Movie Analysis - Blog Posts

Thoughts on Disney Pixar's Soul

Anyone like me who missed the movie soul cause it went straight to streaming during the pandemic, please take a moment to watch it because it's a master piece.

The art style is a beautiful mix of hyper realistic rendering and cartoon caricature and the intentionality of when it leans more into either style says a story of its own. The first things I noticed were the musical instruments rendered in way more detail than necessary, the pictures in his class of real people and not caricatures.

Then it was the perspective shots of 22 experiencing life, where the art was again, all hyper realism. The overwhelming nature of nyc to the beautiful moment of them feeling the spark of life. And in those moments despite the realism, it was not new york I saw. I blinked and I was transported to all the moments in my own life that paralleled that moment and I remembered the cold breeze on my skin, the smell of rain on cement, the context of my memories that made me feel that spark of life.

And when Joe laid out the trinkets they had gathered as proof of living that day and started playing the piano, as he went through his own memories, his proof of living his whole life, I sobbed. Once again, with every blink I saw my own life and every memory and emotion proof that I have lived. The score he played truly felt like it represented the feeling of being alive. Being alive through all the pain and joy and excitement and despair, a feeling so human.

What's insane about this is that I'm not from NYC, I don't take the subway to work, I have nothing to do with music or jazz. None of those moments or memories are directly relatable to my life. And yet I feel it represented my life.

The movie itself was a piece of art of course but watching it, the emotions it invoked in me felt like a separate multimodal artistic experience. One so deeply personal, I cannot express it to you in words.

Please go watch it for yourselves. If you watched it when you were younger and are now a full adult, please watch it again.

(I could go on about how perfect jazz is as a metaphor for life but I'm not the most qualified for that. If anyone is, please do talk about it)

I have watched “The Witch” (also known as “The VVitch”) this Thursday (Halloween) and here’s something I noticed this run through that I missed the first time I watched it

Spoilers ahead

Ok so Thomasin in order to prove that she is not the witch who has been tormenting and murdering her family and that it may be Jonas and Mercy (two of her younger siblings) she states that Lucifer is known for taking the form of a horned beast (such as a goat), the twins constantly say that Black Philip (who is a goat) (and is actually the Devil in the form of a goat) tell them things, Thomasin says that the Devil always whispers in his adversaries(?) ears WHISPERS (she reiterates the “whisper”which is why I capitalize it like that)

Then the mom, Katherine, has a dream(?) that her two other children, Sam and Caleb have come back to her, in this dream the older son Caleb whispers the whole time even asking her to look at a book for him, which it is stated that the Devil has a book that he gets people to sign

This means (and I could be wrong) that the Devil used Katherine’s grief over her dead sons in order to get her to sign his book

SONIC MOVIE 3 THEORY AND ANALYSIS TIME

So, in this picture we see with Shadow, pre Maria incident, his eyes are gold. It’s after she dies that his eyes turn red with rage. I like to think his eyes have stayed red since with this rage.

Now in this short scene where we see him say “what?” His eyes are starting to go back to gold. What I believe is that in that scene, someone, more than likely Sonic, will say something that reminds Shadow of something Maria said. I can imagine him having a flashback, him stopping in his tracks. “What?” He says, his tone softer than usual. He’s remembering Maria’s wish. What she really wanted. That’s why his eyes are changing back.

By the end of the movie, I can imagine his eyes staying like this, the inner part gold, a reminder of who he once was and showing a softness to him. But the red will always be there, that rage now a part of him.

Beau is Afraid to me is a perfect representation of the abusive relationship between a parent and child.

The panic attacks and disassociation are no new story to the people watching it and at times it feels like it's happening exactly to you the way the movie draws you into the shoes of Beau himself.

The phone call between Beau and Mona is perfectly drawn out. The nerve in Beau's voice and the immediate disconnect between them emotionally are perfectly done. The silence tells you what you need to know, Beau is terrified of Mona and Mona has a hate for Beau that she can't even grasp herself. Disappointment not at the situation but at Beau. At Beau simply because he's her son and she's his mother.

