I took my time with this one, so thank you for your patience. (I may probably still be revising this a bit and adding more details even now with it being live but) Enjoy! :D
Um, prepare for some fangirling in this one. lol
So...I don't know if you have noticed, but I am a huge fan of the actor Austin Butler these days. I wasn't sure if his 2024 projects should be its own blog post. I attempted to include all of my 2024 movies in one post, but I just wrote a lot for certain sections, so I felt that perhaps to condense I should make his filmography its own piece. I actually like this. I was interested in writing a blog post essay spotlighting his career anyway, so this is a good place to start.
You're welcome.
I became a fan of Austin Butler in 2022 when he played Elvis Presley in Elvis and in 2023 was rooting for him during awards season. But as I keep saying, 2024 was truly Austin's year. Now I'm going to explain why. These will be reflections about my feelings towards the movies themselves as well as a tribute to his contributions to them. All of these were announced around the same time after Elvis and so as a new fan I was looking forward to seeing him take on other roles and see what he does with them.
Happy One Year Anniversary to the opening of Dune: Part Two in theaters! 😃
Hands down, this is the best movie I have seen in 2024. This is one of the best movies I have ever seen in my entire lifetime, in fact.
In my last blog post, I claimed that this movie was snubbed. This is in regards to the major awards season not nominating any of the cast members for their acting roles or Denis Villeneuve for his direction, even though it has been getting a nice handful of awards for visual effects and sound. With a phenomenal cast like this, it deserves so much more. In a nice turn of events, it is up for Best Picture at this year's Oscars, something we were anticipating, but it isn't very likely to win due to its genre and competition. We shall see. People are surmising that the snubs are because of when the film was released, but I don't think that should make a difference. It kicked off the 2024 year of movies and was a success for months that no other movie was able to surpass. This was THE big flick release of the year and everybody was talking about it. And it only came out in March. We all thought that it would sweep the entire awards season and when last year's Oscars concluded, I was all prepared to campaign for it right away. lol
I might be a little bit biased though, because this was also the first movie I have ever seen in IMAX. Yeah, I decided to see what the fuss was all about.
At first I was like, never again. I'm the type that likes to sit back and relax, not be a part of the movie, you know what I mean? My back kinda hurt after lol. But now, I don't regret it at all. It was such an incredible experience. I ended up seeing it twice this way.
I went into this knowing nothing about Dune and I still enjoyed it because it is such a grand scale spectacle. I may not have followed it too well considering my lack of knowledge of it, but I understood it for the most part regardless. LOL There are certain things that happen in this movie that are explained in Dune: Part One, so therefore these moments either confused me or went over my head, like the Bene Gesserit Voice thing (that made me jump every time in the IMAX theater lol) and the Gom Jabbar Test that they do, and the way the battle suits they use vibrate when they activate an invincible shield on them. I'm no expert and am still learning about the whole Dune world. The only thing I knew about this franchise is that Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya star in it, it's about a planet made of sand, and it's based on a science fiction novel (written by Frank Herbert, I would discover later). That's it. I felt that Dune: Part One came and went without people noticing it much but this one was the complete opposite with the deserved recognition it received.
What I really found interesting was looking at it from a Catholic perspective. This movie was released during Lent for me, and for those of you who don't know what that is, it is a time period on the Catholic liturgical calendar between Ash Wednesday (which is actually this upcoming week and coincidentally lands on my one year anniversary of seeing this film for the first time, making this even more significant for me) and the Holy Triduum, which leads to Easter Sunday, that commemorates the waiting period for the Resurrection of Christ. Dune: Part Two was a perfect film for this time of my religious life.
The story picks up directly from the end of Part One and it follows this young man Paul Atreides (Chalamet, thus making me respect him more as an actor and take more notice of him) who is prophecized to be this messianic figure, the Kwisatz Haderach. The only thing is, some are hardcore believers, some are lukewarm believers, and some are non-believers entirely, like Zendaya's character and Paul's love interest Chani. There is this whole conflict of interest about whether or not the Fremen, the native people of the sand planet Arrakis, should follow Paul to Paradise after he and his family arrive because Paul is considered a false prophet for many and they have to convert the non-believers. Even though it is not blatantly in your face and not the message of the story anyway, the movie also gives the impression based on the casting that they are vaguely suggesting a white culture versus people of color culture clash as well.
