#mini-reviews

Bleating Heart

What is it: Fauna is a 9-year old girl with an overbearing mom who overworks her so she'll win beauty pageants. She befriends Mary, a poor delinquent who punches people, and they go on adventures.

The Good: A solid entry in the "cute kids do cute things" genre, with the characters being dysfunctional enough to keep it interesting without things getting too dark. Also the art is very cute.

The Bad: It's a little tonally precarious as of review (Page 166). The highest stakes of a storyline so far has been "Mary lost her doll" but the comic is gesturing towards darker themes and may evolve in surprising ways, so if all you're looking for is a comfy read there's a sword of Damocles hanging over it.

You should read it if: You want to read a cute comic about a bunch of kids making the best of a bad home situation.

Batman: the Doom That Came To Gotham Mini-Review

And so, the new DC animated movie has come out! Based on the Elseworld mini-series by Mike Mignola, Dave Stewart and Richard Pace, Doom... centres around an alternate, 1920s version of Batman who returns to Gotham after decades away only to find his city beset with various Lovecraftian beasties and cults.

I’d say that overall Doom... follows the original story a touch more than the earlier adaptation of the other big Mignola Elseworld (Gotham by Gaslight), but also takes time to expand or modernise elements that were no previously in the original story to flesh out the narrative some.

An example of one of these changes is that of the introduction of Kai Li Cain, an alternate version of Cassandra Cain, who effectively acts as the secondary protagonist as Bruce’s experiences slowly make him begin to go mad from his encounters with the supernatural and the ghosts of his own past.

Voiced by the Owl House’s Tati Gabrielle, Kai Li is a lot of fun, and I think adds a lot more to the story than the character she replaced from the original source material (Tim Drake, who in the original story didn’t... really do much?).

Similarly, Christopher Godham’s Oliver Queen has a more expanded role in the story too, complete with character arc, when in the original he more or less just serves as the way Bruce gets some monster-killing arrows. John DiMaggio also made for an excellent Commissioner Gordon, even if his time on screen was brief.

I will say that while the broad allusions to Lovecraft’s work are definitely retained in the story (Ra’s al Ghul as an allusion to Abdul Alhazred and Nyarlathotep, Herbert West actually appearing in one scene), a lot were stripped out to maintain the story’s pacing, which again I can understand.

Overall I’d say that I liked the film a lot, and that while I do like the original I’m also aware that more stripped down narrative style that Mignola sometimes favours might not translate well into film.

Bonus: Oh Hey, Lois and Clark decided to drop by Gotham to see what’s up!

I don’t think that I’ve as of yet seen a story where Superman fights Lovecraftian monsters, although I’d probably argue that the episode Unity from Superman: the Animated Series (which was about a traveling Christian revival tent acting as a front for an unexplained tentacled... thing to implant something inside people to mind control them) was pretty close.

And its 95% jokes, it just doesn’t have deep characters to compensate. Reagan as a main character is great but the rest are too one-dimensional, and with only one good character its hard to have any dynamics - sort of a takes-two-to-tango game there. With Reagan being an irate mad scientist engaging in mad-cap techno plots, the seams show here too - this is just a poor man’s Rick & Morty, trying to cash in.

Animation is solid, its putting the post-2015 suite of dynamic staging and motion tools to work to make sure camera angles + shot composition is fresh, but the character designs and general style are uninspired and it lacks the chops to have truly big set pieces - if you *reference* Akira then just give me a poor man’s Akira rip-off, *particularly* when Rick & Morty already specifically did that but better last season, I am gonna notice in a way you don’t like.

Back around January 5th, I had a cloud of commitments drift over my calendar at work, and I thought: :This will be a busy week.: Two months later... well, it’s a break period soon, and I will probably sleep through half of it. 

I have been getting a few drabs of writing done, but it’s pretty fragmentary. I made progress on the mc:tna WIP! *jazz hands*

I also spent a lot of time the past month or so on the couch watching TV, because I didn’t have bandwidth for anything else. I want to do a quick impressions post, in case anyone is curious about these programs, too!

Below, thoughts on:

Alice in Borderland (Japan; Netflix)

His Dark Materials (British; HBO Max)

Raya and the Last Dragon (US; Disney+)

Vincenzo (Korea; Netflix)

WandaVision (US; Disney+)

Continuing my Halloween Film Watch with the alien invasion film Rim of the World! No live reaction this time, as I was having to work on something else at the same time.

Premise: Misfit kids get sent to a remote summer camp outside of Los Angeles, only to end up stranded following an unexpected alien invasion.