When Beau hears Mona finally admit to hating Beau we see Beau snap. He loves his mother, he believes that she loves him even when he confesses his frustration and concerns in their relationship. He hears the person that practically controls his throughts, his emotions, his living situation, what stree he's on, the money he spends, and even the color shirt he wears hates him. He believes that Mona was protecting him from the outside world in some way he's finally understood that his mother wasn't protecting him. Mona wasn't helping him and she didn't even love him. He trusted her with his life and she hated him. He goes from kissing her legs begging to be forgiven to do anything to be forgiven to choking her.

When Beau is screaming for help from anyone, literally anyone. We see his eyes perfectly reflect the moment he knows no one will help him. He's trapped dying the death his mother planned for him with his feet stuck in the boards and not a single person believes that he's worthy of help or willing to help him. He's completely and utterly alone. Like the version of himself that was curled up crying on the forest ground because he searched for a home and comfort (interpreted family being comfort for him in general) in every corner of the world that the okay in his head could think of and it left him cold and hungry with just the hat on his head. Take this moment as a parallel to him sinking in the boat. He's searched in all the places his mother allowed him to search for some form of comfort from her and he's left without her love or her help in the end. Deprived of love, blamed by his mother for every emotion she felt raising him and accused of not caring at all. The masked woman telling him about his sins and guilts could be the voice in his head that agrees with his mother or the voice of his mother in general. Finally, we see him drowning and struggling under the pressure he's been convinced he created for himself and the story ends. And it's the perfect ending. It's so fucking horrible and perfect at the same time. My fucking God this movie was amazing.

Beau is Afraid personal analysis:

From someone that can't put thoughts in order, is neurodivergen, and expects both nothing and everything from a film.

Just started watching Beau is Afraid and here's me just throwing interpretations and a shitty analysis into the void of Tumblr as I'm watching it!

It should be noted that the subtitles aren't working for me so a lot of the audio is hard to understand for me if I'm not absolutely invested. You should also expect some comparisons to Beau's life and mine since mommy issues don't wait for anyone besides the mother who throws them onto you!

In all honesty, I wanted to watch this movie when I first saw the poster but I have the habit of adding movies to my watchlist and then forgetting them if it isn't in my face 24/7 so it got benched. I finally picked it up because of Joaquin Phoenix and the fact that I wasn't mentally prepared for the Joker sequel. During the movie it did an amazing job of stopping my gawking at Joaquin to actually seeing Joaquin as Beau and being in the same room as Beau as if it were my own movie. Props to Ari Aster for making a mirror more than a movie.

Hour 1:

I obviously had to pause the movie while Beau was walking down the hall to the elevator. I really enjoy when people put small little details into media and even though a lot of it was hard to read I wasn't disappointed. It seemed that right off the bat dicks were going to be very important in the movie.

Beau's character was really relatable in the beginning in the sense that his anxiety is so persistent. There were a lot of people that commented on the pacing and scenes being confusing but from my POV it was a good representation of what living with anxiety is like. COMING BACK TO SAY THAT I WAS NOT READY! IT IS NOT JUST ANXIETY! IT IS LEARNED HELPLESSNESS AND SO MUCH MORE!

When Beau imagined a guy running into his apartment I felt the jump and shock just as much as him. It seemed strange that somehow all them people didn't walk inside of the store since it wasn't locked. The best I can take away from it right now although I might add things later is that the outside is just chaos really. I think it might have some to do with the feeling of the outside being so dangerous and the invasive thoughts of what could possibly happen to you when you even leave your apartment. You have one place in the world where everything while not particularly quiet and entirely peaceful is just enough to get away from the hustle and bustle and whatever terror comes with it. And having it invaded would turn anyone's day not just upside down but tossed over a cliff into a massive hole of "My fucking God what next?" and whatever curse words you can toss in with that sentiment.

When Beau missed the flight and had to break the news to his mom it really did feel like a call with my own mother. That silence where Beau is just seemingly waiting for a spur of disappointment to pass on from the other side of the phone. And not even at the situation but at Beau. Like for some reason Beau is the cause of it all and this isn't the first time he's been blamed or at the end of disappointment. And you can even hear it in his mom's voice so shout out to her actor for delivering those lines so wonderfully! Beau borderline pleasing with his mom for help and not getting any actual answer is beyond relatable. People are expected to somehow know where to go from somewhere in their own POV but when your POV doesn't seem to be anywhere in sight there's not a lot of help.