This made me think about how various people view Jesus Christ. The only difference is, Jesus knew from the beginning who He is and what His role is. Paul over here questions his whole identity. He's been raised to think that he is this important being but he isn't entirely convinced, so it's this tug-of-war between the Fremen beliefs that he is learning and the Bene Gesserit beliefs he grew up with. Paul/Timothée delivers an iconic aggressive monologue towards the end of the film that rallies up the Fremen for battle, and I was like, "Jesus wouldn't do THIS though." lol And that's where their similarities came to a halt. However, they both respect temples and do have their fair share of multiple names.
There's even bad guys, the Harkonnens, who are easily the best part of the film. I would watch a whole movie just of these guys. They're all bald and just so unfeeling and hateful towards each other and everyone else around them and it's just so comical. I want to know more about this family.
So there is this spice drug called melange that is at the center of all of this and is just basically portrayed as cinnamon with glitter in it. Whoever wields it has the greatest power and consciousness and experiences overall life improvement and blue eyes when high on it. Arrakis is the only place that produces it, so guess what? Everyone is fighting over Arrakis just for that.
Oh yeah. Almost forgot. Austin Butler is in this one. He's kind of a minor character, so I forgot that he was involved, you know? Almost like an afterthought.
...
YEAH OKAY. As if he wasn't the reason why I went to see this film in the first place! Now that I remember, a clip from Elvis played beforehand too, which made it even more perfect to have one Austin Butler movie lead into the next at the same screening! 😃
Austin Butler is the greatest award season snub this year, by the way. He totally should have been up for Best Supporting Actor. We're all bitching about this on Twitter on a daily basis.
So Austin plays the youngest member of the Harkonnen family, na-Baron Feyd-Rautha. (I just love that he gets a hyphenated first name for some reason. lol) He is celebrating his coming of age birthday so not only is he now old enough to eventually succeed his creepy Baron uncle (Stellan Skarsgård) and become Emperor when the guy (Christopher Walken) inevitably has to step down for his crimes, and be Paul's equal adversary, he is also old enough to impregnate a Bene Gesserit to give them an heir...
It's a lot. I don't even know if I am explaining this correctly and I can't explain everything involving Dune in this one blog post. I have other movies to talk about here too! LOL
So when I first heard about Austin being cast in this role, I looked up Feyd-Rautha and learned a tiny bit about him. I immediately was like, "Ooooh. He's playing the bad guy! Hot!" Then I eventually saw his character design...bald, no eyebrows, black teeth, the likes of which made me think that he had no teeth at all at first...and was disappointed with the aesthetic.
This image from the initial trailers was my first exposure to his character design:
I'm sorry. This was scary and unattractive to me, okay? lol I was like, "Remember the good old days when we thought he was going to be hot in this role?"
But then I saw him in the movie and dang it! He's hot in this too! But I often wonder if this character would still be attractive to me if another actor played him. lol
Feyd-Rautha was the first character I watched Austin Butler play after Elvis, so this was a big deal. We don't get to meet him until about an hour and 11 minutes in (I remember people saying this before I saw it and I found it kinda daunting, but it goes by fast anyway), but once we do, he owns the entire movie with every shot he's in, and he's only in like 16 minutes of the movie (16:31 to be exact - Fans have timed it). He is one of those characters you miss when he is not on screen. I love that this current incarnation is the face of the character now and eventually became the face of Dune: Part Two. People were, and still are, always talking about how good he was in this movie.
The whole entire sequence that introduces him is THE best part of the film by far, from when Reverend Mother Mohiam (Charlotte Rampling) and Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh) first discuss him and introduce him before we even see him yet (This gets me so hyped!), to when the servants are painting him, to the Harkonnen Arena scene, to when he confronts the Baron about what went down during the Harkonnen Arena scene and the Baron informs him of his future prospects, to when Lady Margot Fenring (Léa Seydoux) seduces him and then evidently sleeps with him offscreen (I started thinking about this during my second viewing: By using The Voice, does she essentially rape him here since he cannot give his own free will consent?), to when Margot, Irulan, and Mohiam are talking about him again, to when he is named Planetary Governor of Arrakis. It's to the point where when we go back to Paul, Chani, and all them, you realize that you forgot all about them, it feels like a different movie, and now you're slightly bored because you have to endure Paul's identity crisis while trying to assimilate into Fremen culture again, which now pales in comparison to what we just witnessed on Giedi Prime. (The scene of Paul riding a sandworm for the first time IS epic though, among many others.)
