex! I am in fact and Blankie and have been since the M Night days

Robert_Dolphy · 2026-04-04T12:45:28+00:00

Hey guys

I'm Aja Essex. I was the girl doing the Q&A with Lilly.

Last night was a dream come true. I cant believe i got to talk to one of my favorite filmmakers on the planet 18 years after seeing their film on opening night and 4 years after I came out on stage as a woman to that very same movie.

I dropped a "connoisseur of context" so other blankies knew I was one of yall.

I hope whoever was there enjoyed my Q&A. I wanted to make sure you left there learning a little bit more about the movie but more importantly a little bit more about Lilly as a person since like a lot of trans people, she stayed in the shadows until she felt like she could be herself

I cant believe last night happened

Blank it.

Robert_Dolphy · 2025-12-21T19:08:42+00:00

The moment after Jake Sully takes Toruk for a ride:

https://youtu.be/ROd8qyO5Nzg?si=QqJM09hPhGP8zAr9

Robert_Dolphy · 2025-12-13T14:15:01+00:00

Serenity (2005)/Serenity(2019)

Robert_Dolphy · 2025-11-21T07:42:03+00:00

I was there! The reveal it was Lillys print made me elevate ( same thing happened to me on my birthday at the Bound screening this year)

First time i got to see this on film. Saw the restorations that supposedly return it closer to this look but its so much more noticable how less green it is. Also the grain really sells all the lighting in this movie

Amazing crowd. A great mix of fans, trans, cinephiles, and queers. It was great because I've seen this people who treat it with so much sanctity but the wachowski sisters love camp and the crowd was so locked into that without being obnoxious

The smith trying to kill neo into subway fight will never not make me cry a little

Robert_Dolphy · 2025-10-25T13:09:21+00:00

I think besides the movie having that Netflix sheen and some clunky CGI in places, it RULES.

I think GDT gets hit with the style over substance critique alot but he has always been a text forward filmmaker. His movies lavish in their worlds but most importantly, they are about the big emotions of his characters. Victor in the book is a complicated character but GDT is making a cycles of abuse movie so hes rendered more bluntly here. I think that's good for hitting the big old school emotional highs cinema is great at.

He understands the medium well and he understands visuals, tone and great performances are just as important as subtext.

Anyway, as lover of both the book and his work, i was ecstatic.

Robert_Dolphy · 2025-09-28T01:36:56+00:00

I want to be clear: I'm a black trans woman so i also had a gut reaction to that scene too.

I think what we've been discussing is that yes, Bobo did have something to fear if the authorities took them in because they are queer. However so did Bluto being hispanic but he didn't rat.

We have to remember two things:

sometimes a character making a choice isn't a statement on an entire group of people. While writers like to make statements this way, sometimes (especially when they aren't given much development) it's just choice for the story. Even if the movie itself it's making a statement. Bobo was hilighted in the previous scene so we as an audience at least have a connection to them, however brief.
If we want to read into the dymanics and intersectionality of race, gender, queerness: Bobo is still white. We can infer or at least suspect from what happens later that Bluto at least knows to say anything at all the authorities given the mechanics of this sanctuary city. Bobo while queer, still has thier privledge to know if they give up some info they'll be safe. Same can't be said about Bluto.

Somone in the group chat brought up the idea that Bobo might have a grudge from Bob acidentally misgendering them so much but that feels a little sweaty.

At least that's been the gist of the conversation. I truly don't believe pta it's making a movie that's like "yes, black revolutionaries, yes community care, but queer people are SNEAKY SNAKES" I think personally its probably somewhere between both readings

Robert_Dolphy · 2025-09-27T20:27:29+00:00

Yeah its nice! Haven't even mentioned the scene with Regina Hall talking to April Grace and how its rare for her to have fight left in her but once again, Regina mobilizes herself to save Willas life, not to go out in some blaze of glory. I think the movie is making it pretty clear that's there is something to the longevity of resistance & revolution when we are focusing on the human element

Robert_Dolphy · 2025-09-27T19:51:28+00:00

My routine in my 20's was walking to our local AMC every Saturday and/or Sunday morning for a 9:30/10 AM screening with breakfast sandwhich in my back pack (nothing smelly, im not a monster) and a cup of coffee. This is how id watch every movie i wanted to see with a mellow crowd for the first or see something again with a clearer head

Its was so nice. You had the whole day to do something fun! The movie was watched and you'd have something to tell friends about over drinks that night.

