CULTURE

Deepfake George Lucas Is More Convincing Than Actual George Lucas

Baudrillard was right, and I have lost all sense of what's real.

George LucasLACMA: Art and Film Gala, Los Angeles, USA - 03 Nov 2018

Photo by Matt Baron/Shutterstock

A video purporting to show George Lucas camping out for the premiere of Rise of Skywalker was unleashed upon the world yesterday, and has thrown reality into turmoil.

We have been warned that Deepfakes have the potential to undermine democracy by casting doubt on the veracity of video evidence. If the alleged "pee tape" came out tomorrow, is there any doubt that Donald Trump and his defenders would shout fake? Even if the footage was clear and unmistakable, the existence of technology that can seamlessly meld a famous face onto a stranger's speech and mannerisms can throw any video into contention. But this new George Lucas video has done something much deeper, and much more troubling.

George Lucas Camps Out & Reacts to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Deepfake Sagawww.youtube.com

Having watched George Lucas being sarcastic and self-aggrandizing in a bad George Lucas wig and a cheap fat suit, I don't know if I believe in the real George Lucas anymore. You can tell me that it's actually an actor and impersonator named Josh Robert Thompson, but when he rolls his eyes at Baby Yoda with perfect contempt, I know that he's the real deal. The essence of George Lucas lives in this video more purely than any footage of the man himself, and I am no longer convinced that George "it's like poetry" Lucas was ever anything other than a character embodied by Josh Robert Thompson.

He seems certain that American culture leaving him behind can only be a damning sign for society. Couple that with the sigh of a disaffected boomer billionaire—pining for Woodstock while he contemplates buying a movie theater to simplify his schedule—and you have enacted George Lucas' entire being since 2005. Skywalker Ranch has been officially relocated to the Uncanny Valley, and I'm now convinced that the original George Lucas, in all his pompous glory, was the first CGI creation of Industrial Light & Magic.

If you haven't watched the video yet, save yourself from the existential dread. It's too late for me. The map has subsumed the territory. All that remains is the simulacrum, and I am left to wonder, if George Lucas is nothing more than this basic character study in a beard and glasses, who actually created Star Wars? I do not have the answer, but If I had to guess, I'd say it's probably Hatsune Miku.

FILM

Marriage Story Might Help You Understand Your Parents' Divorce

Divorce is an emotionally turbulent ride, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

Admittedly, I'm a little late to the hype train for Marriage Story, director Noah Baumbach's movie about a spiraling divorce between two people who still care about each other.

For months, seemingly every other article in the entire cine-sphere has been about how Marriage Story is Netflix's best movie of the year or how Adam Driver walked out of an interview after they showed a clip of him singing or how dancing Scarlett Johansson is a meme now.

So I got it. Marriage Story was supposed to be very good. But in spite of the accolades, I decided to hold off on watching it immediately. I had a feeling that, having grown up as a child of divorce, Marriage Story might induce some unpleasant flashbacks. I wanted to make sure I was in the right headspace to properly deal with that before going in.

To some extent, I was right. There are a lot of elements of Marriage Story that I imagine will drum up painful memories, both for people who have gone through divorces themselves and children who watched their parents go through the process. The most memorable scene in Marriage Story, perhaps, is the vicious argument between Adam Driver's Charlie and Scarlett Johansson's Nicole, wherein all of Charlie's pent up rage, both at Nicole and the divorce process, explodes. It's a scene absolutely surging with raw emotion, and it reminded me of all the fights I grew up watching at home.

But what truly makes Marriage Story great, aside from the impeccable performances from Driver and Johansson, is the catharsis it offers throughout. Baumbach's exploration of divorce is extremely nuanced, treating both of its lead characters with compassion and empathy. The movie opens with Charlie and Nicole reading letters that convey the things they love about one another, portraying both characters as exceedingly real. In the same way that sometimes people fall out of love over time, sometimes the same thing we once loved about someone transforms into something irreconcilable.



For instance, at one point in their relationship, Nicole loved Charlie's sense of direction in life and his ability to seemingly always know exactly what he wanted to do. But as their relationship proceeded, the downsides to that trait came into starker focus––Charlie always knew what he wanted to do, in large part, because he valued his own opinion and wants above everyone else's. Eventually, Nicole's love for that aspect of Charlie soured into the feeling that she had lost her own identity throughout their relationship.

The point to all of this is that, a lot of the time, children of divorce have a hard time reconciling two distinct images of their parents––the first image being their parents in a functioning relationship with one another and the second image being their parents as bitter enemies. Of course, this isn't true for all divorces, but it certainly was for me. Naturally, as children we oftentimes choose between our parents. But the beauty of Marriage Story is in its ability to show us an intricate, sometimes brutal conflict between two mostly decent people without making us pick a side.