I tried to think about what the key missing could even mean if it possibly were supposed to be about how Beau feels internally and I'm coming face to face with the idea that while Beau wants to see his mom it might be that he struggles so much with reaching the middle of the bridge with the people he cares about along with an overwhelming fear of meeting with his mom in general. We can assume that something happened between them that makes the air so stiff. So maybe the key going missing and him missing his flight is himself trying to avoid whatever might come with going to see his mom in some way. It felt like self isolation. Like Beau wanted to be there but at the same time couldn't bring himself to do it and now he has to face his mom and apologize while also being too scared to apologize for not being able to open himself up enough to see her and let her see him.

Going back to the invasion of his apartment. If we imagine That this world in the beginning and his apartment is just what being in his head is like, that could also be a "Something's gotta give." moment where his fears and anxiety are racking up so high that his mind just lets the lock loose and all that noise starts flooding his head. Almost like when you get overstimulated and try to stop the outside world from coming inside but everything is just too much. I'm not good at explaining this so my bad.

Now moving on to finding out his mom has died. When you have anxiety and not only anxiety but OCD too it's like the smallest fear of something happening or you not doing something makes your fears come true. The idea that if you don't pick up a pencil you drop in the next five seconds a train will hit you at exactly five thirty-one in the evening on your way home even though there's no train tracks within a ten mile distance of you. I don't really know what to say about this part of the movie but his instant shut down and taking a bath with the figure that I'm guessing is some sort of comforting link he has to his mother is definitely what I'd do if I'd remembered that my tap was going and my mom is dead.

There's a point in the movie where Beau walks outside and there's some words behind him from at what point in the movie I don't know that say things like, 'pussy write letter' and 'pussy something whistle' and all that and I was confused by it but really did want to know if that meant someone's vag was writing a letter or if it was some sort of prosthetic you could buy I'm not sure but it was a hoot.

I can already see this being long and I'm not even halfway through the movie. Waking up in the gal's room was definitely something that made my head turn round I thought that maybe they'd bedazzled a hospital room or something. Beau looked pretty rough there so good healing to him throughout this movie. I took their behavior being weird and the dreamy feel as if Beau was craving some comfort and this is what he thought up to get it, which is so relatable. We can basically immediately interpret that Beau is a fill in for something the couple is missing AKA their son Nathan I believe was his name? For me this is so far the scariest part of the movie. And that's Beau being trapped. The actors do an amazing job of making you feel off in general. This feels like some pseudo family and the puzzle scene felt exactly like sitting down with my grandparents and having no idea what to do or what's even happening.

The way they treat what I think is their daughter compared to Beau is definitely a stark contrast. Reminded me of being a kid and wanting my mom to treat me the same as everyone else. Which was simply nice. The fact that they keep pushing him leaving back while he's begging for any way out is really the best representation of needing something NOW, not in the evening, not after a nice dinner and some good hosting, NOW. He's been guilted into believing that his mom's being insulted and humiliated and when he's doing what he can to stop it by leaving he's trapped and no one is giving him a way out of it. He can't even properly give himself a way out because he's been knocked into Saturn by a car and is currently healing from it. Anyways, an hour in and that's all I got.

Hour 2:

Okay that took an insane turn. The peer pressure carpool made me extremely uncomfortable and I honestly just wanted it to end since he kept saying no. The girls saying that they'd accuse him of that stuff put another edge into the situation when it already had plenty of sharp edges. In some way I see it as Beau somewhat needing a good puff but also not needing it. Does he need it or is he convincing himself that he does? Does he not need it or is it because his anxiety and suspicions are so implemented into him that he can't or won't? This scene was definitely good to watch if you need to tip of your blood pressure if it's low.

I knew it was going to cut to the boat when I heard the seagulls but what I expected to be a calm in this chaotic fucking movie turned out to be the exact opposite. This post isn't even interpretations anymore it's going to be me spiraling. Everyone did an amazing job atmosphere wise because what the fuck? Every interaction between young Beau and his mom just made me want to screw my face up so hard you could hammer it to a wall. I'm wondering if Beau recognized the woman that he cut back to in the video on his mom's death and I'm also wondering if this young gal is a positive, negative, or neutral. The scene where she counts down and what I'm guessing lead to a kiss got skipped because it just made me too uncomfortable.

