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Horror Stories: A Memoir by Liz Phair
Horror Stories: A Memoir by Liz Phair
Liz Phair | 2019 | Biography
5
5.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I wanted so badly to like this book, I really did. I've loved Liz Phair's music since the 90s, and I was pretty excited when I heard she'd written a memoir. But this.....this is not great.

It's a memoir, I KNOW it's a memoir, but there's no cohesive narrative and it kind of drives me nuts. It reads more like a collection of essays detailing specific pieces of her life, and it jumps all over the place. More disappointing, however, is that she comes across as kind of an asshole. I could forgive that, because hey, listen, we were all kind of assholes in our youth, no? But she seems so completely self-centered, self-involved, and spoiled that it rendered some of this very hard to get through, especially as I'd been fangirling about this book for a long time. I wanted to read about a bad ass indie rock queen, not a jerk who cheats on her husband for no discernible reason, thinks that throwing money at a cultural misunderstanding (that she caused) will make it go away, and whines about how the cute stock boy she's flirting with at Trader Joe's is actually engaged.

That being said, one of the final stories in the book very much got to me: she's at a lecture with her aging parents, and she's noticing how many of the attendees have trouble getting around due to their age and mobility issues. One of the older gentlemen attempts to get up to go outside, and he ends up falling in front of everyone, repeating over and over (with tears in his eyes) how embarrassed he is. She sees this, and once the gentlemen is seated next to her, she goes out of her way to bolster him (tells him he "fell like an athlete," then asks if he ever was an athlete), and holds a conversation with him throughout the remainder of the lecture to get his mind off of the entire incident. This act struck me as so kind that it almost redeems her for everything else in the book. And that is how Liz Phair was nearly able to bring me to tears at the tail end of a fairly lackluster memoir.
  
Minari (2020)
Minari (2020)
2020 | Drama
7
8.7 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Pleasant Enough
With it’s 6 Oscar nominations (including nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor), the drama MINARI has become a touchstone of films with Asian (or Asian-American) roots.

And…it is worthy of these accolades - and this place in history - for MINARI is a warm-hearted, loving look at a Korean-American family trying to make it’s way in the world in 1980’s Arkansas.

Written and Directed in Oscar Nominated fashion (for both categories), Lee Isaac Chung presents a realistic American family looking to forge a new living while still remaining true to their cultural roots.

Steve Yeun (THE WALKING DEAD) is Oscar nominated for his lead role of Jacob, who moves his family to Arkansas in the hopes to start a farm that specializes in Korean food. Yeun’s performance is earnest and sincere and I am happy for him that this performance is nominated. The rest of the family unit is strong - with the stand out being Yuh-Jung Youn as the Grandmother. She brings the most interesting and nuanced character to the screen and I wouldn’t be surprised if she pulls the upset and wins the Oscar for Supporting Actress. Finally, veteran character Actor Will Patton is a spark of energy as a local who helps Jacob on the farm.

And…that, ultimately, is the problem with this film. Writer/Director Chung spends most of his time creating the atmosphere and the characters, He fails to realize that there really is no compelling event to drive the plot forward. It’s a “fine” slice-of-life film and one that is enjoyable to watch with a strong, charismatic cast, but nothing really happens and that, finally, is a problem.

This is most certainly a deserving Oscar nominated film - especially in these pandemic times - with big budget Blockbuster films pushed to the sidelines, this type of quiet film is thrust to the forefront - and good for them and I’m glad that the spotlight is shining on this film. I just wish there was more plot and a more compelling reason to watch this film.

Letter Grade: B

7 stars (out of 10) and you can take this to the Bank(ofMarquis)
  
