A Star Is Born (1937)
Movie Watch
When a young actress (Janet Gaynor) arrives in Hollywood with hopes of stardom, a chance encounter...
Interpreter of Maladies
8.3
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Navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and the baffling new world, the...
India immigrants short stories
Rough Drafts(By Design #4)
7.5
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One Year Later: Senator Candace Reid is beginning her campaign for Governor of New York in earnest....
Lesbian Politics
The Chateau
8.0
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They thought it was perfect. They were wrong… A glamorous chateau Aura and Nick don’t talk...
Psychological thriller Suspense France
Die For Me (Killing Eve #3)
9.0
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On the run together, Eve Polastri and the psychopathic Villanelle take refuge in the underworld of...
Body Snatched (Body Conscious #2)
Book
What’s worse than losing a body from a funeral home? Losing two. But mortician and amatuer sleuth,...
Cozy Mystery
LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Beast (2022) in Movies
Oct 12, 2022
I went to see this on a Wednesday afternoon, when I had a couple of hours to kill, fully expecting to hate it, but it's a genuinely enjoyable thriller horror, with some tense moments. The characters are stupid way more often than they should be, and I got the feeling the script was improvised a fair bit, but honestly, Idris straight up chokes out a snake at one point, before punching the lion in the face a bit later, so it all balances out.
David McK (3721 KP) rated BattleTech: Break-Away (The Proliferation Cycle #1) in Books
Aug 26, 2025
It also has rather an unusual setting for a Battletech novel - right at the beginning, before the Battletechs are even a thing.
There's none at all in this novella, other than a couple of references to a top secret weapon that is being developed, with a small group of soldiers out on training exercises to see who would get to pilot said weapon.
SO, in short, a read-it-and-forget novella, kind of like eating a sweet between meals.
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Loving (2016) in Movies
Sep 29, 2021
It tells the true story (yes, yet ANOTHER ‘true story’!) of Richard and Mildred Loving who travelled from their home town of Central Point Virginia to Washington DC where – as a mixed race couple – they could legally get married.
However, on returning to their home state and living together as man and wife, they fell foul of the State’s repulsive antimiscegenation statute which banned inter-racial marriages. The Lovings were found guilty and sentenced to a year in jail, which was suspended on the requirement that – unbelievable but true – the couple leave Virginia and not return (together) for 25 years. The film documents the fight of the couple – largely led by the feisty Mildred (Ruth Negga) – to fight the injustice, taking the case ultimately to the US Supreme Court for an historic ruling.
This was an Oscar-nominated performance by Ruth Negga and, man, is it deserved. It’s a performance of such quiet understated power that it is a joy to watch. But also strong is that of Joel Edgerton (“Midnight Special“, “The Great Gatsby“) as Richard who here adopts a largely sulky and subservient manner that contrasts beautifully with Negga’s perky optimism.
I also loved the performance of Marton Csokas (Celeborn from “The Lord of the Rings”), chillingly unreasonable as the bigoted Sheriff Brooks and Michael Shannon (“Nocturnal Animals“, “Midnight Special“) as the Time photographer Grey Villet, capturing a classic picture that is shown (in standard ‘true story’ fashion) at the end of the film (and below).
Written and directed by Jeff Nichols, whose “Midnight Special” last year made my top 10 of the year, this is a thoughtful and educational piece that should particularly appeal to older viewers keen to see a drama of historical importance beautifully told.