I was immediately hit with what was the worst wham bam in the world. I saw those creepy people's daughter without a shirt and didn't want to go back but was hoping they'd explain and was let down completely with my brain in a twister. Most of it was me thinking "Dear God tell me nothing happened with this teen fucking girl." Don't know if anything did and will probably never know because I honestly wouldn't be able to take it.

By this point we see the mom's obvious want to tell Beau what the fuck is going down especially when we see Beau is being recorded and not only is he being recorded, as far as he knows this little remote could tell him his whole life. Both Beau and the daughter's crashout are completely understandable. The gal wasn't any bit kind to Beau but she was the break in reality. The screw that wouldn't nail in the hole right. And in some sense I feel like Beau definitely needed her interaction to realize something was very deeply wrong. The way he's holding an obvious doll is hilarious but I wonder if it's supposed to be the kink that the audience needs to realize that this isn't real. It's real in the sense that it's happening but everything Beau is going through isn't real. These interactions aren't spontaneous they're planned. And Beau is slowly realizing it bless his heart.

30 minutes later and I'm even more dumbstruck. I really love how when you're watching the play featuring Beau you almost get lost in the story too, seeing yourself walking in his shoes. And it supports the anxiety of it all. You could have a good life, you can have a wife and children and all things in between. All the happiness you want. But it's going to end. Something beyond your control is going to tear it away from you and you have so much life left to live. So much that you'll wonder if that happy beginning is worth the sad ending. I could have this, but I can't keep this. The part where Beau reunites with the children only to find out that his wife is still lost didn't ease it. Congratulations you've found three halves of your soul, where's the fourth? The idea that Beau wants to find family and some place that feels like home for him in a world where he doesn't belong comes up again. Beau wants that but has he opened his can up enough to let it in? To let it want him? There's a lot of him both being the one guilty and innocent. He's guilty of doing all of it in the first place, of having a family and knowing that they'll be ripped away. Of walking into that broken up town and having the audacity to get too involved by just standing there. And at the same time, he's innocent. Because why shouldn't he want a home? Why shouldn't he be standing in that town? The idea of him giving his last bit of change for one empty stomach moment of happiness is worth more to him than a stomach full of food. Personally I can't disagree, happiness can keep you full plenty. But it shows a lack of self preservation trying to just grasp the concept with what fingernails he hasn't chewed off out of paranoia. This explanation isn't good and I'm sure these aren't ideas worth quoting in the next Sherlock Holmes book but I just really loved how this simple robotic voice pulls you into a trance. It felt almost as if they were trying to get him to join their cult up until he snapped out of it and the play looked completely different!

Hour 3:

My jaw dropped and never stopped dropping. It felt like I was watching the tape from The Ring and it only closed when Beau's counselor came out of the what I assume was a bathroom smiling. That's really when the dread filled every nook and cranny of my mind.

When he found his childhood gal I couldn't stop staring and I wondered the same as Beau if it was even real at all. I kept pausing and reminding the part where she turns over in bed to turn a song on Spotify on to see what songs were displayed but it was too blurry for me to see and I eventually gave up after enough tit flashes. Throughout the rest of that sequence I was saying "Wow! Congrats buddy you're alive and you're okay!" only to be completely dumbfounded with my jaw open like a guppy when I realized everything was in fact not okay. The having hanky panky time in my dead mom's bed would throw me off but it makes sense when you realize he knew she wasn't actually dead.

When she revealed herself and started mentioning the times she felt that Beau didn't care enough it really did remind me of my relationship with my mother. I thought that maybe he might've given her the tape because he liked it so much or thought she did but after she said he just couldn't decide on things for himself I realized it was most likely because he really just didn't know what to get her and I definitely resonated with that. My mom expected me to understand what she wanted from the get go but I never knew what to get her for gifts or what to do when she was slowly judging towards an idea. I knew my mom but I didn't know what she wanted and it personally left me stuck in a ditch of guilt every time. Christmas was the worst simply because I didn't know what to come up with without her saying it to my face. I did end up finding something I think surprised her though, it was one of those zen sand gardens since her old one was busted. I think the relationship between Beau and his mom really hut you the worst when you realize she's right in some aspect. All of the people that were hurt because he was lost and even worse, afraid. But how can you trust that? From the woman that manipulated him into believing that she died? From the woman who's been watching him as close as when he picks his nose and from what nostril? And was it really Beau? Considering the fact that most of the interactions haven't been genuine and the pure trauma of it all, was it him or was it the dog that ran him into the fence? Really I don't even know what I'm saying anymore it's just pure rambling.

