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freshtake.bsky.social
Fresh Take
@freshtake.bsky.social
71 followers 85 following 180 posts
Not a hot take -- a fresh take. Looking at films and TV from all eras.

📣The Bechdel test is not the ceiling, it's the basement floor.
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freshtake.bsky.social
Gotta love how in Star Trek: The Next Generation they travel for high priority, urgent missions at warp 8, but when it's time to return Lwaxana Troi home, Picard is like, "Set a course for Betazed WARP 9!

#StarTrek #TNG #Picard #MajelBarrett
Screenshot from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Lwaxana Troi, dressed in a shimmery green-blue dress, is seated on Picard's lap, and has draped her arms around his neck.
August 20, 2025 at 8:25 PM
freshtake.bsky.social
Q: what's the opposite of Popeye convincing you to eat spinach?
Panel of a cartoon which shows Popeye the Sailor with a forkfull of spinach taken from a giant mound of spinach. The speech bubble says "They's nothin' like spinach to give a man strengt' "
July 29, 2025 at 10:23 PM
freshtake.bsky.social
Trekkies I need your advice: how much of the Star Trek franchise do you need to watch in order to enjoy Picard? We just watched all the way through Star Trek: The Next Generation and Voyager.

#StarTrek #TNG #Voyager #Picard #PatrickStewart
poster for the television series Star Trek Picard. It features a portrait of Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard looking off to one direction with a starscape behind him
July 27, 2025 at 10:39 PM
freshtake.bsky.social
Ironheart is a great watch. Worth doubling back and rewatching Wakanda Forever just to get the backstory on Riri Williams
Poster image for Ironheart. Superimposed on a portrait of Riri Williams is the mask and shoulders of an Iron-Man-style mechanical suit.
July 1, 2025 at 9:02 PM
freshtake.bsky.social
I have always been such a superfan of Kelly Marie Tran, from her unforgettable performance as Rose Tico (in Star Wars: The Last Jedi) to Raya (in Raya and the Last Dragon), so I'm thrilled to see her come out as a proud queer woman.

#KellyMarieTran #RoseTico #RayaAndTheLastDragon #LGBT #movie
Screenshot of an Instagram post by Them. Photo is a glamour shot of Kelly Marie Tran with the headline, "Kelly Marie Tran on Coming Out and Shaking Off the Shame." Text reads: It’s been nearly ten years since Kelly Marie Tran disappeared from the public eye due to the intense hate from right-wing racists she received after starring in ‘Star Wars.” But now, she’s back — and she’s ready to return to the limelight and embrace her queer identity. In her new movie, ‘The Wedding Banquet’ — Andrew Ahn’s remake of Ang Lee’s seminal 1993 film — Tran stars as Angela, one half of a lesbian couple trying for a baby, alongside a stacked cast featuring Lily Gladstone, Bowen Yang, and Han Gi-Chan. This role marks the first time the Vietnamese-American actress has taken on a queer role in a feature film since coming out. “At the end of the day, I think what’s really important to me is to remind myself that it’s bigger than me,” she tells us about her decision to come out in a spur-of-the-moment comment to a Vanity Fair reporter this past fall.
April 17, 2025 at 12:33 AM
freshtake.bsky.social
There should be a word for people who, like The Doctor, can only manage one friend at a time. (Four friends as an absolute MAX.)

Socio-minimalist?

#DoctorWho
Photo, inside the TARDIS, a spacious time-space machine, of Doctor Who (Ncuti Gatwa), a dapper Black man in a pinstripe tunic, and Belinda (Varada Sethu), a South Asian woman, in a short-sleeve white dress shirt and slacks.
April 15, 2025 at 3:59 AM
freshtake.bsky.social
But while it’s important to hold a critical lens to 1990s-era depictions of race and gender, there’s lots of good governance and bold futurism in the Star Trek body of storytelling that we can still strive for.

#StarTrek #TNG #Enterprise #futurism #thrutopia #protopia
March 5, 2025 at 12:41 AM
freshtake.bsky.social
Star Trek: the Next Generation is the good governance fantasy viewing we need right now.

You have characters doing their best at their jobs, based on the best and latest policies and research, and making decisions from their highest ethical standards.

#StarTrek #TNG #Enterprise #Picard #Riker
March 5, 2025 at 12:34 AM
freshtake.bsky.social
Everything you need to know about CHAOS WALKING is in the movie poster.
Movie poster for Chaos Walking. The face of Daisy Ridley, a solar eclipse with the planets about the size of Ridley's head, and the face of Tom Holland are all presented overlapping semi-translucently. Text reads: NO ONE ESCAPES THE NOISE.
January 18, 2025 at 3:42 AM
freshtake.bsky.social
The moral of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 is that we can't allow empires to control solar technology.
The power of the sun is meant to be shared democratically.