S’okay film. Oddly dated in a lot of respects while also pointing out the dated stuff at the time time? Which was weird. Kinda creepy how much sexual humour there was involving kids who are meant to be, what, 13? That was gross.

Despite this, the kids are all individually rounded off in their own ways (Zhenzhen, played by Miya Cech, was the best one), even if the tone of the film seemed unsure if it was going for an adventure movie which happened to have gruesome deaths in it (like Jurassic Park etc.) or an early to mid-2000s action film that happens to star children... despite being released in 2019. Weird.

Amusingly the plot hinges on some Cold War era satellite defence tech which, despite very much being a trope in action films of all stripes, was never actually viable and was pretty much another example of Ronald Reagan wasting taxpayer money.

Mini-Reviews: Plus-Size Rep in Romance

I review two romances featuring plus-size heroines

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I've been using these six products by The Ordinary for a while so I figured I'd share my thoughts on them with you guys in the form of six mini-reviews!

The Ordinary Vitamin C Suspension 30% in Silicone

I really like this Vitamin C product, but be warned: it does have a silicone base and it does feel exactly like it sounds; it has all the slippiness and film-feeling of a silicone primer, so if you typically dislike silicone products, I'd go for something else. Also, I've used other vitamin C products before and none have ever stung except this one, so be careful if you're sensitive or if you're not used to having vitamin C in  your skincare routine!

The Ordinary Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%

This is an okay product and I love the idea of a niacinamide and zinc serum, but I don't really love this particular one. It feels like a normal watery serum at first, but once you start to apply it and rub it in, it starts getting really soapy and sort of sticky which I really dislike. I'll have to try some other niacinamide products because I like having it as a part of my routine, but this one just ain't it.

The Ordinary AHA 30% + BHA 2% Peeling Solution

This is a great way to get your AHA and BHA in if they're not already a part of your regular skincare routine! Just be careful not to use this more than maybe a couple times a week because it is very strong, and don't leave it on for more than the recommended time either. Even when leaving this on for less time than recommended, I still feel a bit of stinging but nothing unbearable. The only thing I don't like about this product is that it definitely looks like you have blood smeared all over your face while you're using it lol which isn't the best look imo.

The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution

I love this product! I use this as a kind of 'secondary toner' after my Thayers Alcohol-Free Witch Hazel Toner. It's pretty much the perfect amount of glycolic acid for my skin, I think, because I can use it in the mornings without over-exfoliating but I still notice results from using it consistently. It can sometimes have a lil bit of a weird smell, but hey, I love just about everything else about it so I can deal with one sub-par quality, especially for the great price.

The Ordinary Granactive Retinoid 5% in Squalane

This is a great, strong OTC retinol product that I enjoyed using while I had it, but I've since given it to my mom because I recently started using tretinoin (which is basically just a stronger form of retinol) in my Curology formula and didn't want to use both and have too much retinol in my routine because I know that can cause irritation and sun sensitivity. I'd definitely recommend this product if you feel like your current OTC retinol isn't quite as strong as you'd like or if you're just looking for an affordable one. The Ordinary also has this exact same product but in a 2% concentration, and I'd recommend that to start out if your skin hasn't yet gotten used to retinol exposure.

The Ordinary Mandelic Acid 10% + HA

Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution

This product is definitely a good deal at not even $9 for 240mL of product – other glycolic acid toners with fancy brand names attached to them will run you a lot more than even double the price of this one. The thing about this toner is that, imo, there’s nothing bad about it, but there’s also nothing that really stands out about it either or makes me excited to use it. Which, I mean, to be fair, is I think what it’s supposed to be: a product that’s not fancy or exciting but does what it’s supposed to at a reasonable price. And I do think it accomplishes that. But if you’re like me and are kinda lazy when it comes to skincare, especially when using products that don’t particularly excite you – this might not be for you. However, if you’re looking for a simple, affordable, just-get-the-job-done toner: this is probably perfect.

Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%

I like this serum because I love Niacinamide for my skin and this is a seriously cheap way to get it ($5.90 per bottle at Sephora). However, it’s not perfect – under makeup or even just under moisturizer, it pills. Badly, at least for me, personally. So although my skin really likes the ingredients, I also get annoyed every time I use it because I’ll forget that it pills up after using it and then, of course, realize it once I start applying, and then I’ll either have to wait a while before finishing the rest of my routine so it has a chance to dry OR just wash it off and start over without it. I’m on the lookout for a new Niacinamide serum that works better for me, but haven’t found one as of yet.

Lactic Acid 10% + HA