I want to show you Feyd's whole introduction sequence, but I don't think YouTube has everything collected in one video, so here is just a little something to give you a visual.
There are so many great videos of Austin's Feyd on YouTube. I had/have so much fun and joy commenting on them and discussing them with others!
I will never forget witnessing the Harkonnen Arena scene in IMAX for the first time for as long as I live. The floor and seats were shaking and I was clutching onto the arms of my chair and reeling back, terrified (I did the same thing when Feyd's closeup stares down the Baron and he slithers down the stairs in the next scene too lol). And this is with the announcer and the chanting before Feyd even comes out too. I did not know what was about to happen and it felt like I was in the actual arena myself.
It was amazing.
It's so interesting and a little sad though how this scene doesn't feel the same the second time around and all of the other times after the initial experience because then you now know what to expect.
As dark and violent as this scene is, it is now my comfort scene. LOL Sometimes I play it or the "Harkonnen Arena" track itself for myself as background noise or when I need a little pep in my step. I have the whole thing memorized now. I even dressed as Margot/a Bene Gesserit for Halloween! LOL!
The first time I saw Dune: Part Two in theaters, afterwards I took a walk around the cinema to look at upcoming film posters, likely looking for a specific one, and saw through a door window that it was playing in another room, a normal theater. It was none other than the Harkonnen Arena scene!
Whenever I think of AMC Theatres and going to the movies now, I think of this movie, and particularly this one shot of Feyd. It's not what you would expect either. It's not when he licks the knife, it's not any shot from the Harkonnen Arena scene, it's not when he kisses the Baron, it's not when he duels Paul...
It's this:
Not one of his more iconic shots, right? For context, this is towards the end of the film when Paul and the Fremen ambush and invade the villains and right before Feyd and Paul are in each other's presence for the first time. This is Feyd waiting for them to enter and a lot of chaos is taking place right before him. I think what I like about this is that it just really screams science fiction movie villain and he takes this label seriously. Something that I like about Feyd, and about Austin's acting that I often talk about, is his subtle facial expressions. I first noticed this even in Elvis. Feyd is always calm when he does things, even when he is battling, and you can tell that he is calculating his next move at all times. As the Baron describes him earlier, he went from "playboy" to "hero." He assumes this very important military position right away and almost never turns his back on his enemies, including his older and more erratic brother Rabban (Dave Bautista), and isn't really violent until he thinks about it, unlike Rabban who is very temperamental and acts on impulse. Feyd is always thinking and you can see it in his face at all times and he is always ready to rumble.
And like even during the Harkonnen Arena scene his facial expressions are subtle. He always studies his opponents and at one point he winks at one of them when he tries to strike him. And Austin was doing this ever since he was first training for this scene as evidenced by the behind the scenes footage. Speaking of, even the rest of the cast said that when they did the first Zoom reading of the script, Austin was doing his Feyd voice already, which encouraged them all to bring their A-game.
Ugh. That is all so impressive and hot and such a turn on. lol
Geez, I should have made Dune a blog post on its own! Let me talk about one more thing. Maybe I'll do a whole blog post about every Feyd scene at some point. It's only 16 and a half minutes worth of content! :P
In fact, I do have a criticism about this character and it is his lack of screentime. I know I said before that it works regardless, but they build him up as this great villain and to me he is more like the Baron's henchman, with of course Baron Vladimir being the main villain. If he is supposed to be Paul's equal, we should have seen his journey just as much as we see Paul's, or at least more of it. For example, they should have shown his reaction to the Gom Jabbar Test since Paul underwent it in the first movie so audiences could compare them. We don't really get enough time with him to learn about his motivation, his upbringing, his personality, all that, to really connect with him. The first thing Paul ever says to him is, "I'm happy to finally meet you, cousin."
Finally?? He just found out he exists, like, yesterday when he drank The Water of Life and discovered the truth about everything. Right? And then right after he says this, spoiler alert, he kills him. And Feyd just goes along with it too and nonchalantly passively questions it: "Cousin. Is that right?" Unless they knew each other existed but just didn't realize that they were related until now. But you figure that Feyd would wonder why Paul would address him as such all of a sudden and decide to bring this up at the last minute right before they're about to fight to the death. Also, if their families were sworn enemies for centuries, wouldn't this come as more of a shock?