The final straw was the audio recording of his session. Of him speaking to a man he believed he could trust and saying how isolating it all felt. To be stuck with a mom that was pulling on both of your arms left when you wanted to take just one step right your own way. Of being guilted by your parent and or parents into believing that you didn't love them enough or that you were ungrateful because you simply didn't want to do exactly what they wanted you to. I definitely related to that, my mom would revoke my invitation to join my family when they went out to eat simply because my hair wasn't done how she wanted it to be done and would shame me for my own lack of decision making and control over my life. Beau does lack decision making but it didn't seem like his mom actually tried to help, she just waterlogged off to the side and expected him to when he was wrong no matter what if it wasn't what she expected. I really don't know what to say, his mom deserved a happy childhood and she's valid in wanting her son's love but he didn't have to give it to her how she wanted him to and he also deserved a good childhood. I'm waiting for the cherry on top in the attic so we'll see what happens next.

It's over. This T fuck face of a rex movie is over. Beau's dad literally being a massive dick is what I assume some representation of Beau not being able to see his dad as a person. His father wasn't around, he only knew him as the cock that impregnated his mom and made his pops croak in the same breath because of how God damn cursed it was. In the somewhat accurate words of Tyler the Creator, he was considered a sperm donor. The small man up against a dude with a fucking mic on a large platform was obviously Beau supposed to be Beau's grievances being ignored and quieted because of how wrong his mom made him feel for every inconvenience she experienced. And killing him was what to me meant silencing Beau once and for all. To kill the thing that allowed him the smallest but of self comfort. And all that's left was to kill Beau. I'd like for a happier ending but I feel like Beau's death did make a lot of sense. You listen to prolonged mental abuse like that and in the end again, "Something's gotta give." Beau died feeling guilted and betrayed, begging his mom for help and assistance the same as he did throughout his life only to be ignored by not only her but everyone that was convinced along with her that he was the bad guy one last time. You die that way. Feeling guilty for something no matter what.

I don't really know what to say, this was a wonderful movie and it was the most immersive movie I've seen besides the fact I wasn't in the studio to actually walk the set. I loved the practical giant dick and the slow decent into terror instead of dick jokes. Patti LuPone really took Beau's mom as a character to another level and Joaquin Phoenix is a hard man not to hug at the end of most of his movies. Thanks for reading this if you actually for some reason took the time out of your day to do it. I hope I never forget this movie and if I do I'll buy a bird to squawk it to me every few days.

See y'all sometime if anytime!

Looking around online, I found a LOT of people were left stumped by the ending of the film Personal Shopper. I get that - it’s a weird one! In this video, I examine the film as a whole, and try to find out what exactly we can gleam from those perplexing final seconds.

If you enjoy my video, please feel free to subscribe, or follow me on Twitter here https://twitter.com/The_Infranaut

BLACK SWAN - THE UNREWARDING CHASE AFTER PERFECTION

Tw: bulimia, self-harm, sexual assault, body horror

''Black swan'', directed by Darren Aronofsky, is a 2010 film. It deals with our main character, Nina, a ballerina which gets picked for the role of both The white swan and The black swan in a production of "Swan lake", but as she is urged by her artistic director to 'lose herself' her sanity crumbles before her. In this post I'd like to address the themes, motifs, character development, and what black swan made me feel, because I find art is about emotions.

★ SWAN LAKE ANALOGY

The story of "Swan lake" is a direct analogy most readers can pick up on during their watch of Black swan and I'd like to highlight some thoughts of mine on the parallels between the two.

" virginal girl, pure and sweet, trapped

in the body of a swan. She desires

freedom, but only true love can

break the spell. Her wish was

granted in the form of a prince.

But before he can declare his love,

her lustful twin, the Black Swan,

tricks and seduces him.

