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Lonely Planet Southwest USA

Lonely Planet, Amy C. Balfour, Carolyn McCarthy and Greg Ward

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Book

Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher Lonely Planet Southwest USA is your...

LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated BlacKkKlansman (2018) in Movies

Sep 9, 2020

BlacKkKlansman (2018)

2018 | Biography, Comedy, Crime

8.1

(47 Ratings)

Movie Rating

BlacKkKlansman just ticked all the right boxes for me. Spike Lee has created a piece that is moving, hilarious, horrific, poignant and something truly important.

John David Washington and Adam Driver are a winning leading pair, portraying Ron Stallworth and Flip Zimmerman respectively, two police officers from Colorado Springs who manage to infiltrate a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, in an attempt to foil a potentially fatal and racially charged attack, and it's all based on a quite incredible true story.
Washington and Driver are both fantastic, providing this movie with most of it's heart, humour and emotion.
Topher Grace is great as well, as David Duke, a top brass member of the KKK. He's so smarmy, and easy to dislike, much like his real life counter part. This applies to all the racist pieces of shit in this story actualy. The characters are all horrible, but the cast bring them to life in a disturbingly believable way.

The screenplay is nothing but tight from start to finish. It's very funny in places, and heart wrenching in others. A particular highlight is a speech spoken early on by black rights speaker Kwame Ture. It's a lengthy monologue that is so damn powerful. There are multiple scenes that strike hard throughout the runtime - another standout moment is the truly uncomfortable visuals of Ron Stallworth looking on in quiet despair as KKK members cheer loudly whilst watching The Birth of a Nation. Humanity can be extremely ugly, and although BlacKkKlansman veers towards comedy at times, Lee is sure to never stray too far from that fact.

Some of the criticism I've read of this movie are along the lines of "it has an agenda" and "it's being forced down the audiences throat". Well, yeah if course it has an agenda. It's dealing with a topic that shouldn't even exist in the first place, but it's certainly not being force fed. No one is forcing anybody to watch it, but I highly recommend that EVERYONE does watch it.
The inclusion of real life footage of protests in 2017 is a strong statement, it's a director publicly taking a stand for something he believes in. In 2020, these topics feel more important than ever.

BlacKkKlansman is an incredible movie, and nothing can change my mind about that.

Kudos

WellSite Navigator USA Pro

Navigation and Utilities

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App

Wellsite Navigator Pro is an upgraded and ad-free version of Wellsite Navigator that allows users to...

Fallen (Everwood Falls #2)

Kat Kinney

8.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

Book

EVERWOOD FALLS… a small supernatural community tucked up in the Colorado Rockies where witches,...

Cozy Mystery Paranormal Romance Series

Caffeinated Fae (464 KP) rated The Ones Who Got Away (The Ones Who Got Away, #1) in Books

Jul 12, 2018

I first heard about this book on Bookish First and I was enraptured by the first few chapters. I just knew I had to read this book. I was lucky enough to be accepted as an ARC reader and I know this review has come out after the book was released but that was because I received it last week via Bookish First though I will admit, I was accepted as a Netgalley reader too (yes, I was that in love with just the preview I asked to read the book on NetGalley too which is really completely rare for me.

I was really scared this book was going to hit all of the wrong buttons but I was so completely impressed. Roni Loren has a way about writing that makes you feel like you are sitting on the sidelines watching this all take place. I felt the emotions of the characters and they were realistic. I love how each character was unique and relatable in a way. The characters were well thought out and I loved the personalities of each one. I also loved the friendship and comradery that was in this book between the main characters. I felt like I was hanging out with some of my friends while I was reading it.

Liv & Finn were by far my favorite characters (which tends to happen with main characters). The banter they had was amazing and I found myself swooning for Finn many times while also cursing his name at other times. I honestly just loved the chemistry between the two of them. It made me want to live passionately too.

The plot of this book is unfortunately realistic and I loved that it humanized the survivors of this horrid act of violence. Too many times we think of survivors as props in a way. I've never been in a situation like this but I know people who have. I was a grade schooler in Colorado when the Columbine shooting happened and I graduated from Arapahoe High School about 10 years ago so I see a lot of the press that happens when an anniversary happens. It's a constant barrage of news articles anytime April or December come around. I love how this book made the characters, the survivors, all be humans who are messed up and yet surviving. I loved that.

All in all, I loved this book. This book is messy, beautiful, heart wrenching, and just spectacular. If any part of this book sounds like it's up your alley, pick up the book and read it. It's wonderful.

Kudos

Hazel (1853 KP) rated A Grimm Legacy (Grimm Tales #1) in Books

Dec 17, 2018

This eBook was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Fairy tale enthusiasts will love this young adult novel by Colorado based author Janna Jennings. Full with lots of magical references A Grimm Legacy is about four teenagers who get dragged out of their world and into the enchanted realm of Elorium. The mysterious Mr. Jackson, who they find in a mansion with a couple of elf servants, tells them that they have been brought there for a reason; but before anyone gets the chance to explain what that reason is, the four run away only to encounter many dangerous characters.

As the title suggests A Grimm Legacy is loosely based upon the stories collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. To get the most out of this book the reader needs to have an understanding of a variety of fairy-tales, for instance Cinderella. As well as the more commonly known, there are less recognized stories, which are of great significance to the novel: for example Jorindel and Jorinda and The Fisherman and his Wife.

Whilst Jennings has done well in her research into the different fairytales, she includes Jack and the Beanstalk as one of the references, which is in fact not a Brothers’ Grimm tale. Jack and the Beanstalk is an English tale that was first recorded by Benjamin Tabart in 1807. Either Jennings failed to realize this or she was including all fairytales within this book, in which case the title is misleading.

The book on the whole was quick to read and was full of exciting twists. I enjoyed discovering the various references to the well-known stories. One thing that made the text confusing, however, was the lack of breaks between certain paragraphs. Within a chapter there were occasionally more than one scene or setting and without a gap to distinguish between them it was often difficult to understand the changes in time period etc.

This book was written with young adults in mind but can be enjoyed by older readers too. It is not suitable for younger children however, not only due to the sinister nature of the original fairytales, but A Grimm Legacy has the occasional violent scene in it.

Despite the inaccuracy regarding Jack and the Beanstalk, this is a fun book to read. My only advice is to read it after you have explored some of the Brothers’ Grimm collection.