Fieldwork Footage (1928)
Fieldwork Footage (1928)
1928 |
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"The last one I think might be the most unusual one and this is footage shot by Zora Neale Hurston, who we know as a writer, a novelist, the author of Their Eyes were Watching God (the basis for the eponymous film), which is her best-known work. [She] was also a playwright, short story writer, and screenwriter for a while in her career. Really a Renaissance woman. When she was a student, she was studying anthropology with France Boulez at Columbia, and she was doing her fieldwork as an anthropologist on the kinds of communities that she grew up in, in Florida. In the late 1920s, she had a car and a 16-millimeter camera and she drove down to Alabama and Florida and she shot footage, ethnographic footage, as a part of her research. We featured some of this material on the Pioneers of African-American Cinema box set that I co-curated that was released by Kino. The footage is not narrative and it’s not exactly documentary either, in the sense that she never put together a work that then she was sharing with other people — it was for her research purposes. But she shows men who are logging, for example. My favorite passage of the footage was when she shows children playing games. The can game, and games when they’re in a circle or square and trading off movement and those kinds of things. We can see she’s capturing information that she’s going to use to talk about these cultural practices in her academic writing. It’s also really clear in the attention she pays the children and the attention that she pays to the movements of women, the way that she captures, even in the silent films, the rhythm and the musicality of church service. We can see visually the style that she’s developing that then she folds into her writing practice. We can say, because we know about this work that Zora Neale Hurston seems to be one of the first African-American women filmmakers, and so it gives us a deeper sense of her creative practice and her intellectual practice as well."

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Coco (2017)
Coco (2017)
2017 | Adventure, Animation
PIXAR movies have a formula that expertly combines an adorable hero/heroine with a story that tugs at the heartstrings. There is always a moment or two where you have to reach for tissue or surreptitiously dash a few tears away with your sleeve. With writers and directors from Finding Nemo, the Good Dinosaur, Toy Story 3 and Monsters University, Coco is no exception.
Coco is the colorful tale of a young boy named Miguel who dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his idol, the late Ernesto de la Cruz, despite his family’s ban on music that has spanned multiple generations
When an opportunity arises for him to prove his talent, Miguel finds himself in desperate need of a guitar. So desperate, that the plan he devises ends up taking him to the colorful Land of the Dead.
In the Land of the Dead, Miguel teams up with Hector, a trickster voiced by Gael Garcia Bernal, who promises to help him meet the great Ernesto de la Cruz, voiced by Benjamin Bratt, and get back to the Land of the Living.
Anthony Gonzalez infuses Miguel with charm and earnest determination which, of course, you can’t help but root for. Bratt brings a perfect blend of suave and smarm to Ernesto while Bernal brings a good dose of mischief to warm-hearted Hector.
Rich with cultural lessons, stunning animation and beautiful music, Coco is simply a delight. I learned a lot about Dia de Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, which is very similar to my own culture’s observance of All Souls Day and All Saints Day in the Philippines.
Coco’s winsome depiction of what honoring our departed loved ones means is incredibly heartwarming, and honestly if the Land of the Dead is truly how PIXAR imagines it, I hope they are right.
Much like Moana, so much of the family in Coco reminded me of my own that I left the theater emotionally compromised at the end. You will, too, especially if you’re easily touched by sweet songs and tender moments between parents and their children. Coco is a moving lesson about the love of family and believing in yourself and how one can strengthen the other in turns.
  
The Addams Family (2019)
The Addams Family (2019)
2019 | Animation, Comedy, Family
“They’re creepy and they’re kooky, Mysterious and spooky, They’re all together ooky, The Addams family…” a theme song that everyone aged five to ninety-five seem to know the words to. It’s amazing to think that a show that first aired in 1964 and only ran for two seasons could continue to have the impact that it does fifty-five years later. Let that sink in for just a couple of minutes, for reference the Apollo 11 moon landing occurred in 1969 almost three years after the show’s end date. To simply say that the Addams Family has made a cultural impact on our society is a bit of an understatement, so how would the first animated full-length movie treat these cultural icons?

The Addams Family is an origin story of sorts for everyone’s favorite kooky family. Gomez Addams (Oscar Isaac) and Morticia (Charlize Theron) are rudely interrupted during their wedding ceremony by a bunch of angry villagers carrying pitchforks. While this is a little cliché’ it sets the tone for the interaction between the Addams family and how they are perceived by “normal” folks. Morticia longs for a place where they can live in peace away from those who wish to disturb their lives. On a long and windy road in New Jersey, fate appears in the form of Lurch (Conrad Vernon) as he bounces off the hood of their car. In the distance, as lightning strikes, they peer up a mountain side to see an abandoned, haunted insane asylum. The perfect place to raise a family away from the peering eyes of the rest of the world.
For thirteen years the Addams Family lives in relative seclusion with their two young children, Wednesday (Chloë Grace Moretz) and Pugsley (Finn Wolfhard). Neither of the children are allowed to leave the Asylum grounds and know of nothing outside the cold iron gates. One day, the swamp is drained, the clouds part and the Addams Family life of seclusion comes to an abrupt end. Down in the valley the town of Assimilation, a town that as its name suggests was built by famous HAG TV designer Margaux Needler (Allison Janney). The asylum (and its inhabitants) do not “fit-in” with the designer’s vision and kookiness ensues as she attempts to make-over (and take-over) the family’s home.

