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Two of the most recent fandoms I've dabbled in have some thematic similarities (LOL), so I'm making a post about them. I probably would've watched both movies even if they hadn't been hyped to death, but hype still got me here. Yes, this is mostly an excuse to talk about movie #2.
Conclave
I already wanted to watch this movie because of the Oscar buzz, but I ended up watching it because it blew up on![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fail_fandomanon as an extremely horny Old Man Yaoi fandom. I'm no stranger to thirsting after sad middle aged men--I've had a crush on The Terror's Frances Crozier since 2019--but Conclave failed to spark fannish joy for me.
I really enjoyed the movie's cinematography and visuals and tight pacing, but I did not find any of the sad middle aged cardinals attractive enough to ship (except, unfortunately, for extremely bigoted conservative vapelord Tedesco). It was also clear that for FFA, the appeal of this fandom is in shipping anxious neurotic repressed virgins with religious sexuality baggage, and that's really not my thing (part of what makes Crozier hot to me is that he clearly fucks, and all his sexual hangups come from decades of experience and relationships). My favorite cardinal was Stanley Tucci's Bellini, and Bellini/Tedesco is apparently a pretty popular ship, but I wasn't motivated to seek out fic for it.
Sinners
Firstly, aside from some minor gripes about pacing, I think this movie completely deserves its astronomical hype and might be the best movie about the power of music that I've ever seen.
Like Conclave, Sinners has characters struggling with faith and temptation, but there are no anxiously repressed virgins in sight (the only character likely to be a virgin is buried face-first in pussy by the second act). The characters eagerly indulge in sins ranging from blues music to sex to infidelity to violence and murder, and the supernatural element means that all these sins literally endanger the characters' mortal souls. I think the movie is really good at making things like acoustic blues music and consensual sex feel genuinely thrilling and evil and dangerous, the way they would to characters in this place and time.
I expected my favorite character to be one or both of MBJ's SmokeStack twins, but Preacher Boy stole my heart in the opening scene, and love him more every time I watch the movie. I said in my Baby Driver review that I have a thing for "a cute traumatized twink protagonist who's secretly badass and hyper-competent in his chosen field," and baby-faced blues prodigy/cunning linguist Sammie Moore definitely qualifies (I think Sinners/Baby Driver would be a fun crossover, and Baby definitely has tapes full of Sammie Moore records). It would've been really easy to write this character as a sweet, innocent, virginal final girl untouched by the sins of the other characters, but a huge part of Sammie's coming of age journey is him grappling with temptation and breaking his preacher father's religious rules, and figuring out for himself if following the rules is worth the high cost. I won't be surprised if he's my favorite character of the year.
The AO3 tag is pretty active for a standalone non-franchise movie. Most of the characters have opposite sex love interests, so this is a very het and readerfic-heavy fandom, which is a mixed bag for me. I'm not into readerfic or self-insert OCs at all, but I loved all the canon ships, especially Stack/Mary and Sammie/Pearline. I'm also very into Stack/Smoke and Sammie/Remmick, two delightfully fucked up ships filled with very different versions of codependence and obsession. This canon is also great for combining ships into messy polycules. This is the most energy I've had for a fandom in a while, and hopefully I can harness it into fic. Or maybe into a Remmick/Sammie fanmix of sad pining Irish love songs.
Conclave
I already wanted to watch this movie because of the Oscar buzz, but I ended up watching it because it blew up on
fail_fandomanon as an extremely horny Old Man Yaoi fandom. I'm no stranger to thirsting after sad middle aged men--I've had a crush on The Terror's Frances Crozier since 2019--but Conclave failed to spark fannish joy for me. I really enjoyed the movie's cinematography and visuals and tight pacing, but I did not find any of the sad middle aged cardinals attractive enough to ship (except, unfortunately, for extremely bigoted conservative vapelord Tedesco). It was also clear that for FFA, the appeal of this fandom is in shipping anxious neurotic repressed virgins with religious sexuality baggage, and that's really not my thing (part of what makes Crozier hot to me is that he clearly fucks, and all his sexual hangups come from decades of experience and relationships). My favorite cardinal was Stanley Tucci's Bellini, and Bellini/Tedesco is apparently a pretty popular ship, but I wasn't motivated to seek out fic for it.
Sinners
Firstly, aside from some minor gripes about pacing, I think this movie completely deserves its astronomical hype and might be the best movie about the power of music that I've ever seen.
Like Conclave, Sinners has characters struggling with faith and temptation, but there are no anxiously repressed virgins in sight (the only character likely to be a virgin is buried face-first in pussy by the second act). The characters eagerly indulge in sins ranging from blues music to sex to infidelity to violence and murder, and the supernatural element means that all these sins literally endanger the characters' mortal souls. I think the movie is really good at making things like acoustic blues music and consensual sex feel genuinely thrilling and evil and dangerous, the way they would to characters in this place and time.
I expected my favorite character to be one or both of MBJ's SmokeStack twins, but Preacher Boy stole my heart in the opening scene, and love him more every time I watch the movie. I said in my Baby Driver review that I have a thing for "a cute traumatized twink protagonist who's secretly badass and hyper-competent in his chosen field," and baby-faced blues prodigy/cunning linguist Sammie Moore definitely qualifies (I think Sinners/Baby Driver would be a fun crossover, and Baby definitely has tapes full of Sammie Moore records). It would've been really easy to write this character as a sweet, innocent, virginal final girl untouched by the sins of the other characters, but a huge part of Sammie's coming of age journey is him grappling with temptation and breaking his preacher father's religious rules, and figuring out for himself if following the rules is worth the high cost. I won't be surprised if he's my favorite character of the year.
The AO3 tag is pretty active for a standalone non-franchise movie. Most of the characters have opposite sex love interests, so this is a very het and readerfic-heavy fandom, which is a mixed bag for me. I'm not into readerfic or self-insert OCs at all, but I loved all the canon ships, especially Stack/Mary and Sammie/Pearline. I'm also very into Stack/Smoke and Sammie/Remmick, two delightfully fucked up ships filled with very different versions of codependence and obsession. This canon is also great for combining ships into messy polycules. This is the most energy I've had for a fandom in a while, and hopefully I can harness it into fic. Or maybe into a Remmick/Sammie fanmix of sad pining Irish love songs.