But the fact that he is still a fan favorite and made such an impact regardless of all of this is such a testament to Austin's performance and Feyd's role in the story. They had to be true to the book too, so Feyd-Rautha's presence in the movie has to match that. My understanding is that the book definitely explains more about him, but maybe there was only so much they could include in this movie. It's already a Part Two film covering the second half of one book.
Okay so I can't really close out my section about Feyd until I talk a bit more about his duel at the end with Paul. What is very impressive is that both Austin and Timothée practiced this and mostly did their own stunts (I'm thinking that the one cool flip Paul does in the air probably isn't Timothée lol), referring to it as a "dance" and feeling like "opening night" when they finally showed everyone their routine. I love that. There is a choreography performance even in combat.
The duel not including background music caught me off guard, but I like this detail because it makes the scene that much more raw and authentic. It is a bit awkward for me how everyone is gathered around to watch them duel though because they aren't in an arena this time but rather just in an open space in a room. But it is very Shakespearean how all of the characters unite or reunite at the end in one space like this.
"May thy knife chip and shatter" is the iconic quote from this story. It was also the first line we heard Austin speak in his Feyd voice. After they built up how menacing he sounded, it was so cool to finally get to hear it in the clips they released prior.
Paul says the line first and then Feyd responds with the same phrase, which propels them into their duel.
Something that actors are very talented with is not only line delivery, but offering the possibility of different interpretations of that line through their delivery. Austin does this beautifully here.
My first impression was that, because of his voice and tone, and even facial expressions again, Feyd is just mocking Paul here, taking a line that is important to Paul and regurgitating it back in a juvenile and disrespectful manner:
MaY tHy KnIfE cHiP aNd ShAtTeR, meh!
lol However, after listening to it again, I began to hear the line delivered in a different way. Perhaps Feyd completely understands the importance of the line, finds it impressive, and not only uses Paul's own words against him but responds the same way as a form of respect:
No, May THY knife chip and shatter.
Both interpretations make sense but the latter is more Feyd's style. We understand that Feyd respects his worthy opponents, especially Paul, so him adopting Paul's battle cry is much more likely. Knowing how Austin considers every minute detail of his characters, down to how they breathe, I would love to know his thought process behind this.
I love this movie, and when the spirit moves me, perhaps I will write more blog posts about it. Because as I said, I can't cover everything here.
By the way, I love this! Get this on Spotify! LOL!
Dune: Messiah is next in Villeneuve's repertoire, and the last movie he plans to direct for this series. I think this is a wise move, leaving it as a trilogy because we don't want it to overstay its welcome. Plus, this is pretty much where Paul's narrative ends before the book series progresses into other areas. Now whether I plan on seeing it to finish Paul's story for myself or not see it because Feyd won't be in it remains to be seen.
Good luck to Dune: Part Two at the 97th Academy Awards! 😃
(Added March 3, 2025) Congratulations to Dune: Part Two for winning the Oscars for Best Sound and Best Visual Effects back to back at the 97th Academy Awards last night, just as we predicted!!!!! That was so awesome to witness live!!! 😃🎬🏆
All right. Finally moving on to this next movie, and a crappy one at that.
Clearly The Bikeriders is my least favorite movie of the year. This movie can go kick rocks.
YEAH RIGHT.
I wrote a whole essay about ONE SCENE in this movie. Imagine what I can do with the whole movie???
Not to mention how I never shut up about it. lol
Now here's the thing. I will actually be the first to admit that Dune: Part Two is the better movie of the two even though I like The Bikeriders more. Directed by the Austin Butler Fan Club President Jeff Nichols (I've dubbed him this because he never missed an opportunity to talk about how attractive Austin is and provided so much fan service of him in this movie, so it's pretty much official), The Bikeriders has some plot holes. It just shows the lives of the Vandals without much story arc other than the rise and fall of their club, so that can be off-putting for some people. You also might have some motorcyclists feel that it is not an accurate portrayal of their lifestyle, even though it is based on real people from the photography book of the same name by Danny Lyons.
But The Bikeriders has a special place in my heart. Okay, it has Austin Butler at his hottest (I'm a woman with needs - sue me) but it also went through a lot to get it to the big screen. It was supposed to be released on December 1, 2023 and technically this is a 2023 film because it first premiered at the 50th Telluride Film Festival. But for awhile we didn't hear about it, and Nichols was doing interviews for it by himself due to the strikes, so it made me wonder if we would even get to see it at all. It was feeling like a lost piece of media.