Devastated, the White Swan leaps

off a cliff, killing herself. But,

in death, finds freedom. " - Leroy

This recounting of "Swan lake" is a basic synopsis of the movie Black swan. Nina is perfect, and she finds this need for perfection a prison. We see her eat half a fruit for breakfast, spend all her time in the company, and put mountains of effort into every step she takes. This is exactly Nina's downfall - if Leroy was right about one thing it's that perfection is inherently imperfect. It's messy and dirty and full of mistakes, because perfect is expected.

Nina believes her 'freedom' will come in the form of Leroy, that he can cultivate her into the girl she was destined to be, and sees Lily as her doppelganger - an evil xerox who wishes to steal her only answer away from her. Nina is mistaken, and actually her mistake falls perfectly into the plot of Swan lake - she mixes up the roles. Lily is much closer to the prince in the sense she allows Nina to be herself. She genuinely desires to see Nina succeed and yet doesn't believe that Nina should torture herself to perfection. Although it's difficult to distinguish between reality and illusion during the film, when the credits roll, I think we all know who's the twin, who's the swan, and who's the prince.

★ THE THEORY OF ART

Nietzche (😒...) Coined the terms 'dyonisian' and 'apollonian' in his book, Birth Of Tragedy. The Dyonisian is the tendency for freedom - pleasure, lack of thinking, impulse. The Apollonian is the tendency for structure - order, planning, perfecting. Nietzche claims that good art is the balance between the two, you can't be overly obsessive over detail nor carelessly creating.

Nina is Apollonian. She is so invested in being the perfect dancer she loses what made her good in the first place - her love for the profession, her daintiness, her emotional connection to pieces. Throughout the movie, we see how obsessive Nina becomes with perfection as her bulimia gets worse, she grows suspicious of her peers, and eventually resorts (does she...?) to murder for her sake. Truly, Nina couldn't balance art because she couldn't let herself go, and only when she did her performance was perfect.

Black swan made me unnerved. As an artist, it's truly an enthralling experience seeing a young woman shred herself to bits trying to be perfect. I almost cried when Nina forced herself to puke the nothing she ate, because it's an amazing metaphor; trying to use up something that is not there. I think about black swan from time to time, and I realize that Nina isn't perfect - she was. She was her best when she loved dance. When she lived living . When she loved herself.

Stay yourself, stay curious

A comment from Cinema therapy’s video on ‘Loki’.

Transcript and extra notes below:

I...disagree with the idea of Loki being a narcissist.   

   Acting out the way he does isn't just a trait of narcissists but also of people with low self-esteem, (I should know, being someone who has acted in such a way myself in the past.) Loki was clearly constantly put down by others, disrespected by who he thought were his people, and generally considered 'lesser' to Thor for most of, if not all of his life for seemingly no reason at all. (He 'feels' he's in Thor's shadow because he blatantly is. There's clear favouritism not just from Odin, but from all of Asgard.)

   He never wanted the throne, nor did he actually want power or popularity, he just wanted someone to tell him that he was worthy, he wanted someone to tell him he was worth something and that he wasn't a monster like the other Jotuns were. (This is far clearer in the deleted scenes, where Loki hesitates to take the throne in the first Thor movie, and even looks to his mother, the only person who really seemed to love him, before taking it. As well as his clearly more lovable interactions with Thor before it was revealed that he was Jotun.)

   I mean, hell, he tried to commit suicide at the end of the first Thor movie when his father, whom he tried to get recognition from, and who was certainly the biggest issue with his self-esteem, rejected him yet again.

   I feel like this is most prominent when you take into account that he IS a Jotun, a being that he was raised to hate and fear. He believes he's a monster, and that coupled with his already problematic self-esteem just makes it apparent that he has the exact opposite problem that a narcissist has.   He does deeply care for other people as well. Frigga being the biggest example, in Dark world, he was heartbroken and devastated by her loss. (And the fact that the last thing he said to her was that she 'wasn't his mother' certainly didn't make it better.) Or in Infinity War, where he recognizes Thanos' plan to kill 'half' of everything, so, seeing as he's one of two brothers, gets Thanos to kill him so Thor will get out safely. Literally sacrificing himself for his brother, who he, on all accounts, shouldn't have cared enough to help there if he was a narcassist.