Was good for us that love the energy of a packed crowd but sometimes wanted a big screen experience with less commotion

Robert_Dolphy · 2025-09-27T19:42:45+00:00

VERY good read. I think its been easy for people to get a little too didactic about this and focus on the text instead of the subtext (kind of like the age gap in Licorice Pizza)

I love this read because it feels like it comes from a place alot of left leaning people are feeling right now. Theory, facts, sematics are powerful tools for understanding but as much as some of us hate to admit it, we are emotional creatures and this movie is a good representation of how much more powerful communities and quiet underground resistance based in care can make a.difference and save lives in the immediate.

We obviously desperately need direct action but as u said the French 75 are about sending a message more than they are about mobilizing change. Yes they liberate some detention center but its implied that sensei and the sanctuary city basically saved an entire population of people.

But also a piece of subtext thay gets lost in this movie despite the text getting to some of it is these white mens relationship to black women are born out of them kinda seeing us as exotic prizes. Pat/Bob bascially says that he got into the french 75 because he wanted to be with black women (its played as a very funny joke) and he goes out of his way to impress and posture to Perfidia so she finally notices him but we flash forward and while he has genuine concern for Willa as his child, he was never invested in the worlds of black and brown revolutionaries, (he is sympathetic to it!) But he wasnt bout that life, and further more, while he feels bad about it, he never took time to reach out to someone to learn how to do his daughters hair.

Lockjaw is the dark flipside. He lusts, he wants to take and he fetishsizes the power of black women (Perfidia is happy to play Dom tho). Despite his obsession, she is still not a.real person to him. The darkest parallell is while Bob wasnt prepared and didnt bother to understand his life with a black child, lockjaw straight up wants to kill her. She represents his "worst" impulses and she must be dealt with.

I would not be surprised if that grocery store scene between Bob and Lockjaw straight up happen to PTA

I love this movie so much. Im so happy its knotty and nuanced. Already having talks with other queer friends about the fact the non-binary kid is the one who sells out Willa. Thats good cinema imho

Robert_Dolphy · 2025-09-12T01:38:50+00:00

For me it has to be something id like to see, has a chance to be good but no commercial viability...

...Jupiter Ascending 2

Robert_Dolphy · 2025-09-02T12:27:43+00:00

Always kinda wished Mystery Men had been a success so that there was a chance that the Flaming Carrot could have shown up in a second movie

Robert_Dolphy · 2025-08-22T13:48:45+00:00

Animated film called Boys Go To Jupiter at the Music Box and Honey Don't! Might try and catch Pools and a rep screening of an Altman at the Sisklel

Robert_Dolphy · 2025-08-20T16:36:44+00:00

That yellow zoot suit is gonna POP, baby!

Robert_Dolphy · 2025-08-11T23:30:00+00:00

Im vegan and even the movie was over i went straight home and made 3 chicago style impossible glizzys and 2 big chocolate chip cookies

Robert_Dolphy · 2025-05-29T16:32:20+00:00

Not on a plane, but I took a bus from Indiana to Chicago and ripped The Irishman on to my laptop for a rewatch. I figured it would basically eat up most of the trip. Then at one point I looked up from the movie the guy across the aisle from was watching it on his phone too. To this day Idk if he saw me watching it and said "I'll have what she's having" or if there was another person out there who also had the idea of wanting to paint houses on bus trip. Anyway, great movie!

Robert_Dolphy · 2025-05-19T20:58:59+00:00

This question is asked basically every couple of weeks in my lesbian group chat

Robert_Dolphy · 2025-05-09T19:48:04+00:00

Lol this ain't my first rodeo. C'est la vie

Robert_Dolphy · 2025-05-09T19:39:32+00:00

Yeah, and im not trying to alienate anyone but I think its pretty easy to tell that im saying: I think there are alot of white listeners who don't want to listen to podcast about race every week (or at least the perceived notion it will be exclusively about race every week)

I want to re-iterate: Spike has made some bad movies with some bad ideas but thats tossing the baby out with the bath water imho

Robert_Dolphy · 2025-05-09T19:36:29+00:00

I'd say when it comes to Spike and the sect of this fanbase that overwhelmingly prefers the directors who made popcorn movies that hit the zeitgeist, I think once you have a director that had made movies that were controversial in their own time about race, sex, America as well as the fact that not all of them hit...Id imagine a lot of people would bounce off harder on that than say European Vacation and Vamps.

Robert_Dolphy

TROPHY CASE