#victory project

There's a lot of drama orbiting this film, which I'd like ignore apart from where I think it might directly bear on the actual finished product. I think there are problems with the script that a whole passel of talented people tried to overcome with style. 

Harry Styles is working very hard to handle this material and he's in several scenes with Pugh where the contrast between their abilities is on full display. Baz Lurhmann called him a talented actor when Styles auditioned for Elvis, saying he wasn't right for Elvis because he's already an icon. The performance works best when Styles has a chance to dance or sing, although he's never really creepy enough. 

The actor Styles replaced is accused of and has admitted to abusive behavior. The timing of what was known when isn't clear to me. The abuse is alleged to have happened in 2019 and a lawsuit was filed in 2021. Casting for DWD happened early in 2020 and the role of Jack Chambers was swapped in September 2020. Olivia Wilde is on the record recently saying that casting swap left her feeling like she fired/replaced the actor, acknowledging the actor felt like he walked. 

I think there are script and story weaknesses that would have been partially remedied by a different casting choice.

Katie Silberman (who shares 4-way-writing credit for Wilde's 2019 Booksmart) gets the script credit based on a story by Shane and Carey Van Dyke, who are grandsons of legendary actor Dick Van Dyke. It's a story we've heard before (the simulation and the nepotism!) but look, I watch Westworld unapologetically, so even though I felt like this movie gave everything away in the trailers, I was still going to see it. I'm a sucker for "let's break out of this simulation." 

Westworld I think could be an interesting comparison to DWD. Lisa Joy is a showrunner on Westworld and has written and directed several episodes. She also directed her first feature in 2021; Reminiscence has artificial reality tech used in a noir setting and it's just kind of an okay movie. DWD is closer to Reminiscence in terms of how satisfying I found the story, even though it's more like Westworld in terms of style. Great clothes, cool interiors and hey, Dita von Teese. But at the end of the day the simulation is weak. If it's a bad sim, it's not as satisfying when someone breaks out.

I think the simulation is supposed to be poor because Frank, the so-called mastermind behind Victory, really isn't all that brilliant. The sim seems to affect Alice's memories, but there are too many unanswered questions for me to feel immersed. It's fake from the jump, everything from anachronisms to the underpopulated town. When Alice confronts Frank about where they source their food, how the hell hasn't' this happened earlier? I'm left thinking the sim doesn't just affect memory but cognition. I don't think the movie wants to go there especially because you can affect memory and cognition with certain neuroleptics and ECT, the latter of which Alice is subjected to in the sim, the former they force on Margaret. Oh, we're told Alice and Margaret are friends, but we don't see it.

Real-world Jack is a pathetic caricature. The question of why a woman like Alice, a surgeon who looks like Florence Pugh, would ever be with a guy like that is never addressed. They do mention that he lost his job so maybe he went down a manosphere rabbit hole recently, or maybe she hates herself? Or maybe she really loves him? If they're trying to say, a lot of men think like Jack or Frank, then I get that. Except there are very few people in Victory. Frank does have plans to expand, but the stakes stay personal instead of global and I think that hurts the story.

It isn't just the simulation that isn't great, Frank is a hollow villain. He's talking about nothing, and when we finally hear him in the real world, it's just not nasty enough. I don't think a man like that could make anything, even a poor simulation. To sell outrage you just need to blame an out-group. Pseudo-intellectual bullshit won't lead to any solutions because to make things better you have to collaborate and respect other people. He does get knifed by a chilling Gemma Chan at the end, so there's that.

The physical cost of the simulation is referenced in passing. The men who sign up for Victory are responsible for "maintaining" their wives bodies. I get that the words should be enough to chill you, and I'm not over here clamoring for more medical horror, but there are the barest gestures toward the physical horror of trapping someone in bed 24/7. If there is tech to preserve them, it's not mentioned. I guess the movie is saying that the idea is gross enough, we don't need to see Harry Styles changing ostomy bags, but they make it look far neater than it would be. To me that says they wanted to keep things sexy and got shy about exploring how gross the male characters in this movie are. 

I held out hope that maybe this movie would take a big swing toward the end but it didn't happen. How do you have your protagonist only save herself? Part of what makes breaking out of the sim fun is seeing characters go back to rescue the ones still trapped. In fairness, Alice is concerned for the other women, it just so happens that the first one she entreats to leave wants to stay because the sim keeps the memory of her kids alive. So Frank the bozo can program dead kids, but fails to give the women anything else to do besides shopping and ballet? He couldn't sell the dead-kid-sim to Peter Thiel for a billion dollars and leave us all alone? Maybe Sydney Chandler's character is going to kill her husband too, he looks scared enough, but nothing more happens onscreen.

There is just too much of the sim left to the imagination. What is explained, like Jack wanting to be British, is cover for the actor or gestured via voice over, like an admittedly super creepy line asking the men signing up if they already have a relationship with the woman they're taking as a wife. We don't meet any of those women in the real world, though. When it comes to avatars, I get why one would choose the Chris Pine or Harry Styles, but for some of these guys it seems like their fantasy was being wanted for who they are, physically. That could have been an interesting road to go down, instead we get Harry Styles doing the old "I'm unattractive because glasses" bit. 

