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Dumbo (1941)
Dumbo (1941)
1941 | Animation, Classics, Family
Great Story Despite is Flaws
A young circus elephant discovers that his worst attribute is actually his greatest gift. I’ve gotten slack on the Disney animated journey I’ve been traveling, but remembering Dumbo makes me want to dedicate my time once again to the daunting task of watching each and every single movie.

Acting: 10

Beginning: 10

Characters: 10
You can’t help but love little innocent Dumbo, hated for something he can’t help. He’s the perfect hero you want to get behind. His story is one that stays in our hearts, aided by a solid group of supporting characters.

Cinematography/Visuals: 10

Conflict: 10

Entertainment Value: 10
A story that’s teeming with originality, it’s hard not to get wrapped up in the story of Dumbo. From the moment the circus rolls into town, you expect something interesting to go down. Less than twenty minutes in, things go awry keeping you engaged in the story.

Memorability: 10
Is it the message? The colorful visuals? the creativity? There is something about Dumbo that holds you and makes you want to watch it repeatedly. It still holds up as one of the best animated films ever made.

Pace: 10

Plot: 9
I could’ve done without the elephants on parade in the drunk sequence and the crows were a bit of a sore spot, but the story is magnificent overall. Sometimes you have to overlook a couple things to recognize how good something truly is. Dumbo is a unique story you won’t find anywhere else.

Resolution: 10
Cute ending that ties the message up in a nice little bow. An inspiration for adults and kids alike. Great finale.

Overall: 99
Dumbo shows us that the thing that makes us different makes us special. It’s one of a thousand reasons we loving having Disney+ in our homes. Dumbo still holds up as an animated classic.
  
Play It Again, Sam (1972)
Play It Again, Sam (1972)
1972 | Classics, Comedy, Romance
6.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I have to include a Woody Allen film in the list. I’m not sure which one, though. I love him dearly. I mean, he’s such an inspiration to me. And again, this list could change — and particularly, his movie choice could change tomorrow or this afternoon. The one I always love rewatching for pure comedy, for just gags that really resonate with me — which he didn’t direct, but it’s based on a play that he wrote — is Play It Again, Sam, which just has a couple of comic set pieces that really amuse me. I can watch them endlessly. And it’s sort of one of those movies that I always make other people watch or I loan to people. If they take as much joy in them as much as me, then I know that we’re going to be friends for life. [Woody Allen] plays a film critic, funnily enough, and he is sort of given romantic advice by the ghost of Humphrey Bogart, and Bogie appears throughout in places to offer him love advice. But as he sort of points out, you know, “I’m not you.” It’s him trying to sort of romance girls and meet women after his marriage falls apart. But it’s very, very funny, and it just — a bit like After Hours, in a way — it sort of captures the desperation of single men, single men who don’t feel comfortable chasing girls. It has loads of very funny set pieces. It has a sequence where he’s setting up his apartment for a blind date, which is just, to me, one of the most inspired comic routines I’ve ever seen. It’s physical, but it’s verbal as well; it’s sort of him at his most charming, effortless. It’s really good."

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Alex Kapranos recommended Hunky Dory by David Bowie in Music (curated)

 
Hunky Dory by David Bowie
Hunky Dory by David Bowie
1971 | Folk, Rock, Singer-Songwriter
8.6 (19 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"It was really difficult to choose a David Bowie album. I didn’t want to put more than one on. For me, it was a choice between this, Low, “Heroes” and …Ziggy Stardust… – all equally magnificent records. This record I like because it was before he became a superstar. There’s a lightness and lack of self-awareness on this record, which I think disappears slightly on the later records. Songs like 'Kooks' have this real sense of fresh openness, which maybe he lost on later records, which I really love. There’s also some pretty odd moments on there as well, like 'Andy Warhol'. I don’t mean so much the ‘sample and hold’ start on the ARP synth – which is really cool – but melodically it’s really odd. It’s more like an Eastern scale than a regular rock & roll scale. It will go from that to something that sounds more like a music hall moment. The songwriting is incredible. I think it’s probably him at his best. Also, when I was going through my choices, I went for records I enjoy from start to finish, even though there’s a couple of songs that I don’t think are spectacular songs on this album, as a whole it’s a really great record. I remember distinctly buying it from the Oxfam shop around the corner from school when I was a kid, and I think it was the first Bowie album I ever owned. My mum had the compilation Changes Bowie which I’ve always loved, so when I saw this I was ""ooh, I like David Bowie, I should try this"". I put it on and thought, ""God, there’s a lot more going on here than just catchy pop songs""."

