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Actress is the story of Katherine O’Dell, told by her daughter. She looks back on her mother’s career as Ireland’s darling, as she works her way up through Ireland’s bus-and-truck circuit, London’s West End , Broadway and finally Hollywood. Norah lives through the more successful period of her mothers life, and then has to deal with her fall from Grace after she commits a thoroughly bizarre crime. I really loved this book, and I had to keep reminding myself that it was in fact fiction. The author, Anne Enright, read her book, and she did it so well. It really sounded like someone who was telling their own life story, as opposed to telling ‘a’ story. It was really immersive and well told. I’m not surprised that it was on the long list for the Women’s Prize 2020.
I loved the way that we watched Katherine’s slide into mental health problems through the eyes of her daughter, juxtaposed with the life that she had lived before - the whole bohemian, free living, carelessness of it. And then the reveal that all was not as it seemed. I enjoy books that explore family relationships - in fiction the opportunities are endless.
I really liked the historical element as well: the troubles in Ireland and how they impacted on Katherine and Norah. Not that it’s an enjoyable topic, but I have family connections, and the history of this fascinates me. To be honest, a lot of things impact on the relationship of this mother and daughter. It must have been very difficult for Norah to grow up in the way that she did - and again, I have to remind myself that this isn’t a true story!
This is the first Anne Enright novel that I’ve read/ listened to, and I have another book of hers on my bookcase that I’ll be moving up the ‘to be read’ pile. I think she’s an author that I’ll also be adding to me ‘read everything by them’ list!
I loved the way that we watched Katherine’s slide into mental health problems through the eyes of her daughter, juxtaposed with the life that she had lived before - the whole bohemian, free living, carelessness of it. And then the reveal that all was not as it seemed. I enjoy books that explore family relationships - in fiction the opportunities are endless.
I really liked the historical element as well: the troubles in Ireland and how they impacted on Katherine and Norah. Not that it’s an enjoyable topic, but I have family connections, and the history of this fascinates me. To be honest, a lot of things impact on the relationship of this mother and daughter. It must have been very difficult for Norah to grow up in the way that she did - and again, I have to remind myself that this isn’t a true story!
This is the first Anne Enright novel that I’ve read/ listened to, and I have another book of hers on my bookcase that I’ll be moving up the ‘to be read’ pile. I think she’s an author that I’ll also be adding to me ‘read everything by them’ list!
The Answers
6.0
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Mary Parsons is broke. Dead broke, really: between an onslaught of medical bills and a mountain of...
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Thimbleweed Park
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Escaping Camp Roosevelt
6.0
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“He’s a bad boy—cocky and damaged. So, why can’t I stop thinking about him?" Broken...
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Jingled
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Matt Daughtry has always felt like he and his parents live in separate worlds—his shaped by the...
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Igniting His Flame (Redwood Bay Fire #1)
10.0
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Love makes us all brave DARIO After escaping my controlling ex-boyfriend and moving to...
Billie Wichkan (118 KP) rated The Nursery (The Bayou Hauntings #3) in Books
May 22, 2019
A house that sat empty for fifty years as its dead owner instructed. A locked room with no key. A single father with eight-year-old twin girls. A nursery from long, long ago that no child ever played in. There are eerie things going on at The Arbors in St. Francisville, Louisiana. Architect Jordan Blanchard is joined by his friend Callie and Landry Drake to learn the secrets of a domineering matriarch whose two husbands died in bizarre ways. They explore the house as someone watches from a hidden place high above. The Nursery, the third book in the series, will keep you up late at night wondering what’s behind the next door, what lies beyond the mirror and who hides and waits at The Arbors.
The Nursery by Bill Thompson is a book I requested from NetGalley and the review is voluntary.
This is the third book in the series and I wasn’t aware of that when I started this but it did not hamper me one bit in reading this one. The author gives you little bits on the background as you go along so it was very easy to pick up on.