So when it finally started getting promoted in May 2024 and released in June 2024 (through a new production distribution company as well), I was so excited that this was real and finally actually happening and became a little obsessed. When seeing other movies in theaters, I would still go searching for the poster of this one and take pictures. It was the first time that I actually cared to see a trailer before a movie, going early to watch the trailers before seeing The Fall Guy because I had heard that it played before that movie. It did not (probably because it was never released in IMAX and that was the theater I was in), but strolling around the cinema looking for the poster again, I heard it playing, particularly the "OH YEAH!" from The Rolling Stones. I ran toward it, looked through the door window, and got a glimpse of it in another theater. I specifically remember seeing the scene when Johnny and Benny visit Cockroach. That made up for it.
I even asked a few AMC Theatres employees at different locations if I could have the The Bikeriders poster when I noticed that they were taken down shortly after the movie opened, but to no avail. I hope to purchase my own in the future. I'm just glad that I took photos of and with them when they were hanging up in AMC Theatres when I did. (Poster Sighting #1, Poster Sighting #2 lol)
I remember seeing the original poster design (the one just of the back of Austin/Benny sitting on his motorcycle on the side of the road) hanging up in AMC Theatres as well awhile back, I think when it still had the December 2023 release date. I like both designs for different reasons, but that is the one I favor and want more due to the artistic ambiguous quality of it. But maybe I'll get both? 🙂
I would try to see The Bikeriders in theaters any chance I got (a total of 4) because after all that, I was annoyed when I found out that it wouldn't have a very long run in theaters and was going straight to streaming merely two weeks after its release. I wanted to support and embrace it as long as I could.
If you remember, when Barbie was in theaters, viewers were encouraged to wear pink. I came up with my own dress code for The Bikeriders by wearing leather and denim for my first couple of cinema viewings. lol 😆
Austin does a great job as Benny. He's handsome and fit, brooding and a man of few words, wears denim and leather, smokes cigarettes, and rides a motorcycle WITH ONE HAND. What more could a girl want??? This character of Benny Cross is the perfect package of bad boy sex appeal and I was so thrilled that Austin Butler being the actor portraying this was something we were getting. Again, it was exciting to see this role in particular come up after he played Elvis. I don't remember when and how exactly they first announced this film, but I think they just said that he was going to be in a biker movie and that in itself piqued my interest. His deep voiced delivery in the first ever trailers saying "You'd have to kill me to get this jacket off" sent shivers through me and took my breath away and sold me on the film. This movie and character gave me what I thought Dune: Part Two was going to give me with Feyd.
But, after watching it, I will admit that this wasn't really his movie to shine. This was Tom Hardy's movie really because it mainly tells the story of his character Johnny Davis witnessing the progression of his motorcycle club creation go awry and downhill. After seeing and liking him in other movies, it was nice to see him in this one. I'm grateful that this film also introduced me to Jodie Comer, who of course plays Benny's wife Kathy Bauer. I never really knew much about her and now she is one of my favorite actresses on my radar. I'm also impressed that she won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Prima Facie (a one-woman play, mind you), and looking up the Prima Facie trailer brought back memories but I never made the connection until then when I heard her say "ALL RISE!" and I gasped. Then back in September, I went to a university here in Jersey to see a screening of Prima Facie and was even further blown away by her. In fact, her performance as barrister Tessa Ensler is lightyears better than her as Kathy. It is available for rent or subscription on the National Theatre at Home website until March 5 if you are interested in watching it.
It is just so cool to see all of these actors that I am aware of from different walks of life together in one film.
By the way, Benny and Kathy never kiss in this movie. I bring this up all the time. All of the intimate scenes Austin has done in the past, the one time he actually plays a husband character, he never kisses his wife? I know the focus is on the Vandals and maybe they didn't want to take away from that, and I kinda like that they went a different route by not developing the love story much, but not even a peck? That would have sufficed to indicate more that they are romantically involved and in love. To this day, I don't fully understand why something like this was excluded. Maybe the actors themselves had some kind of clause against it?
