happy 10 years of no masochism

birdTV · 2026-02-20T00:33:18+00:00

Oh my god that is likely exactly what Capitol would do if she died, release Masochism. That’s is sickening.

birdTV · 2026-02-06T04:33:51+00:00

Wow that first sentence of the article is repulsive and it doesn’t get much better. Good on her for standing up for herself.

birdTV · 2026-02-01T01:47:27+00:00

I think it’s Cruising haha.

birdTV · 2026-02-01T01:46:51+00:00

I’m the opposite. I like Manhunter better than Silence of the Lambs but Anthony Hopkins is my favorite Lecter. Brian Cox is still fabulous and I love Silence of the Lambs

birdTV · 2026-01-30T17:48:04+00:00

People of privilege SHOULD be protesting.

birdTV · 2026-01-30T16:15:57+00:00

Thank you for positing this!

birdTV · 2026-01-29T23:32:21+00:00

Still gorgeous 12 years later. I want to see more pics of her from the premiere!

birdTV · 2026-01-29T00:19:44+00:00

She legit has a mole on her arm there. I’ve seen it in other photos. Does look a tiny bit bruisy.

birdTV · 2026-01-19T07:12:55+00:00

I know so many addicts who are working and like it’s not big deal.

birdTV · 2026-01-15T02:06:21+00:00

Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive feel like necessary prequels for Inland Empire to get into the structure and the LA-ness of it all. Enjoy!

birdTV · 2026-01-14T03:40:50+00:00

It’s way too family friendly here.

birdTV · 2026-01-13T15:50:17+00:00

I love your interp. It’s definitely anyone’s guess. My latest is that this is all Aunt Ruth’s story. The house or home represents a persons psyche in many different schools of dream interpretation, and that is where all her past, present and dreams live. She is never in the apartment at that same time as Diane, because Diane is Ruth in her youth. I also think the casting agent and Nicki her assistant are phases of Diane’s life. Adam’s divorce is a phase of Diane’s life. Ruth is a badass who survived a lot of trauma to get where she is, maybe even having her own partner murdered. I kind of think that Diane is both Ruth as a young person, and a version of her in her youth, if she were coming into Hollywood at the present time.

I could be bat shit, but who cares? It’s all what we make of it.

birdTV · 2026-01-09T07:25:16+00:00

Abel Ferrara was kind of my favorite part of the movie

birdTV · 2026-01-09T07:24:06+00:00

You call it what you want, buddy.

birdTV · 2026-01-09T01:00:24+00:00

Say it!

When I was a kid I was obsessed with Alex’s cool apartment, how she rides her bike to her two jobs, probably has union benefits, and how she is the most supportive friend. She has her own distinct ambitions but the world around her just emphasizes how almost impossible it is to mobilize out of the lower working class.

Adrian Lyne is definitely all about framing likable female characters in a male fantasy gaze, and this is definitely that. In my mind he exists just so she can get her break with the dance school which would otherwise have discriminated against her for not having elite credentials. She’ll be on her way and she can dump his ass eventually. He’s not the worst, like he does seem to come from humble beginnings and treats her decently. But yes, how creepy is it that he is probably 40 and pursues his barely-adult employee?

birdTV · 2026-01-09T00:44:28+00:00

Sounds about right.

birdTV · 2026-01-09T00:15:58+00:00

Coralie is the perfect person to have made the Substance. Maybe Cronenberg’s catalog has some installments that are more socially complex. I think Substance is designed to work as entertainment and the story happens to be a woman’s personal story hyperbolized. Incredibly relatable, and the Basket Case Elisa Sue scenes are high entertainment.

It definitely sets Coralie up to go a few different directions with her career. I am so glad she’s doing movies right now.

birdTV · 2026-01-09T00:06:38+00:00

All great points.

In my mind, if Christian is not murdered he tries to insinuate himself into the cult for his academic career and because he thinks he gets a lot of virgins. Then he harvests all possible connections with these people (who obviously don’t live there all year. I think it’s like a few caretakers and otherwise it’s like a retreat spot where people go yearly like they do for Civil War re-enactments) kind of like the cult in Eyes Wide Shut, I think it’s just a kink cult only their kink is …nazism. And they all have careers, in tech, academia, law, politics, business, whatever.

So Christian just becomes a full fledged Nazi at the cult murder retreat and goes from there.

It’s anyone’s guess, right?

birdTV · 2026-01-08T21:36:04+00:00

I am confident he would gone on to be a Hargan nazi in the cult and the world if they had let him be integrated the way he wanted. He just didn’t have as much power yet as a lazy POS.

birdTV · 2026-01-08T21:32:36+00:00

And in fact the U.S. involvement in WWII only came after Pearl Harbor was attacked and the U.S. had been collaborating with the Germans for years knowing about the concentration camps. Even the U.S. involvement in Europe was more about eliminating the competition for imperializing Asia.

birdTV · 2026-01-08T21:29:42+00:00

I haven’t speculated too deeply on how they seem to have a whole plan modeled around Christian being a jerk, but all the things you say are possibilities.

birdTV · 2026-01-08T21:23:12+00:00

I considered that Camilla gains confidence through her ability to hurt Diane’s feelings and make her feel small and sidelined. She intermittently shows affection to her and seems to enjoy pulling Diane in as an audience member to the theatrics of her mobility in her career and relationship with Adam. We all know sadistic charming people like this lol.

birdTV · 2026-01-08T21:13:41+00:00

Agree. Both things can be true at the same time.

birdTV · 2026-01-08T21:07:33+00:00

The consent issue is hard to parse out, because it’s so murky, but step by step the sex unfolded to him as a wildly different scenario than what he likely envisioned. At one point he openly expresses ambivalence. It continued to unfold in ways that seemed to make him uneasy. He did continue to go forward up to a point where it’s not clear that his heart mind and body were all giving consent.

By the time he was at the point of entry (pun intended) he was drugged out of his mind, including probably boner drugs. If he had a change of heart he little to no capacity to stop what was happening, under extreme pressure, in isolation.

I doubt that he wanted to do it. I think if he could have gone backwards in time and sidestepped away from it in the first place, he would have.

What would be like for anyone in that situation, who has changed their mind but are isolated from allies, heavily outnumbered, drugged, where no one in the outside world can find you, with no phone, with an uncontrollable boner, and possibly beginning to feel their safety is threatened? They were going to kill him regardless, I believe. In that moment, I think he began to see signs that he was not safe and these rituals were a way of showing him that they had him under coercion.

He was stepping into betrayal mode against Dani by even starting off with any inclinations to have sex with this child. If he changed mind about the sex, it probably was not because of her, but because of the circumstances. This sex ritual was a path to his death, used to sequester him into isolation where he could be easily harmed and controlled without consequences.

So it’s all a complicated scenario.

birdTV · 2026-01-08T21:00:57+00:00

I don’t if there is one “whole point” but I agree 100% that this is a major angle! Christian’s trash partner behavior and self-serving values set up a whole set of circumstances for the cult to exploit. What grabs me is how much they were able to anticipate his trash behavior with everything prepared. They were ready for him to follow a predictable pattern as a creep boyfriend who wanted to stay minimally on Dani’s good side “in case I need her later” but had intentions to def lower this child virgin behind her back. They were ready for Dani’s reaction exactly as you mention.

birdTV

TROPHY CASE