Loving "Love, Victor"

by Nathaniel R

Is this what good fan-fiction is like? In the first awkward episode of Love, Victor... and, again in the eighth "very special" cringe-worthy episode, and, fiiine, in scattered bits inbetween in virtually all episodes, the new Hulu series perpetually draws attention to the fact that it's inspired by the motion picture Love, Simon (2018). That said it wisely positions itself as a sequel, rather than a remake.

Instead of writing to a mysterious gay schoolmate online as Simon did in the first mainstream wide release gay romcom, Victor writes to Simon himself, inspired by his story and perpetually sliding into his DMs asking for advice...

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Michael Cimino & the Best Director Oscar Since

Eric here with thinking about the past 40 years of Oscars Best Director category.

This past Saturday, director Michael Cimino passed away at age 77.  Cimino won the Best Director Oscar for 1978’s The Deer Hunter, beating Woody Allen (Interiors), Hal Ashby (Coming Home), Warren Beatty and Buck Henry (Heaven Can Wait), and Alan Parker (Midnight Express).  While those five actual films are of varying quality, the names behind them are all heavyweights and it was formidable company.

The Deer Hunter was a divisive film upon its release and remains so today (praised for its leisurely-paced first half and its capture of inexpressive male friendship; criticized for the Russian Roulette melodrama and its depiction of the Vietnamese). With The Deer Hunter, Cimino aimed to make something epic and classically Greek in its storytelling, and watching the film you can actually feel his young talent. Cimino next famously (infamously?) went on to direct 1980’s Heaven’s Gate, a film of disastrous proportions that has been covered ad nauseum as one of cinema’s biggest catastrophes.  He directed four more films after that, none to any significant acclaim, the last one released 20 years ago.   

It’s interesting to look over the list of the men (and one woman) who have won the Best Director Oscar since Cimino in 1978 to see where their careers have gone...

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