But again, what the movie comes down to is the brotherhood among the Vandals. Another huge reason why I love this movie so much is that it reminds me of my childhood favorite, Holes (2003). They are both comfort movies for me now. An important theme in Holes is male camaraderie among a group of boys and The Bikeriders is a more adult version of that. Cal (Boyd Holbrook) always comes across as an adult Zigzag (Max Kasch) to me. LOL
The Bikeriders is just a bunch of white guys hanging out on their motorcycles without much controversy. The main theme of the movie is the turn of masculinity during the 1960s and 1970s and how motorcycle clubs reflected that. The motorcycle club subculture even has its own rules. The film doesn't feel the need to make any statements by tackling any other societal issues of the time or adhering to today's movie standards by purposely incorporating them to lecture its audience. There is no forced diversity for the sake of it (There is one Asian woman accurately based on a real life woman from the book) nor are there any feminist, LGB+, etc., plot points. The only acknowledgement of real world issues, mentioned very briefly might I add, is how guys who came back from the Vietnam War joined the Vandals and changed the dynamic of the club by getting drugs involved. It is a very straight white men driven story and I feel like a movie that gears toward that demographic is not very accepted, celebrated, or common nowadays, especially a positive one like this film (depending on the characters though...some of the men in this are straight up jerks too). If anybody is oppressed or discriminated against in this film, it is the motorcyclists themselves because they are considered an unfavorable bunch. I found it so refreshing that I didn't see people complain about any of this, such as saying things like, "Oh, another movie starring just white men." It is presented accurately based on these mens' lives back then and people were okay with it. I like that it just is what it is and and doesnt try to be anything it's not.
I'm not going to write too much more about this film here because I feel like down the road I might get inspired to write more essays about this one, but I will share my favorite scene. Enjoy. :)
There's literally not much to this scene. It's just Brucie (Damon Herriman) reading a newspaper article about one of Benny's shenanigans and Benny playing pool and cool. I get pumped for it the moment I see the billiard balls break and the background song starts. So what is it about this scene that makes me favor it so much??
Benny raises his eyebrows. That's it. That's what did it for me. Clearly, it doesn't take much. LOL
For whatever reason, Benny raising his eyebrows in that moment when Brucie goes "Benjamin? Fancy." opened up a whole new awakening and second puberty for me when I saw this for the first time. It is the sexiest thing I have ever seen, and I mean, all he is doing is raising his eyebrows! :P And yet I can't get enough of it! But again, this is another example of Austin's subtle facial expression acting that I so adore. It's like he's saying, "Pretty cool, huh? Yeah, whatever, though. I don't care." in one simplistic motion.
What makes it even more attractive is that a majority of these subtle moments are most likely improvised by Butler himself just because it felt right at the time because that tends to be how he operates.
There's also the whole aspect of him showing no concern that he broke all of these laws and has to show up in court. If that were me, I would be so worried and panicking, so him showing all of this calm indifference just being chill playing pool and nonchalantly smoking his cigarette is so sexy to me.
And then he goes:
They said 7 so...
...
So I guess that's the number. It felt like more.
He's all, "Guess that's the number. Whatever." He does not care at ALL and I'M DROOLING (figuratively). I guess opposites attract. :P
Here is my very first reaction to this scene when I first watched it on Twitter before the movie came out if you're interested. lol
I think what made this scene cool for me too was seeing a brand new Benny scene early on that we hadn't seen before to preview the film.
I do have one criticism about this scene though. Just for fun. Please don't take the following too seriously. lol
As you can see, he is just wearing a denim vest here, which he usually wears over his jacket. So therefore, this is the only scene in the movie in which he is shirtless. Why was this the wardrobe choice for this scene? I have no idea, but I approve. But uh, the entire time we only see him at a side angle or the back of his vest or a close up on his eyebrow raising face. We see him flex his bare biceps and some chest, yes, which is nice, but not much else as it is frustratingly blocked from view or off camera...
Come on, Jeff! You're not the President of the Austin Butler Fan Club for nothing! You had an opportunity here and didn't take it! A glimpse is all I ask! I'M A WOMAN WITH NEEDS! LOL!
We don't get a peck of a kiss! We don't get a front view of a shirtless Benny Cross! What is this, Jeff?? You always brag about how good looking he is but then deprive us of these moments???
Whatever. He still looks exceptionally hot here and I'm happy with what we got. lol
And Denis actually did give us a shirtless Feyd for an entire scene showing all different angles and closeups (He knew what he was doing! lol), so I can't really complain...
Okay...let me move on before I pass out. LOL I need to calm down!