Visually The Addams Family reminds me of several Tim Burton classics albeit with a more colorful palette. Each member of the family is a caricature of their infamous selves and stylistically imbues the spooky, ooky, kookiest versions we would expect. Backed by an incredible amount of supporting voice talent such as Bette Midler, Martin Short, and Snoop-Dog as everyone’s favorite fuzzy cousin…It, it’s a star-studded event that even the most die-hard Addams Family purist will enjoy.

The story goes through typical tropes that we’ve seen played out a thousand times already. A misunderstood family is misjudged by their neighbors, only to come together in the end. It’s a story about celebrating our differences and learning to appreciate what makes each of us unique. In a world of social media, cell phones and television shows that try to make us all conform, it teaches us that while people may look and act different than us, they all bring something special to the table. It’s this light-heartedness and sweet story telling which while not unique is something that I feel we need more of in the world today.

The Addams Family is a film for the entire family, there is light-hearted violence, but all done in jest with no one ever getting hurt. While it doesn’t bring anything unexpected to the table, its still enjoyable and a film that doesn’t ever attempt to take itself seriously. It won’t win any best picture awards, and likely will become another 30 days of Halloween past-time when it makes its way to television, it is still one that will leave you with a smile on your face long after it is over. The experience you get from it, will likely be based on the audience reaction to the film. In the theater I was in, there was lots of laughter, snapping and even a sing-along at the end. It’s a movie to see with other people, and even if you aren’t a fan of the TV series, it will still offer you something. Sometimes a simple movie, with a simple message, is exactly the escape we need from everything in the world today. The Addams Family makes a perfect escape for the entire family this Halloween Season.

3.5 out of 5 stars

http://sknr.net/2019/10/10/the-addams-family/
  
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Dana (24 KP) rated The Great Gatsby in Books

Mar 23, 2018  
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald | 1925 | Fiction & Poetry
8
7.3 (126 Ratings)
Book Rating
I had to reread this book for one of my classes in college, so this, I believe, is the second or third time I have had to read this book.

I understand why it is a lot of people's favorite book, it is very good, especially with all of the hidden meanings and themes throughout the novel. The only thing is that I feel like it is kind of overrated. Don't hate me, I have reasons.

So many students in the United States have to read this book in high school, most in their Junior year, but I don't know if they are fully able to grasp all of the hidden depths to it. People will go around quoting the book over an over and not stop to question or analyze what they are saying. I understand that not everyone is an English major and that they don't all want to analyze everything they are saying, but at least thinking about it should be done a bit more.

That being said, I really do enjoy this book. Each sentence is so complex in its own way and I love it when books are like that. It would be so easy to be able to write a whole paper on just a small portion of this book in this review, but I promise I'm not going to do that.

So for the class I am reading this for, we are studying it less in the context of what is going on in the novel and more on the period it was written in: the Modernist period. In looking at the style and the cultural and historical influences on F Scott Fitzgerald, I feel like I am able to get more out of the book and the reasons behind each plot point and character. This is a book that is studying people's deficiencies and culture's issues in a not so subtle way.

The characters are really fun to study because they are all not so great people. They all have flaws that are so noticeable to the readers, but it is trying to understand why they are the way they are that is the most fun, at least for me.

If you ever get a chance to study this in a class that is not your high school English course, I would highly recommend it because it almost starts to feel like a whole new book!
  
Life is too short to read books I don't like. This is a book that I got for free from Barnes & Noble and didn't even make it half way through. I was going to try and push through, but every time I went to read it, I got a feeling of dread in my bones. So, I decided that I would put it down and read something else. There are too many good books out there to spend time on one that does not interest me, and causes me mental strife.