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Richard D. James Album by Aphex Twin
Richard D. James Album by Aphex Twin
1996 | Electronic, Pop
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Well, what can I say? This is a hugely exciting record. Aphex Twin has got a huge reputation, obviously. When I was 16 it was one of the things which I had on MiniDisc, which we all had back in those days! I would just listen to it continuously. It was just around the time I was starting to make electronic music on my own, and I remember thinking, how can you make this? The technology I had and the software I had was absolutely shit, and I remember fiddling with it and thinking that I couldn't figure out how to make these drum beats so complex, and so delicately put together. Every five seconds or couple of bars something new happens. There's none of this copy and paste which all dance music at the time was doing, thinking in particular of that kind of Ibiza dirge that was shit and was on the radio 24/7. You just get 15 bars of the same thing, then one change, whereas Aphex Twin was the exact opposite of that. He would just keep your interest piqued the whole time, and that's one thing which I have always strived to do with the band, just to stop things being boring. Perhaps we push it too far, but I think all the 'inciness' and the whole thing about not letting it rest and be copied and pasted, I think is in my music as well. The other thing about that record is that it's not really a dance record at all, it's just music. I mean you can dance to it if you want, but there's lots of classical stuff on there really. There are lots of quiet moments, and lots of awkward stuff that is not really dance music."

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Daughters of Night
Daughters of Night
Laura Shepherd-Robinson | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry, Mystery, Thriller
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Daughters of Night is set in Georgian London, not a period that I’ve read that much about. I love a good historical novel, and this is definitely one of the good ones! There’s loads of really interesting, accurate (it seems to me!)historical detail, and the characters are well developed people that I wanted to find out more about.
It was surprising that Caro Corsham could investigate a death and a disappearance herself, but I suppose with money and status comes a little freedom - and her husband isn’t in the country for the vast majority of the book. Caro’s thief taker, Peregrine Child, is a great character. A complex man, he wants to do what’s right, despite the fact that he’s paid to do so. He comes with his own set of problems: drinking, gambling, he owes money to the wrong people (if there are ‘right’ ones, I don’t know!), but I really had the impression throughout that he had empathy for the prostitute he was looking for. He realises that these women don’t always choose to do the job, and when they do, it’s because there’s little other choice.
This is a big book, and I listened to it on Audible, so it was a lot of hours - but it didn’t seem that way. The narrator, Lucy Scott, was really engaging, and her different voices were discernible from one another. I’ve done this a couple of times recently with my NetGalley books: I realise that there are some books that just really lend themselves well to being read aloud - and it’s a far more entertaining way to get ready for work or to cook dinner!
I loved this book, and I’d highly recommend it - either in book or audible form!
  
The Wedding Party (The Wedding Date #3)
The Wedding Party (The Wedding Date #3)
Jasmine Guillory | 2019 | Contemporary, Romance
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
A hate to love romance that's heavy on the hate
Maddie and Theo are both close with Alexa. Maddie's her best friend and Theo is her best work bud. But they hate each other, ever since a terrible interaction that left them both offended. But when the two meet again at Theo's birthday party, they somehow wind up kissing and feel an undeniable spark. And with Alexa getting married--and Maddie and Theo the two main members of her bridal party--they are stuck together for awhile. So they agree to hook up (and hook up only) for the duration of the wedding preparations. No falling in love allowed. Right?

So this was a cute and fun entry in the series, per usual, but I did not care for Maddie and Theo as much as some of the other couples. There was not as strong as a supporting cast, either, though Alexa had some good moments. I think I cared for Maddie and Theo as individuals, ironically, but together, they just didn't get me as romantically invested. For one thing, Maddie and Theo were mean to each other! Really mean. This was haters to lovers with a lot of hate, like cringe-worthy hate, at times, and I didn't find that funny or sexy. So between the copious amounts of mean, plus secret romance hidden from your *best friend*--I was a little tense. I needed more happy go lucky romance!

Overall, this was a light and fluffy romance, but I had a hard time always rooting for the couple, and sometimes Maddie and Theo just didn't seem right for each other. I was mostly smiling by the end, but I didn't always enjoy the ride. 3 stars.
  
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Suggs recommended The Specials by Specials in Music (curated)

 
The Specials by Specials
The Specials by Specials
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"In 1979, they’d finished recording their album, and ironically we ended up going into the same studio, TW in Fulham, just after them. And Elvis Costello had produced their album, and he’d left behind a few bits of tapes, out-takes. And we were trying to get the machine to play these fucking ten-second little strips of tape! All you’d hear was a snare sound or a bit of guitar, but we were trying to check out their sound! John Bradbury [Specials drummer] used to get these amazing rimshot sounds, and I remember asking him how, and he said “It’s the way I fucking play it, it wasn’t the way it was fucking recorded!” So, of course we were checking each other out. We played together a couple of times at the Nashville and somewhere else, and we were obviously in competition, very friendly competition. It was truly thrilling and exciting to know there was another band doing what we were doing. When they came to play at the Hope & Anchor, the pub we used to hang out in, it blew our minds to see these people who looked a bit like us and sounded a bit like us. They went off like a packet of crackers. I remember Neville Staple was blowing holes in the ceiling with a starter pistol! Then they stormed into ‘Gangsters’. I remember I wasn’t sure whether to feel jealous or fucking vindicated, that we were onto something after all. But they’d gone that bit further. It was turbo-charged ska, and we were still doing a bit of R&B, but The Specials gave us this revelation that the uptempo stuff was really fucking exciting. But that’s a great album, great songs, and the production is really clear. Not naïve, but not overly sophisticated."