#GreenSky #EnergySky #GuardiansOfTheGalaxy #Marvel #MCU #movie 🎬
Photo from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. Ayesha, head of the Sovereign empire, who has both golden skin and golden clothing, is seated on a golden throne, behind which gold rays fan out against a blue background. Photo from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Rocket, a genetically-modified raccoon-type creature is standing up and holding an anulax solar battery in his hand. Baby Groot, a tree creature, sits on his shoulder.
January 14, 2025 at 12:34 AM
freshtake.bsky.social
A great end-off-year movie list, but it is incomplete without LAST HOLIDAY starring the one and only Queen Latifah.

(Paramount+ and Prime)(PG-13)
#movie 🎬 #BlackExcellence
Movie poster for LAST HOLIDAY. Queen Latifah, who is Black, is pictured in a diamond necklace and glamourous red dress, with a vibrant red train that streams across the white background of the poster.
December 31, 2024 at 8:31 PM
freshtake.bsky.social
So in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we have Benedict Cumberbatch faking a
U.S. American accent as Doctor Strange, and Tessa Thompson faking a British accent as Valkyrie.
There are obviously reasons, but are they good ones?
Make it make sense.

#MCU #Marvel #DoctorStrange #Thor #Valkyrie
Photo of Benedict Cumbatch. He is wearing a black suit blazer, a white shirt, an ivory tie and is holding up a cross on a ribbon which is the OBE or Order of the British Empire. Photo of Tessa Thompson in her costume as Valkyrie. Her hair is parted and gathered in a knot a top her head, and the rest of her flows down her back. She is wearing metallic-looking tunic and fingerless elbow-length gloves of the same material. A metallic belt runs diagonally over her tunic. She looks like a badass warrior.
December 31, 2024 at 4:25 AM
freshtake.bsky.social
When we celebrate the life of James Earl Jones, this is the standard we must surpass.

"What a king."

#Coming2America #JamesEarlJones #GladysKnight #EnVogue #SaltNpepa

youtu.be/vsLJicMwAUY?...
Screenshot from Coming 2 America. The funeral scene for King Jaffe Joffer, played by James Earl Jones. Gladys Knight sings into a microphone while wearing a traditional African dress and headdress. A choir dances behind her. The scene is lit by blue light.
September 9, 2024 at 10:30 PM
freshtake.bsky.social
Pitch: A birding comedy show starring Christian Cooper and Sarah Cooper, with jokes on the birding life, and bird impersonations.

Call it Cooper x Cooper
Graphic. Two headshots - Christian Cooper on the left and Sarah Cooper on the right. Text reads, "Cooper x Cooper"
July 14, 2024 at 9:54 PM
freshtake.bsky.social
You haven't truly lived until you've witnessed Donald Sutherland singing and dancing his way through the villain song as the GMO rice mogul in 'Basmati Blues'
Screenshot from Basmati Blues. From left to right: Tyne Daly, Saahil Sehgal, and Donald Sutherland, all in business clothes, singing with arms lifting. A chorus of dancers, all in business clothes, are singing and dancing behind the lead actors.
June 20, 2024 at 7:16 PM
freshtake.bsky.social
So I'm watching Basmati Blues (more on THAT to follow) and I have to take a moment to appreciate Tyne Daly.

Watching Tyne Daly as a child was my first experience of seeing a big woman take up space, express her full self, and demand to be listened to.

Grateful that she shared her many talents.
Portrait of Tyne Daly. She is a white woman, wearing her silvery hair in an updo. She is wearing a beaded necklace over a gauzy light green dress.
June 18, 2024 at 4:38 AM
freshtake.bsky.social
I love Frameline so much.
My big, bold hometown San Francisco LGBTQ film festival,
48 years strong.

That said, this year's festival poster is a train wreck, design-wise.

IN-Queer-Stories-TER-SEC-In-Film-TIONS

#LGBT #Pride #SanFrancisco #LGBTQIA
Poster. Text reads, "INTERSECTIONS Queer Stories in Film" but the word INTERSECTIONS is in pieces mixed with the phrase that follows. Behind the words are bright colored graphical shapes and a dark background.
June 12, 2024 at 6:08 PM
freshtake.bsky.social
When I sat down to watch Renegade Nell (Disney+), I had one question:

For a highway-woman of 1705 to be bold, badass, and unbeatable, does she truly need supernatural help?

The Three Musketeers didn’t need it, Zorro didn’t need it, so why does she need it?
Screenshot from the TV show Renegade Nell. Nell faces forward, looking up. She is wearing men’s clothing from the 1700s, including a scarf, white sailor shirt, overcoat, and large feathered hat. Behind her is a fancy carriage and trees.
April 4, 2024 at 11:17 PM