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SOUNDTRACK: Animal Impulses by IAMX & My Witness by The Irrepressibles
Soundtrack to Handled: Cleansed by Romilly King
I chose Animal Impulses because there are frequent references to animals and primal urges in Cleansed and the other books. Nathan compares Gray to a predator many times. The lyrics seemed tailor-made for psychos, going on about “Shine razor eyes in delight / Shine razor eyes before you die” and “I’m tired of this human duet / No civilizing hides / Our animal impulses”
Soundtrack to Handled: Polished by Romilly King
For the series finale, Polished, that puts the spotlight on the complicated and weirdly intimate relationship between Handler and Witness, the only song for it is, none other than My Witness. With verses that go “Make the fall, take the fire / Fuck the law nicely / Tint it all with desire / Shape the form I see” and “I will wake from the rain from the light of you / Take a knife to my chest, I’m alive by you“, they described how these relationships changed the two people involved in it.
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Bury me with a sword, with a chain and ache
I’m alive with the flyers, with the flames at stake
To be gone in a thought that’s arranged by you
To be formed by a shape that’s innate of youI will wake from the rain from the light of you
Take a knife to my chest, I’m alive by youOoh, ooh, ooh, my witness
Ooh, ooh, ooh, my witnessMake the fall, take the fire
Fuck the law nicely
Tint it all with desire
Shape the form I seeI’m alive with a knife, with a wife in me
I’m a crane looking out at the hypocrisyOoh, ooh, my witness
Ooh, ooh, ooh, my witnessTake the sting from the sky
Make their love in an eye
Take the sting from the sky
Make their love in an eye
Take the sting from the skyOoh, ooh, ooh, my witness
Ooh, ooh, ooh, my witnessTake your wars of your faiths
Of your bitterness, please
Take your wars of your faiths
Of your ignorance and leaveI will wake from the rain from the light of you
Take a knife to my chest, I’m alive by youOoh, ooh, my witness
Ooh, ooh, ooh, my witnessTake the sting from the sky
Make their love in an eye
Take the sting from the sky
Make their love in an eye
Take the sting from the sky -
MOVIE FEATURE: Cruising
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COVER REVEAL: Picture Love by A.F. Zoelle (Giveaway)
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RELEASE BLITZ: Extra Time by C.F. White (Excerpt & Giveaway)
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MUSIC MONDAY: New Year’s Prayer by Jeff Buckley
Found this tag on Read Rant Rock & Roll. This meme was created by Drew @ The Tattooed Book Geek. You pick a song that you really like and share it on Monday.
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NEW RELEASE BLITZ: Kelpie Blue by Mell Eight (Excerpt & Giveaway)
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MINI MOVIE REVIEWS: Charming Hometown Holiday Treats and an Epic Love Affair At The End Of The World
It’s been a while since I was in the mood to watch movies. Last Christmas Eve, I felt like giving two gay Christmas rom-coms a try. That the very wholesome Lifetime is creating LGBT+ movies goes a long way in normalizing queer holiday stories. A win for all of us.
I also watched a beautiful Chilean movie that was almost God’s Own Country-perfect. Almost.
For More Mini Movie Reviews, check out this page.
Dashing in December
When Wyatt Burwall finally returns home for the holidays in an effort to convince his mother Deb to sell the family’s Colorado ranch, a romance unexpectedly ignites between Wyatt and their dashing new ranch hand Heath Ramos, who dreams of saving the beloved property and the ranch’s magical Winter Wonderland attraction while reawakening the spirit of Christmas in Wyatt’s lonely heart.
Dashing in December is a cowboy love story about a successful big city professional going home to his hometown for the holidays, meets a handsome ranch hand and learns a valuable lesson about love and family.
It set the mood quite nicely, with its homey rural setting and warm small town folks. The lead actors showed off their chemistry very well. I wished they had a stronger material to work with because this is a very cookie-cutter story that never deviated from the tried and tested route. Still, it gave off a pleasant holiday vibe without going overboard.
The Christmas Setup
As they enjoy the local holidays together, Hugo and Patrick’s attraction to each other is undeniable but as Hugo receives word of a big promotion requiring a move to London, he must decide what is most important to him.
The Christmas Set-up also follows the holiday tradition of going back to the hometown for the holidays. I liked this better than the first movie.
It’s an aggressively Christmasy movie, with everything decked in holiday colors. Every character was wearing something in shades of green or red.
The mother was so full of relentless good cheer that she was more of a caricature. The other secondary characters didn’t stand out too much. However, the lead actors carried the story well, showing off appropriate levels of cute and fluff without too much cheese.
There was a charming historical little love story between the founder of the train station and his best friend that tied in nicely to the plot. The overall vibe was warm, cozy, very family friendly and just oozing with quaint small town holiday traditions. You couldn’t go wrong with this one.
Los Fuertes (The Strong Ones)
Lucas travels to visit his sister who lives in Niebla, a remote town in southern Chile. Beside the ocean shrouded in the wintry mist, he meets Antonio who works as a boatswain in a local fishing boat. An intense romance blossoms between the two of them, and with it their strength, their independence and their adulthood become immovable with the ebb and flow of the tide.
Let me set expectations here first. This went the way of most award winning LGBT+ films. Had it gone the way of God’s Own Country, I would have watched it 4 times in quick successions too. But minor hiccup aside, this was absolutely beautiful!
Los Fuertes is an epic love story played out several weeks in a rugged Chilean town between a visiting young man and the local boatswain. With a deadline ahead of them, the two knew they had to make the most of their time together. And make the most of it they did! This has some of the most endearing and bittersweet gay couple scenes caught on film, seriously rivaling my favorite let-me-salt-your-pasta-for-you scene in God’s Own Country.
The chemistry between the actors was fantastic! It’s the kind of convincing portrayal that makes you forget it’s fiction. And with the way the film was shot, with an amazing cinematography and deliberately minimizing the presence of electronic gadgets, it transported you to the end of the world in a place suspended in time. Even though I knew how it would end, I still couldn’t help but hope, that maybe, just maybe, our queer little hearts could have that perfect happy ending.
Hope you enjoyed today’s Mini Movie Reviews! Happy Sunday!
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FLICKer: Magico
Featuring LGBT short films I found around the interwebz a.k.a Youtube. Okay sucky intro, but yeah, that’s it.
*Luke, an aspiring stage magician, learns what real magic is all about…
*not the official blurb
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MANGA: Doukyuusei Seikatsu
Doukyuusei Seikatsu – Kinoshita Keiko
Mizuno and Mitazon were middle school classmates with polar opposite personalities. One day, years later, Mitazon calls Mizuno up to help take care of some stray kittens. Mizuno agrees to stay in his house to look after the kittens for a short while. This is living together with a classmate!
Kinoshita Keiko has been mostly hit or miss with me. Classmate Living is definitely a hit. It’s a childhood friends to lovers story, a slow burn romance between two middle school classmates who somehow maintained a connection up to adulthood despite separate schools.
Mitazon is a poker-faced tsundere who is adorbs when flustered. Mizuno is the more outgoing of the two. I am so happy this was written in his POV. Typically, we get the story from the POV of the one pining for the other person. Seeing the romance unfold through the eyes of the one pined for is a refreshing take on the trope.
The atmosphere is gentle and the artwork matched that vibe. The pacing was great, never too slow or fast with each scene executed just right. For me, this is the mangaka’s best work to date.