   The mind stone and the sceptre weren't mind controlling Loki, but it was messing with his head, as is seen in-universe as well as mentioned in interviews. This is seen where he stabs Thor, as he's clearly shaken by what he's just done, even if you can only see this reaction for a few moments. He also doesn't believe in what he's saying in Avengers when he's telling the people around him to kneel, that's why Phil claims that he lacks conviction: Because he really does, he's doing all of this because he's hurting, and the mind stone is manipulating him, he doesn't actually believe anything he's saying there.

   Before anyone brings it up as well: Ragnarok and the Loki TV show are pieces of MCU lore that should be taken with a grain of salt. Many things said in Ragnarok are inconsistent with the other movies (See Sif apparently having to prove that women can be warriors, yet, the Valkyries existed. Or the fact that apparently the Valkyries died before Thor's time but Thor always wanted to join them? Or the 'we were eight at the time' line, when Thor and Loki, being Asgardian/Jotun, age differently than humans, so by that point, would've actually been infants. The Loki show as well, Sylvie and the entire situation revolving around that comes with many character and story inconsistencies, such as magic seen not working in the TVA but apparently Sylvie can still use it in another episode.)

   Basically, from where I'm standing, this diagnosis doesn't seem to make any sense? It makes more sense to say that he's faking narcissism just so he can look strong and more in control, while on the inside continuing to feel unworthy and unlovable. Lashing out not because he's truly hateful, but because, as you've said in another video: 'Hurt people, hurt people.' (Again, something I have sadly been through.) I'd also like to point out, in this way, his mischief seems more like a cry for help. As many will point out, if someone is neglected enough in early life, they're likely to develop a mentality of 'any attention is good attention', which seems to be pretty in-line with a lot of 'mischief' he pulls.

   But hey, I'm not a therapist, and that's just my opinion.

Note: Narcissists aren’t inherently bad people. Don’t write them off as ‘evil’ or ‘monsters’. Not all of them are. Putting everyone in boxes like that for mental disabilities or neurodivergence is doing nothing but perpetuating harmful rhetoric and harming people.

...With that being said though, Loki ain’t it, chief.

Real talk though: Cinema therapy’s video on Loki is stupid as hell. ‘Loki genuinely believes he is superior’ is a direct quote, and as you can read from the above post, that statement is blatantly wrong on its own.

If I got anything wrong, feel free to mention so. I want to be sure I get as much correct as possible in this as not to miss anything or perpetuate any harmful stereotypes, I just went off of what was described in the video.

El arquetipo de la sombra en Black Swan y Perfect Blue: un análisis desde Jung y el ocultismo

Hace un tiempo hice una reseña sobre Angel’s Egg, una película que me pareció una de las mejores que he visto en el anime desde Perfect Blue. También comenté que Black Swan, otra película que adoro y que se inspira claramente en Perfect Blue, se merece totalmente haber conseguido los derechos porque, sencillamente, es una obra maestra. Desde la actuación de Natalie Portman como Nina, hasta cómo se une el ballet, el vestuario, la música… todo va en armonía mientras la protagonista va perdiendo la cabeza hasta llegar al clímax en el que finalmente se quiebra. Es que, ¿hola? ¿La escena del baile?

Hace poco me topé con un video en YouTube que analiza la película desde un enfoque ocultista, y como loca del ocultismo, obvio, lo tenía que ver. Fue la mejor decisión que tomé. Lo que decía me recordó a una obra de Hilma af Klint, en la que aparecen dos cisnes uno blanco y otro negro, y aunque no la entiendo del todo, puedo decir que no es casualidad usar esos dos cisnes como símbolo. Hay una clara conexión entre esa dualidad y el simbolismo de Black Swan.

Hace un tiempo también vi El lago de los cisnes en directo (una de las mejores experiencias que he tenido). Era la primera vez que lo veía y no conocía la historia en profundidad, aunque me hacía una idea. La historia original ya tiene un enfoque simbólico que roza lo esotérico. Así que no es tanto cosa de Aronofsky que Black Swan tenga esa mirada ocultista: ya estaba presente en el propio ballet desde el inicio.

Como fan absoluta de Satoshi Kon (director de Perfect Blue), puedo decir que sus obras se inspiran muchísimo en Carl Jung. Paprika, por ejemplo, no solo trata sobre los sueños, también explora el inconsciente colectivo, todo a través del pretexto de un aparato que permite soñar de forma lúcida.