Both Charlie and Nicole's hardships through the divorce process are on full display, and both believe that they're doing the right thing. They both love their son. Their relationship was complex, failing for multiple reasons, and their contempt is complicated by the fact that they both still care about one another. And after the dust settles, they figure out a way to be co-parents, even if it's not ideal for either party.

In a sense, Marriage Story is an almost wholesome view of divorce, ultimately conveying the message that even though divorce is harsh, brutal, awful even, eventually it will be over. And once it's over, people can heal, and people can change, and people who care about their children can continue to be there for them. My prevailing feeling by the end of Marriage Story wasn't bitterness or sadness, but hope. It's an emotionally turbulent ride, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

In the real world, people are much more complicated than whatever black-and-white images we may have of them from specific points in our lives. People change over time, and if they can change for the worse, maybe they can also change for the better. And while every relationship is certainly complex and entirely different, perhaps Marriage Story will help you look at whatever divorce lies in your past with a fresh perspective.

MUSIC

Baby Yoda Is Emo, and We Love That

Thanks to the Twitter account @emo_yoda, our favorite galactic infant now comes with your favorite sad tunes.

Photo by: Maksym Tymchyk / Unsplash

By now, we've already discussed in detail why internet celebrity (and my ideal offspring) Baby Yoda is so great, to a degree that he should probably run for president.

A lot of us haven't even watched a single episode of The Mandalorian, the Disney+ Star Wars spinoff that gave Baby Yoda a platform to steal our hearts, but that doesn't mean we can't participate in enjoying memes of the robed green creature. Naturally, many such memes have centered around music, whether little Yoda is bumping "Get Low" from the cockpit of his spaceship or proudly holding Charli XCX's Pop 2 mixtape.

This week, a Twitter account by the username @emo_yoda joined in on the fun for a specific lane of music lovers. In the wake of viral Instagram accounts like "Chandler Holding Ur Fav Album" and "Drake Loves Ur Fav Album," where different album covers are edited into the hands of either Chandler from Friends or Drake from Drake and Josh, @emo_yoda is where your favorite emo, pop-punk, and indie records are all beheld by the baby himself.

It all started a few days ago when Baby Yoda started listening to Modern Baseball's Holy Ghost. While he certainly enjoys the classics—the header photo is Baby Yoda superimposed over the cover photo for American Football's 1999 debut—he enjoys many newer records, as well, like Joyce Manor's Never Hungover Again, Snail Mail's Lush, and PUP's Morbid Stuff. The latter band responded, saying, "Just noticing your profile photo, which is totally f**king unhinged." The photo is unhinged, indeed: a shot of Pope Francis lifting a chalice, except the Pope's face is edited over with PUP frontman Stefan Babcock and the chalice is—you guessed it—Baby Yoda. Imagining Baby Yoda would headbang to PUP or cry to American Football is a true delight, and we're thankful for all iterations of the meme to keep him alive in his adorable glory forever.

FILM

Watch The First Trailer for Star Wars: Episode IX — "The Rise of Skywalker"

The teaser for the newest Star Wars installment is here!

Photo by María Ten on Unsplash

The first glimpse of Star Wars: Episode IX titled "The Rise of Skywalker"—the final episode of the Skywalker saga, and the series' ninth installment—graces our timelines today.


Director J.J. Abrams unveiled the title and trailer for the third and last of the sequel trilogy at the Star Wars fan convention taking place in Chicago this weekend.

The teaser opens with the sound of heavy breathing before Rey (Daisy Ridley) enters the frame on a desert landscape (Jakku? Tatooine?). Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) voices over: "We've passed on all we know. A thousand generations live in you now. But this is your fight."

Episode IX brings together the trilogy's resistance––Rey, Finn (John Boyega), Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) and Rose (Kelly Marie Tran), many of whom were scattered throughout the galaxy on separate missions in the previous installment, The Last Jedi. For Star Wars fans, there's a lot to freak out over. There's the return of Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) in a shot where he and Chewbacca navigate the Millennium Falcon, not to mention a teary exchange between General Leia Organa (the late Carrie Fisher) and Rey. We also get a glimpse of the new character, Dio, a droid who is shown next to BB-8. There's a sinister shot of Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and the return of Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid); the trailer ends ominously on a soundbite of his famous evil laugh.

This is the last installment in the 9-episode arc that began with George Lucas' original 1977 Star Wars film, later retitled A New Hope. Star Wars: Episode IX open in theaters on December 20th.


Sara is a music and culture writer who lives in Brooklyn. Her work has previously appeared in PAPER magazine and Stereogum.


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