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The Northman (2022)
The Northman (2022)
2022 | History, Thriller
10
7.9 (11 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Robert Eggers continues his winning streak with The Northman, surely one of the most visually stunning and compelling movies in recent years. A Viking revenge story presented in his signature style is just cinematic crack waiting to happen as far as I'm concerned.
The first third is a fast moving setup that effectively establishes the characters and shows off quite an epic production. After that, The Northman becomes a tight and slow burning thriller as Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård) exacts a psychologically torturous revenge on the people who killer his father. It's a perfect marriage of powerful character drama, weird imagery, Viking culture and beliefs, bizarre gore, and fantasy set pieces, and it's slower pace ensures that it's utterly captivating.
The whole film looks incredible from start to finish and is complimented by a wonderful music score.
It's all cemented by a stacked cast. Skarsgård is a capable lead for sure, and is just a big walking muscle in this, the manly bastard. Anya Taylor-Joy is great as always, and the supporting cast boasts the likes of Nicole Kidman, Willem Dafoe, Ethan Hawke, and Claes Bang who are all stellar.

I can't heap enough praise on The Northman, another homerun from Eggers. I'd happily call it a masterpiece.
  
HelloTalk Language Exchange
HelloTalk Language Exchange
Education, Social Networking
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
App Rating
Great to Learn About New Cultures (0 more)
Not Reliable for Learning Significant Amounts (0 more)
This app is great to speak to native speakers of the language you want to study. You can follow people you are interested in, or who provide useful information for you and you can even message, call, and send pictures to HelloTalk friends. It is a great app to learn about culture because you are learning from the natives themselves, not just from a textbook. You can even ask people questions if you're nice enough.

However, by way of learning a significant amount of your studied language. It would take some dedication and patience. Firstly, it can be difficult to find someone who is willing to teach and not be taught. Secondly, it can be difficult to call people because of the different time zones, and then of course there can be language barriers. I find that when I message people it is usually the same generic conversation starters and questions:
Hello, how are you?
What is your name?
How old are you?
Where are you from/where do you live?
What is your job?


ect
It can be difficult to get to know someone well enough to move past these types of conversations, but not impossible. It just might take some time to root out a good candidate.


Nevertheless, I love using the app. I like to post on my memories and help other people learn about my culture. It is rewarding. And it is easy to like, and ask other people questions about their home town.


If you use the app right, you can gain a lot from it. If you only use it halfheartedly, you will probably gain hardly anything of value to you.
  
AP
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
To most people, if you mention the name Edgar Rice Burroughs the first thing that they will think of, in all likelihood, is his creation of the character Tarzan. Alongside this, however, he also wrote the <i>Barsoom</i> series of books, of which this is the first (published in 1912).

Commonly regarded as classics of the Pulp Sci-Fi genre of books, and with the new Disney movie <i>John Carter of Mars</i> recently released (even if it is getting a panning from the critics), and finally with <i>The John Carter collection</i> (consisting of <i>A Princess of Mars</i>, <i>The Gods of Mars</i>, <i>The Warlord of Mars</i>, <i>Thuvia, Maid of Mars</i> and <i>The Chessmen of Mars</i>) available on Apple's ibooks stores for 99p, how could I resist picking them up?

Having now read the first book, it's easy to see the influence these particular novels had on later writings and popular culture. James Cameron is on record as stating this particular work as an influence on his movie <i>Avatar</i>, while it is also possible to trace elements of <i>Star Wars</i> (inspired by <i>Flash Gordon</i>, itself inspired by this) back to this work.

In short: this is pretty much a prime example of early pulp SF!