This is not your typical haunted house story. There is a nice ghost and malevolent ghost, hidden bodies, a child’s grave where one did not belong, and travels through a mirror to other dimensions. And that doesn’t even touch the real-life evil that’s stalking the family’s every move. This is a different type of ghost story.
I love the location settings and the whole premise behind this series of paranormal interweaved with the characters lives.
I want to say so much more but I don’t want to give anything away. This book has so much going for it and I am definitely getting the previous books and following this author. This book had me right from the start and I hope there are more to come in this series.
The Nursery by Bill Thompson is a book I requested from NetGalley and the review is voluntary.
This is the third book in the series and I wasn’t aware of that when I started this but it did not hamper me one bit in reading this one. The author gives you little bits on the background as you go along so it was very easy to pick up on.
This is not your typical haunted house story. There is a nice ghost and malevolent ghost, hidden bodies, a child’s grave where one did not belong, and travels through a mirror to other dimensions. And that doesn’t even touch the real-life evil that’s stalking the family’s every move. This is a different type of ghost story.
I love the location settings and the whole premise behind this series of paranormal interweaved with the characters lives.
I want to say so much more but I don’t want to give anything away. This book has so much going for it and I am definitely getting the previous books and following this author. This book had me right from the start and I hope there are more to come in this series.
Movie Metropolis (309 KP) rated Red Sparrow (2018) in Movies
Jun 10, 2019
Never entertaining, frequently repugnant
Director Francis Lawrence and Hollywood sweetheart Jennifer Lawrence (they are no relation, I’ve checked) aren’t a new combination when it comes to film-making.
In fact, Francis Lawrence may have kick-started the world’s love affair with the young actress after he directed her in the best Hunger Games movie, Catching Fire.
They both went on to finish the saga with Mockingjay’s two instalments and the rest as they say, is box office magic.
Here though, they both take on a very different project, aimed at a very different group of movie fans. Red Sparrow is the first hard-hitting thriller of 2018. But is it any different from the plethora of films already out there in the genre?
Prima ballerina Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) faces a bleak and uncertain future after she suffers an injury that ends her career. She soon turns to Sparrow School, a secret intelligence service that trains exceptional young people to use their minds and bodies as weapons. Egorova emerges as the most dangerous Sparrow after completing the sadistic training process. As she comes to terms with her new abilities, Dominika meets Joel Edgerton’s CIA agent Nate Nash (yes really) who tries to convince her that he is the only person she can trust.
The film starts off very promisingly as the audience are treated to a beautifully choreographed opening that follows Lawrence at the height of her dancing fame and Edgerton as he goes about an assignment. Both characters don’t intertwine at this point, and as the music builds to a crescendo we realise both their nights are about to go very wrong. It’s nicely filmed, if a little Black Swan–esque. Unfortunately, this impressive crescendo signals something else, the start of a downhill slope for Red Sparrow.
For a film marketed as a classy, adults-only thriller, Red Sparrow has very little in the way of class, despite the inclusion of Jennifer Lawrence. Her acting, as usual is sublime, minus her at times dreadful Russian accent and the rest of the cast do their best with Edgerton coming across well, but the rest of the film is just such a mess. Jeremy Irons feels incredibly miscast as a Russian General and the script by Justin Haythe is borderline incomprehensible.
The overuse of graphic violence and sex really does it no favours. There’s only so many times you can watch Lawrence be raped without wondering what the hell the film-makers thought they were doing and one (thankfully consensual) sex scene will have your eyes rolling in the back of your head: not out of pleasure, but out of absurdity.
It really begs the question: why did Lawrence pick such a bizarre choice of role in the first place?
Then there’s the action, or lack thereof. Where films like Atomic Blonde stylised the violence and the action to create a particular aesthetic, Red Sparrow just doesn’t. The limited amount of action that is presented to the audience is lazily filmed and worlds apart from director Francis Lawrence’s excellent work on the Hunger Games series.
Sure, the sets are lavish and the globetrotting that Lawrence gets to do is pleasant enough, but we’ve seen it all before and done much, much better. The production has a very staid quality that isn’t befitting of its director and its leading lady.