Así que, tomando todo esto como referencia, quiero analizar los símbolos y paralelismos narrativos entre Perfect Blue y Black Swan, dos películas que claramente beben de las ideas de Jung, sobre todo en relación con el concepto de la sombra.

Ambas películas usan el color para representar diferentes estados de una psique fracturada por el trauma. Cada color representa una polaridad, dos mitades que se contraponen. A lo largo de la historia, ambas protagonistas se ven forzadas a integrar esas polaridades.

En Black Swan, los colores son el blanco y el negro. En Perfect Blue, el rojo y el azul. Ambas protagonistas inician con uno de esos polos bien integrado. Nina es la candidata perfecta para interpretar al cisne blanco: representa la pureza, la inocencia, el control. No solo es una bailarina impecable, sino que también ha vivido toda su vida restringida, moldeada por las expectativas de su madre para ser la hija perfecta. Mima, en cambio, comienza su historia con una imagen pública pulida, siempre vestida de azul o blanco, símbolo de su rol como idol japonesa: una figura controlada y artificialmente inocente. El rojo, sin embargo, aparece como señal de peligro, de sexualización, de pérdida de esa inocencia.

Ambas viven atrapadas en una identidad impuesta por los demás. Están acostumbradas a obedecer sin cuestionarse, y su vida íntima se convierte, irónicamente, en una extensión de su vida profesional. No tienen libertad. Sus deseos y emociones están subordinados a los de otros, especialmente a sus madres, que en ambas películas son figuras dominantes. Cuando surge una oportunidad para salir de esa zona de confort, no saben cómo afrontarla.

Nina, para interpretar a la protagonista de El lago de los cisnes, debe representar tanto al cisne blanco como al cisne negro. Mima debe abandonar su carrera como idol para adentrarse en el mundo de la actuación, algo totalmente nuevo e incierto para ella. Acepta el cambio solo porque su madre le dijo que era lo mejor. Nunca se pregunta por qué. Solo lo hace.

Ambas son forzadas a madurar e integrar esas polaridades en entornos que no les permiten hacerlo con libertad. El resultado es la fractura de su personalidad. Aparece un alter ego: su sombra. Al principio, solo se manifiesta en reflejos, en espejos, pero a medida que lo ignoran o lo reprimen, la sombra cobra vida propia y empieza a actuar de forma autónoma.

Me gusta cómo esa sombra también se relaciona con su trabajo. En el caso de Nina, el cisne negro no es solo un personaje que debe interpretar, sino una fuerza que se apodera de ella. En Mima, el personaje que representa en una serie de televisión parece comenzar a tomar el control, alimentado por la mirada del público, por sus exigencias, por su juicio. Esa sombra crece a partir de lo que los otros esperan de ellas.

Ambas protagonistas deben, en algún punto, unir esas dos mitades. Y en ambas películas se representa esta integración mediante el color lila: símbolo de lo espiritual, de la transformación, de lo místico. Nina ve este color en su compañera Lily quien representa esa parte suelta, libre, sensual que Nina no puede ser y cuando comienza a alucinar, no ve a su sombra: ve a Lily. En el caso de Mima, el lila aparece al final, cuando por fin recupera el control sobre sí misma.

El desenlace es distinto para cada una. Nina muere, o al menos eso se sugiere, consumida por la perfección que logra alcanzar solo al destruirse. Mima, en cambio, sobrevive, pero no sin antes matar (literal o simbólicamente) a su “madre” simbólica, esa parte de ella que la vigilaba y la controlaba desde la sombra. Y aunque ese acto es brutal, Mima no siente culpa, y la vemos al final firme, presente, consciente de lo que ha hecho.

En conclusión, la muerte, real o simbólica, representa esa sombra que, según Jung, devora cuando no se integra de forma sana. Ambas protagonistas vivieron en entornos que las oprimieron y las impidieron crecer con libertad. Cuando algo detonó esa sombra, ya no hubo marcha atrás. Tuvieron que enfrentarse a ella, integrarla o dejarse consumir. En contextos donde no hay espacio para la integración tranquila, la sombra se convierte en fuego. Y el fuego, si no transforma, destruye.