#iwtv94

Without further ado, my liveblog.

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3.26: the straightwashing begins. Daniel and Louis did not meet in a gay bar.

Christian Slater is kinda cute tho.

5.00: Brad is already phoning it in. Jacob really had no competition at all.

9.05: the score is so melodramatic. kind of a bit much tbh. The flouncy shirts are 10/10 though.

10.44: I do love the line 'I'm going to give you the choice I never had' though.

15.35: also 'Actually I'm quite fond of looking at crucifixes'.

I'm remembering that I used to be able to recite lines from this film when I was a teen.

16.00: THERE WERE TWO COFFINS BOOOOOOOO. Not so in the book or series.

21.15: Lestat isn't being straightwashed as much, what with calling that fella a 'gorgeous young fop', but it's so caged in plausible deniability.

25.00: oh hey look, the racism from the book is in the movie what with the way the enslaved people are being portrayed.

29.00: Pitt's delivery is serving Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker and I don't like it but I DO like the fact that we get Pyromaniac!Louis in the movie. He didn't do a single pyromaniac in S1 of the show and it makes me very sad.

32.32: I do like the creepy harpsichord though.

General observation: I remembered Tom!Lestat being a lot flouncier and flamboyant but I guess he just felt that way compared with Stuart!Lestat. I actually used to really enjoy Tom's performance but it hasn't a patch on the sheer chaotic energy that Sam Reid brings in every scene of the TV show.

37.07: KIRSTEN KIRSTEN KIRTSTEN. She is the best thing in this film.

38.26: THERE'S LIFE IN THE OLD LADY YET. Lestat dancing with the corpse is iconic even to this day.

39.40: I always quoted it as 'I always know where to find you Louis, I just follow the trail of rats' and delivered it with about twenty times more flounce, and so 'All I need to find you Louis is follow the corpses of rats' delivered unflouncily is not as iconic. Boo.

43.33: Kirsten whispering 'I want some more' is perfect though. Both she and Bailey play very different Claudias and both of them are incredible.

45.00: Tom!Lestat is so tender with baby Claudia and it makes me kinda sad that Sam!Lestat and Bailey!Claudia didn't get more cute moments together.

50.50: the bit where Claudia watches the bathing woman and says she wants to be like her is a really good piece of writing. In some ways I think we can consider Claudia of having a sort of dysphoria. She wants a grown up body, an exterior to match her interiority.

53.35: Kirsten really brought the rage. I love her.

59.00: 'I hope it's a beautiful woman with endowments you will never possess' is mean, but Tom just isn't as good at the meanness as Sam is.

01.06.15: I'm sad we won't get Swampstat on TV tho.

01.11.22: I love Kirsten waltzing in the dressmaker's in her pretty blue gown. Want Bailey to get a similar moment because I love Bailey.

01.12.12: A WILD STEPHEN REA APPEARED. fuckin Santiago. he IS a buffoon.

01.13.40: the only person in this film who projects any sexuality (hetero or queer) at all is Antonio Banderas as Armand. I know people were whining about Assad Zaman but he looks way more like I imagine Armand than Antonio does.

There isn't any comparing the two from here on out because we're past the end of S1.

01.26.06: I do enjoy that Armand reads some very questionable romantic energy between Louis and Claudia, because of course the fledgeling of freakin' Marius would read that. Marius is vile.

01.31.30: 'I haven't tears enough for what you've done to me' is also a great line.

01.38.50: The Pompeii effect of Claudia and Madelaine's remains is very smart.

01.40.35: TIME FOR ANOTHER EPIC PYROMANIA FROM OUR BOY.

01.44.32: THEY ALMOST SMOOCH. And then Louis is all like, 'Soz Armand I'm leaving' and Armand pulls a 'If you leave me I will die' but then he still leaves Armand. TV show Louis would never leave a shitty manipulative man so easily.

01.50.05: What I DO hope we get in the show in lieu of Swampstat is Pathetic Husk Lestat telling Louis he's beautiful and being genuinely scared of him and absolutely PETRIFIED of helicopters. Delightful. Sam would nail it.

01.53.10: Actually amazing that Anne only fit one 'preternatural' into her screenplay considering it was her favourite word.

01.55.00: Apropos of nothing, I love Daniel's car.

And now it's time for the ending which remains pretty iconic.

So.

Queue up Guns and Roses.

And say it with me with all the glee we ever said it with before we had the TV show...

I ASSUME I NEED NO INTRODUCTION!

(Tidy up your sleeves.)

OH LOUIS LOUIS, STILL WHINING LOUIS! HAVE YOU HEARD ENOUGH? I'VE HAD TO LISTEN TO THAT FOR CENTURIES!

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Conclusions...

I don't begrudge it. It's all we had for a very long time.

I remembered Cruise's performance being way camper than it was. Maybe it DID feel camp before we had Sam Reid doing the hair toss and shoulder wiggle and being completely unhinged.

Brad Pitt was so badly miscast it wasn't funny. He gives off the most intense No Homo energy I have ever seen and it's cringe. He does look miserable, but not in the right way. He's so monotone he could be saying 'I hate sand'. His hair is the wrong colour. You never really get any sense of who Louis is as a person.

Compare that to the fuckin' revelation that is Jacob Anderson, who has incredible range.

Bailey Bass was the only one who had any competition in terms of performance and I think the AMC writers knew it. The fact that her Claudia is so different from Dunst's gave Bass the ability to go just as hard, to perform with just as much gusto and pathos and horror, and to not have to face comparison. Both actresses are incredible. I hope Bass's career is at least as successful as Dunst's has been because she's SO GOOD.

It's kind of dull, though, the movie. The humour in the TV series is so important because there is something deeply goofy at the heart of the VC (even if 'IWTV' is very serious compared with the other books).

The movie isn't my favourite vampire movie (that's 'Only Lovers Left Alive') despite the fact that Rice's is the only vampire lore I really care for. It isn't even my favourite Neil Jordan vampire movie. That's 'Byzantium'.

flat color lestat! god

he's finished!! you can tell i got lazy with the blanket portion but !