(Disclaimer and reminder that I was only joking here. I have the utmost respect and admiration for Austin Butler and apologize if this was too out of pocket. I just thought that it would be funny to mention lol. I'm not that upset or thirsty about it, but geez! Some of the decisions Jeff Nichols made kinda confuse me! lol)
"Masters of the Air" (lol after all that let's get serious) is a 9-episode Apple TV+ miniseries about the 100th Bomb Group, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber unit during World War II. It premiered and ran from January to March 2024 and is not necessarily a movie, but I don't really watch much TV to include it in a blog post about my television consumption of 2024, and it is the only other Austin Butler 2024 project to really discuss, so this is the best place to talk about it.
When The Bikeriders was leaving theaters, I was kinda depressed about it. So when the final showing was taking place, I figured that was a good time to finally watch "Masters of the Air" to get my mind off of it. I'm a little late to the game with this one, not watching it in real time, so I had to catch up and look back at content. After always hearing about the series and seeing it on Twitter, I was planning to watch it for awhile and was just trying to determine when. I ended up binge watching this in a back-to-back two-night marathon for myself. It was nice to not have to wait for new episodes and after doing so, it felt good to finally be up to date with Austin's post-Elvis projects. :)
This is another one of those type of shows that I'm glad I watched, but I don't think I would watch again. Great show, very educational, but extremely heavy and disturbing. There is a lot of war imagery in this that I don't think I can stomach again for awhile. It is exhausting and it makes you really feel how trying these missions were for these men to have to do EVERY DAY. There isn't too much blood, but there is a lot of death. There is this one scene that upset me so much not because of gore but because of a death that occurs that I had to pause and stop watching for a bit. It's not as much visually disturbing as much as it is heartwrenching. If you want to know the scene I am referring to, it involves a younger character they call Babyface.
Speaking of gore really quickly, I really appreciate how none of these projects have much of it. The goriest parts of Dune: Part Two are actually the scenes with Feyd lol, but even those aren't that brutal and you don't see much because it tends to be covered. I figured that it being rated PG-13 was why, but even the R-rated movie The Bikeriders has very minimal. I was wondering and a little concerned about how much it would have considering its rating.
This series made me truly understand what soldiers endured during World War II and made me respect them even more. It also made me feel closer to both of my grandfathers who fought in that war. Neither were in the Air Force, but stuff that takes place in the show happened to them. My maternal grandfather drove tanks and an explosion occured, killing the man beside him and leaving behind a ringing in his ear for the rest of his life. I recall stories of my paternal grandfather being a prisoner of war and having to live on potatoes, which is exactly what is mentioned in this show. It makes me wonder if my grandfathers ever crossed paths with Majors Cleven and Egan.
Although Austin is a lead in this as Major Gale "Buck" Cleven and this was his first role since Elvis (which makes this job stand out) and his first role released in 2024, this isn't really one of his most memorable ones to me. What I mean is, that honor goes to Feyd-Rautha in terms of 2024 characters and the more characters Austin plays, the more Gale, and Benny for that matter, are not going to be the first ones you bring up when thinking of Austin Butler characters unless you truly prefer them. In other words, Sebastian Kydd from "The Carrie Diaries" is way more well known than maybe say Jordan Gallagher from "Ruby & the Rockits." The guys who really run this show are the other three leading men, Callum Turner as Major John "Bucky" Egan, Nate Mann as Major Robert "Rosie" Rosenthal, and Anthony Boyle as Lt. Harry Crosby, who also serves as the show's narrator. Buck is an important figure, don't get me wrong, but he is more like the straight man, the cool, calm, and collected constant to act as a foil to a hotheaded Egan. He is like the dad of the group. I like seeing him taking on a leadership role like this. You could tell that this man that Austin portrayed was an honorable and trustworthy one and I like how the other guys look up to him and take him seriously, regardless of rank or squad. It's crazy to think about how young these guys they are playing were in this position too.
This was basically a role to help break Austin away from Elvis so that he could move on with his life and career. Executive Producer Tom Hanks, who of course worked side by side with Austin on Elvis, was looking out for him that he didn't fall into a depression after being so dedicated to Elvis for so long and suggested that he jump into a new project immediately after. This being his first project announced and released after Elvis though was still exciting for me in itself, especially experiencing it as a new fan and feeling happy to see him associated with something new other than Elvis.
He's also shirtless in this one too! Yay! That's important to me apparently! :P
Since I'm sharing my favorite scenes from the other two, I'll share my favorite scene from this series as well.