The final act twists that piece together everything that has come before is 30 minutes too late. At 140 minutes long, Red Sparrow is an absolute behemoth of a film but there is no reason whatsoever for it to be this long. Had it been thrilling and entertaining it could have gotten away with it – unfortunately it drags continuously from beginning to end.
Overall, Red Sparrow is a real dud that even the talents of Jennifer Lawrence can’t save. Not only is it never entertaining and frequently repugnant, it really begs the question: why did Lawrence pick such a bizarre choice of role in the first place? If it’s to escape her Katniss Everdeen persona she’s succeeded, but this could make movie studios think twice about casting her in projects in the future.
https://moviemetropolis.net/2018/03/07/red-sparrow-review-never-entertaining-frequently-repugnant/
In fact, Francis Lawrence may have kick-started the world’s love affair with the young actress after he directed her in the best Hunger Games movie, Catching Fire.
They both went on to finish the saga with Mockingjay’s two instalments and the rest as they say, is box office magic.
Here though, they both take on a very different project, aimed at a very different group of movie fans. Red Sparrow is the first hard-hitting thriller of 2018. But is it any different from the plethora of films already out there in the genre?
Prima ballerina Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) faces a bleak and uncertain future after she suffers an injury that ends her career. She soon turns to Sparrow School, a secret intelligence service that trains exceptional young people to use their minds and bodies as weapons. Egorova emerges as the most dangerous Sparrow after completing the sadistic training process. As she comes to terms with her new abilities, Dominika meets Joel Edgerton’s CIA agent Nate Nash (yes really) who tries to convince her that he is the only person she can trust.
The film starts off very promisingly as the audience are treated to a beautifully choreographed opening that follows Lawrence at the height of her dancing fame and Edgerton as he goes about an assignment. Both characters don’t intertwine at this point, and as the music builds to a crescendo we realise both their nights are about to go very wrong. It’s nicely filmed, if a little Black Swan–esque. Unfortunately, this impressive crescendo signals something else, the start of a downhill slope for Red Sparrow.
For a film marketed as a classy, adults-only thriller, Red Sparrow has very little in the way of class, despite the inclusion of Jennifer Lawrence. Her acting, as usual is sublime, minus her at times dreadful Russian accent and the rest of the cast do their best with Edgerton coming across well, but the rest of the film is just such a mess. Jeremy Irons feels incredibly miscast as a Russian General and the script by Justin Haythe is borderline incomprehensible.
The overuse of graphic violence and sex really does it no favours. There’s only so many times you can watch Lawrence be raped without wondering what the hell the film-makers thought they were doing and one (thankfully consensual) sex scene will have your eyes rolling in the back of your head: not out of pleasure, but out of absurdity.
It really begs the question: why did Lawrence pick such a bizarre choice of role in the first place?
Then there’s the action, or lack thereof. Where films like Atomic Blonde stylised the violence and the action to create a particular aesthetic, Red Sparrow just doesn’t. The limited amount of action that is presented to the audience is lazily filmed and worlds apart from director Francis Lawrence’s excellent work on the Hunger Games series.
Sure, the sets are lavish and the globetrotting that Lawrence gets to do is pleasant enough, but we’ve seen it all before and done much, much better. The production has a very staid quality that isn’t befitting of its director and its leading lady.
The final act twists that piece together everything that has come before is 30 minutes too late. At 140 minutes long, Red Sparrow is an absolute behemoth of a film but there is no reason whatsoever for it to be this long. Had it been thrilling and entertaining it could have gotten away with it – unfortunately it drags continuously from beginning to end.
Overall, Red Sparrow is a real dud that even the talents of Jennifer Lawrence can’t save. Not only is it never entertaining and frequently repugnant, it really begs the question: why did Lawrence pick such a bizarre choice of role in the first place? If it’s to escape her Katniss Everdeen persona she’s succeeded, but this could make movie studios think twice about casting her in projects in the future.
https://moviemetropolis.net/2018/03/07/red-sparrow-review-never-entertaining-frequently-repugnant/