You can't make a sequel of Labyrinth in 2020

I just saw someone post that labyrinth fans want Tilda Swinton to play Jarath in the sequel to Labyrinth. No they don't. If you think that they do then you have no idea who the real fans of this movie are. Fans of Labyrinth are 35 to 45 year old women who watched the romantic adventure of a young girl and a much older love interest. You can't make this film in 2020, are you serious?

Don't do this, don't ruin Labyrinth like you ruined JEM. I haven't even seen the JEM movie. I was a JEM mega fan in the 80's. JEM was a romantic cartoon that was a whole lot like a soap opera. JEM led a double life, she was able to hide her identity, she had a hot boyfriend and ran starlight music and an orphanage/foster home all while being a rock star and occasionally solving a crime. Who DOESN'T want to watch that? Instead they tried to appeal to the young girls of today and lost both the old audience and the new one. Can you imagine if they had turned this into a grown-up series on HBO instead? Heck if they had even just followed the original story line it would have been ok. What the ending up making was......a mistake. The reason is in today world JEM's story lines are a bit adult. The cartoon JEM was an adult by the way, unlike the teenager the replaced her with. The film I hear is boring, with no holograms, no camp and no fantasy. JEM was the essence of the 80's and so is Labyrinth and that is why you can't make a sequel to Labyrinth now.


Maybe some young 20-30 year olds will be offended by what I'm about to write, because that is all we do these days, get offended... but it needs to be explained. In the 80's there was no identity politics. In the 80's you could get away with David Bowie playing the, lets just say it out loud, love interest of a 14 year old girl. So raise your hand if you think they can continue the story as a romance?
No Tilda Swinton can not play the romantic lead in this film, perhaps Adam Lambert, but no not a female. I'd like to point out I was corrected when I said this on a message board, she is non-binary. *insert eye roll  Sure, tons of girls will get all sweaty for non binary Tilda..rigghhhttt. If you get mad at me saying this, then I have news for you, Labyrinth isn't for you. Go watch some fan girl YouTube videos about how David Bowie was their first crush before they even knew they liked boys and try again.

YOU CAN'T MAKE LABYRINTH in 2020.  It is not a politically correct film and it's sequel can't be made anymore either. At it's best the movie is about child endangerment and child exploitation...and that's if we forget about the whole part where Jareth want's to basically have a young girl, and I quote 'worship him'.  Look I'd love to see the story of Sarah, Toby and Jareth continued. Maybe Sara can become the part time goblin queen or something, (If they don't go by the comic book part 2), but I honestly don't think 2020 can handle it.

 

Why aren't we already working/learning from home?