Like my feelings towards Twisters, I prefer the romance that isn't really the central focus of the plot (which is probably why I was so interested in more romance in The Bikeriders). We meet Gale and his lady Marge (Isabel May) here in the show's opening scene (and the only truly pleasant one for me really because the rest of the series feels like a different show) and it's unfortunately the only scene they have together, but throughout the series there are numerous references to his love for her. They don't kiss either, by the way. But the interactions between them that we do get are very sexy yet in a romantically wholesome and classy way. It had me squealing. lol Her voice is just as deep and soothing as his too, but in a feminine way to pair well with his masculine one. Top that with their 1940s Transatlantic accents and well...
Cleven is the only soldier in the show who is loyal to his woman too and, spoiler alert (even though it is a historic fact lol), the end reveals that they got married! Out of all of Austin's characters in 2024, Major Gale Cleven is the most husband material. He is so romantic and lovely. 🥰
Before I close out, I really need to give a special shout out to the music used in all of these projects. Hans Zimmer for Dune: Part Two and Blake Neely for "Masters of the Air" composed gorgeous scores. Zimmer's Dune: Part Two score even won the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media. The Bikeriders, on the other hand, introduced me to 1960s songs and artists that I never heard of before. I like that there was no new song made specifically for the movie. Ben Nichols, Jeff's brother, has a band called Lucero that has a song called "Bikeriders," which came out in 2004 and is based on the true story of The Bikeriders, the photo book that the movie is based on by Danny Lyons. I love that this all came full circle 20 years later. "Out In The Streets" by The Shangri-Las is another lovely theme song for it. It's so fascinating how a song that has nothing to do with Benny and Kathy tells their story so well and the "Oooooo" at the beginning sounded throughout the movie offers so much atmosphere, especially when representing Benny.
I also find it cool too that every official poster for all three of these projects use a floating heads concept and Austin is positioned the same way in each one.
Something else I love is that they also have provided free screenplays of The Bikeriders and Dune: Part Two that we can read! 😃
2024 was such a great year for Austin Butler and his fans. I always say that 2022 introduced his potential as a movie star with Elvis, but 2024 really solidified it and showed the world what they're dealing with, especially thanks to his performance as Feyd-Rautha. His career has really taken off now and he is such an actor in demand. (Even for me! I want him to act in things that I am writing too! lol) In 2022 and 2023 I was just kinda watching from afar and didn't really get actively involved with the fandom until 2024 when they were doing the press tour for Dune: Part Two. It was nice to see Austin Butler actively promoting a movie of his again after his Elvis Oscar campaign came to a close. 2024 really kicked off his star power because for Elvis I saw how some people were like, "He was good in this, but let's see what else he can do before we name him the next great actor." I kind of agreed with this, because keep in mind, I wasn't much aware of his range and career beforehand yet since Elvis was what introduced him to me, so I wasn't sure if he was a really good actor or just really good at playing Elvis Presley. And in 2024 he did just that and proved that he could portray more way beyond what he already showed us. I love how all of these characters are so different from each other.
I'm now on a quest to watch all of his pre-Elvis projects. Up until recently, he was somewhat typecast as a love interest too...but that is an essay for another time. ;)
So ends my "Embracing New Genres in 2024" series, a lot of which was influenced by Austin Butler's presence. I don't think I would have watched a science fiction movie or a series about WWII if Austin Butler wasn't in them. Those genres just aren't really my thing. And I wouldn't have cared about a motorcycle club movie otherwise either. lol I feel like if other actors portrayed Austin's roles instead, I wouldn't have had the desire to watch these things. But I'm glad that I did, so I give him credit for broadening my horizons a bit more. He is also the reason why I am following award seasons more.
I am so looking forward to what the future holds for us as fans of his. Not only did a lot of Austin Butler projects come out in 2024 and he embarked on multiple press tours for them, many more were announced and he was busy filming a good majority of the time too. All of this combined made 2024 his year even more.
I have a feeling that my man here is going to have plenty of more "years" to come.
Hank, baby. We're waiting for you. ;) August 29! 😃
And Eddington, and City On Fire (also producing), and American Speed, and The Barrier (also executive producing), and (maybe) Heat 2, and Patrick Bateman in American Psycho (so we think...I don't know what the deal is with this one anymore right now but I think it's all systems go LOL), and now Deep Cuts, and...
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