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"Ziggy was like the entry level for me. I wasn't aware when I bought it that I was buying a concept album about a constructed creature called Ziggy Stardust. I just thought David Bowie WAS Ziggy Stardust. I must have been 12 or 13. I had a friend at school called Peter May who I sat next to, and we were both totally into the same things, like David and Marc. We both bought acoustic guitars and we'd have jamming sessions on Sunday nights at his parent's house, and I would learn the songs of both of them. It really sparked my imagination, and for a whole generation of people, Angie and David were the It couple for us. Forget about Mick [Jagger] and Bianca - that held no interest for me whatsoever, compared to Angie & David's glittering bisexual glamour. That was all a big part of it too, and that - for me - was when sexuality entered into it and I heard the word 'bisexual'. I'd heard the word 'queer' - but I'd never heard the word 'bisexual' or even an artist claiming they were. That was a huge moment for me. From Ziggy onwards, there was no looking back after that. I played truant from school to queue up to get tickets for that final tour of the Spiders, and Aladdin Sane was out by then, and I went to see him at the Liverpool Empire and it was mindblowing. And you know, Ian McCulloch, Marc Almond, Pete Burns - a whole generation of people who were to be the next wave were all there. It was an incredible world of glamour. I know they call it glam rock, but to me that was Sweet. David and Bryan [Ferry] - they were artists."

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Fast & Furious (2009)
Fast & Furious (2009)
2009 | Action, Mystery
Fast and Furious, the fourth film in the 'The Fast and the Furious' franchise takes us back to the basics, the original cast are reunited, if only for a short time in some cases and the plot is closer to '2 Fast, 2 Furious'.
Fast and Furious is more of a sequel to the second film and is set before the third film but does acknowledge it with a scene at the start where, to avoid being caught with Dom, Han goes off to Tokyo.
Fast and Furious feels more like it belongs in the franchise than it's predecessor, the cars are there, as are the gratuitous scantily clad women although not at the same level and Dom and Paul are back trying to stop a crime lord, although both for different reasons.
As with all the previous films, 'Fast and Furious' builds on the theme of family but this time it also tackles revenge and, to a smaller extent betrayal.
If you watch this franchise for the cars and racing then you may be a bit disappointed, there is some racing but not as much as as the previous films and the 'car talk' is kept to a couple of scenes.
As an action film with car chases Fast and Furious isn't bad; There is a bit of a plot, the story telling isn't to bad, it moves at a decent pace, it doesn't rely on sex and keeps the violence to a minimum and still manages to keep the franchise's gimmick, the cars and racing. It's also nice that it still acknowledges 'Tokyo Drift' even though the film seems not to be very well liked amongst the fans of the franchise.
  
The Godfather: Part II  (1974)
The Godfather: Part II (1974)
1974 | Crime, Drama

"This is hard — to choose five — because there are a few in this genre that I really like, so I don’t know which one to pick. This is sort of going to be [from] an underworld, mobster kind of [genre]. So it’s either The Godfather II, even though I like all The Godfathers — I even like Godfather III; it’s just a different type of movie. But it’s between Godfather II and then also, there’s a movie that I did, and it’s not just because I’m in it — I love it — but it’s a movie called Paid in Full which happened to be a true story about these three drug dealers in the eighties who really made it big, and all this downfall happens. So I would have to put a couple of those in the fifth category. I would say Paid in Full, Godfather II — when Michael [Al Pacino] really grabbed the reins — and Goodfellas. And Casino — I was going to pick two of them, but I’m not. I would say Casino to me — I hated how Sam Rothstein got manipulated by Sharon Stone’s character in Casino. I mean, I just hate how he gets manipulated; that just gets ridiculous to me. I know it’s historic, but I hated that. So those are the three that I would put in as my fifth, in the genre of the underworld. The top of that list, I gotta go with Francis Coppola, Godfather II. Just for the epicness of it. And usually sometimes movies are long for no reason, but it was long for the right reasons, which is very rare. Usually, you’re like, “You could cut out twenty minutes of that,” but for me it was all story. To me, if I had to choose, I’d go with the classic Godfather II."

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