If there is one thing I have taken away from this whole debacle it's for goodness sake have a stock of toilet paper. Look I always knew people were stupid. I have learned people feed on drama over the years, some people relishing the insanity..well relishing it until it starts to hit you in your wallet anyway, but I have to say the great toilet paper famine of 2020 surprised me. Impending doom on humanity aside..why isn't at least 40% of us already working from home? Even if you don't believe in global warming...you have to agree that using more resources and putting more cars and trains on the road every day can't be good for the environment. We all know that a company saves money when they don't have to pay for a huge building and keeping it hot in the winter and cool in the summer. They save money when they are not paying for desks and chairs and tiny little boxes to put people in. Not to mention they open their pool of possible employees to country wide when they make positions remote.
 Why aren't more of us fighting for the right to work from home, saving us hundreds in gas money, commute time we are not paid for, a work wardrobe, lunches out and tons of other expenses that are part of leaving home every day to work...not to mention many of us spend almost no time in the place we work so long to pay for, our home.
'It is businesses that do not trust us to work from home at the end of the day. I say if you can't tell if someone is doing their job or not..then maybe that position isn't that important to begin with or maybe you aren't a very good company. Working from home is better for humans who were never meant to work in tiny cubes all day. It helps end 'office politics'. It's better for morale and can I tell you business owners a secret...you workers are spending more time talking and thinking of ways to not work at your office then they will once they are home, with FEWER distractions.
Now lets talk about school. WHY EXACTLY ARE MY TAX DOLLARS PAYING FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS TO GO TO SCHOOL EVERYDAY WHEN THEY CAN LEARN FROM HOME!!! Going to an actual building should only be mandatory for students who are non compliant and not logging in to their classes. What about free lunches you say. Well that is a whole conversation that as a libertarian I could have with you but keeping all things the way they currently are vouchers or even food boxes are a possibility. Can we also take a moment to discuss how this could lower instances of bulling. Sure social media  can still be used to bully children but at least it wouldn't be physical. Perhaps we would never get high schools to 100% remote but a reduction in actual days where students are going to a physical building or a good reduction of the amount of students who need to go to a physical building is a great start.
Let's not even get started on college. If you aren't an athlete, in this day and age...there is almost no reason for you to physically be at your university. We talk about lowering the cost of college..this is how. A big portion of what students take out to go to school is for room and board!! Class costs should also go down as many of the school's buildings become obsolete.
So why aren't we doing this? We have the technology..so why aren't we fundamentally changing society to make this our reality? I have been a LONG standing advocate for remote work. Why aren't we working to reduce traffic in our cities and wasted tax funds? Why aren't workers clambering to work remotely for their own mental health and budget? I can only hope that the one good thing to come out of this terrible event is that people re evaluate how we engage in work and learning in society.
The fact is learning to be a more remote society will take a bit of an effort at first. Not everything will go smoothly and some people really will need to learn how to focus working from home, unlike others who will become more focused. This shouldn't stop us from making a more cost saving and mentally beneficial environment. Maybe if we start becoming a more remote society some of the current office buildings and schools could be turned into much needed low cost housing and ending the need for continued urban sprawl.

Slabine Brings Back Old School Radio for The Last Call

The Last Call is a short and when I started this review I did not at first realize the film that landed on my desk for review was a short. That's ok, writer and director Marcus Slabine managed to fit an entire story in the seventeen minute run time. Slabin has worked on The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in the past and the short was shot in a way that shows he knows his way around a film set.
The short centers around legendary prankster radio host Harry Cunningham's last night on the local FM radio before moving on to XM. Harry is played by Terry Alexander who is best known for his 1985 roll in Day of the Dead. Fun fact Lori Cardille, also from Day of the Dead makes a cameo...of sorts. While Harry is doing his last show a caller demands they play a something on air that Harry seems desperate to keep hidden from the public at all costs, even if that means the death of everyone in the studio.
The story was direct and to the point, and while not all of it aligned with how such a situation might realistically play out, what horror film does? While watching the film I was reminded of some almost forgotten film I saw where a dj talks to a serial killer on his call in show. I really hope a longer version includes the host and the caller having longer chats together! That is the really interesting part of the film. Who is this caller and what tape are they talking about?  Slabine However did not take his inspiration from long forgotten 80s b films but instead got his inspiration from a mix of sources. Pontypool, his father who was a DJ and his love of prank calling people himself when he was growing up were all part of what helped create The Last Call.
The stand out actor, by far, was Geoff Lerer who played the audio engineer. He has a quirky realness that makes him perfect for character roles. His time on screen is short of course considering the length of the film, but I hope if this short is expanded Lerer's role is expanded too.
Slabin used some hard blues and reds during the more climatic scenes and I hope he continues to use this color scheme in the film version and maybe perhaps expand upon the color usage. If I had one complaint with the overall look of the film, it would be the close shots, as I am a fan of larger atmospheric shots in horror. More than likely the closer shots were meant to exude a sense of claustrophobia in the small radio station.
I asked marketing to give me a list of the awards this short has won and the list is literally to long to include here. The film has won awards for best screen play, best picture, best director, and audience choice awards! WHEW! That is a decent reference for a short. I definitely see a full length version of  The Last Call on The SyFy channel in the near future.