Yes, you read that right. As of October 9th, Project Vanguard is now four years old. What started as a creative collaborative project between 4chan users has grown into a substantial setting in its own right. We're a smaller crew now, and we're not doing the /co/ general threads anymore, but we're still going. As you can see in our Recent Changes section, Bastion and I, along with Graft, FrankiePegg, Vect, Kiori and the rest of the regular crew have been doing new story arcs and coming up with new concepts and characters all the time. As always, head on over to the IRC if you would like to participate, or if you'd just like to say hello. Here's to four and hopefully more, Deft Beck

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While this might be a bit old it’s only due to my forgetting the password!  But that hasn’t stopped any of us from continuing onward and upward.  If you ever want to see what all the fuss is about, feel free to stop by our IRC chat @ #project_vanguard

The Victory Project is a registered 501c3 faith-based, non-profit organization. 

Since 2007 we have specialized in mentoring court-involved and disadvantaged young men in Montgomery County. We serve up to 20 young men at a time in our facility, located at 16 West Fifth Street, Dayton, Ohio 45402. 

We are funded exclusively through private and corporate contributions; we have chosen not to accept government funding.

Life..Undone

The Victory Project breaks down the walls of captivity. By undoing the youths isolated experiences, we expose them to the potential of a positive socio-economic standing through our 3E’s curriculum; Education, Entrepreneurship & Enlightenment.   

Our youth, no longer depend on a criminal or social system which can enable their destructive lifestyles.  Finding freedom and independence by obtaining marketable skills which will allow them to compete in the workforce.  

Empowering our young men to discover the life God intended. which directly reflects our guiding verse; You’re here to be light bringing out the God-colors in the world, God is not a secret to be kept we’re going public with this as public as a city on a hill. Matthew 5:14

Education - Entrepreneurship - Enlightenment

These time-tested principles of a good education, appreciating hard work, and serving God, are the foundations of our curriculum​.

Education

We offer weekly, individualized homework assistance and tutoring. Our facility is equipped with a computer lab learning center and library.

Entrepreneurship

We launched our own micro-enterprise; Victory Landscape Management, LLC. which our youth and business mentors operate. Gaining valuable job experience, while earning their way.  

Enlightenment

All across America, millions of young men & women are faced with a full spectrum of challenges; poverty, violence, hyper-sexuality and abuse of every kind. Despite this, decade after decade, our country produces loving, caring, strong and industrious adults. We see it, with our volunteer military second to none, in the impressive number of business leaders and missionaries helping all over the world. 

But there is growing competition for the lives of our boys & girls, and it doesn’t come from across the sea, or over the border. This competitor has an almost unlimited amount of resources and resolve. Their plan is simple, to poison the well of this current and future generations, with death being the ultimate goal. And before you think this is hyperbole, let’s look at our own homes, schools, and neighborhoods. 

We worship death, not just in all forms of media, which one can argue is fantasy, but more effectively in our streets. Visit any city in America where poverty has a zip code and you’ll see what I mean. Barely a weekend passes without a street corner candlelight vigil, a rally for peace, or a flood of t-shirt sales with the face of some local young person on it. Inevitably reading, ‘RIP’ or ‘Gone but not forgotten’. In-fact there are t-shirt shops who actually specialize in memorializing products. I’m not talking about ‘In honor of’ stones and park benches, but shirts and stickers with all kinds of ‘rest in peace’ templates to design from. Unfortunately many of these young people were already leading very risky lives, sometimes depicted right on these memorial shirts. A handgun pointed at the camera, or some other picture of bad life-choices.  

There are also entire families who embrace their ’15 minutes of pain’. I’ve talked to people whose family members have been absent for most of a young persons life, only to suddenly appear when the crowds do. Strangely enough, this is not unlike the families of suicide bombers in the middle east. After killing themselves for Jihad, families receive community praise, support and even financial assistance. Going from obscurity and hopelessness, to fame and encouragement, literally in a flash.

On the surface, these tokens seem like harmless gestures of love and respect, but not when you compare to how we recognize those still living in, or from these same neighborhoods. I know young men, raised in very difficult environments, who have chosen to take the high road. These guys have good jobs, are raising families, joining the military, paying taxes and going to college. For example we have an alumni who rides his bike to college 18 miles round-trip, three times a week. When he’s not in school, this same 19 year old man works at our landscape business. Where is his community recognition and music videos? We have teenagers volunteering to participate at Victory Project, committing to tutoring, spiritual growth and hard work. Where are their rallies of support? I know dozens, trying to better themselves, not thru bad choices, but education. And unless one of them is tragically killed, most people will never know their names or see them held up in public praise. Let’s not forget about the moms, dads and grandparents who work overtime, and pray for their children's safety and prosperity. Where are their spotlights of fame and encouragement?

Our local businesses, churches, media, and government institutions must find a large-scale way to celebrate the young people and their families who are winning these daily battles. But first we must recognize, and call it what it is. Celebrity thru tragedy, this whole sale worship of death is poisoning the spiritual wells of our young people, families and communities.