**Spoilers**

The Bjorklunds are a Norwegian family and have been dreaming of life in America for years now. And the time has come to make those dreams a reality. The prologue begins in 1877 with the family discussing plans to start saving and send two of their sons and their families to America. When Chapter One begins, it is a different year which is not mentioned, and I was extremely confused. In the prologue Roald's wife's name is Anna, and then all of a sudden it's Chapter One and Ingeborg is introduced. I had to flip back and forth a few times trying to make sense of everything. It turns out that Anna died and Roald remarried a few years later to Ingeborg. However, my main reason for disliking this book is Roald. He treats his wife with contempt and obviously withholds any affections he has towards her. I get a bad taste in my mouth every time I think about the way Roald treats Ingeborg. I understand a lot of it is cultural and the era. But I do not enjoy it. He rules his house with an iron fist. Ingeborg is afraid to even let a sigh out accidentally for fear of her husband.

I read a couple other reviews and found that the book does not have a happy ending. This was one of the determaning factors I used when I decided to set it down. I did not want to push through a book I did not enjoy to have it leaving me feeling miserable. I may pick this back up in the future, but it is being shelved for now. I have not given up on Lauraine Snelling either. This was the first book I have read by her and am interested to see what other books she writes.

Bethany House Publishers
  
The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman [BOOK REVIEW]
Read this review and more on www.diaryofdifference.com
I haven’t read much classic reads this year, and a few days before the end of 2018, I decided to go for a classic short story, and I chose The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

This classic has been written by a woman in the 19th century. A time when women weren’t treated the same way as today. A difficult time, where women couldn’t express their opinion as they wished, but they were suppressed by the male authority in the family.

When The Yellow Wallpaper came out, it was considered a Gothic Horror Tale. It is hard to believe for me, knowing the world we live in today, and how we, as women can express our opinions openly. But back in the days, this is how it was. It wasn’t easy for the woman, and I am glad we have a lot of brave women from that time, that gathered the courage to tell stories for the next generations.

This is a story about a woman, who seems to suffer of post-partum depression (a type of mood disorder associated with childbirth). She has been forced by her husband and doctor to stay in her room until she is ”mentally capable” again to take care of her baby. I am not a mother, but I can imagine the pain and suffering of not being allowed to see and hold your unborn child. And people thought this was okay?

The woman is constantly staring at the yellow wallpaper and the window, constantly reassuring herself that this is all happening for her own good, and that the husband and doctor know best, until a point where we are not actually sure if she is in her right mind anymore.

She starts to see a woman inside the wallpaper, and believes the woman is struggling to break free. I loved the metaphor used, as her subconscious knows she is trapped, and the end is so painful to read, but oh, so powerful.

Even though such a short read, The Yellow Wallpaper is an impressive view on cultural traditions, and the position of women in the family. A classic and a must-have for every woman!
  
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)
2019 | Drama

"When we were fourth-graders, Phil wrote and performed a parody of Mr. Rogers. It’s a common enough reaction for a budding culture vulture: to make fun of the sincerity of the gentle TV icon’s work. An approach so easy, a fourth-grader could do it. We first met Mari Heller 20 years ago, hanging out in our circle of similarly sarcastic comedians — and then, as now, she was interested in more than just undercutting earnestness. Her insightful, incisive, curious and, as always, confident new film makes us laugh, but it’s all part of the con. The laughs start with Rogers’ refusal to conform to the expectations of Lloyd, the flummoxed cynical guy who can’t believe Rogers is for real. We begin to laugh instead at Lloyd’s frustration, and before long we are left exposed, without an off-ramp, leading us irrevocably to getting what we secretly came for — to cry our eyes out. Fitting that her film about our fear of emotion is delivered with a fearless emotionality that moves us even as it mystifies. Where are the deflecting jokes that protect us from thinking too deeply about what scares us? Is she just going to like, let us cry? Is Tom Hanks just going to stare into my soul and make me grateful for my family? The least she could do is provide every audience member with tissues. We could write 10 paragraphs on her playful use of miniatures, how she always seems to bring out the best in her cinematographers, how she continually finds a way for the form of her film to surprise while never forgetting to reflect its purpose. We could compliment her knack for getting great actors to give some of their greatest performances, how under her care, Tom Hanks roams the movie with inspired playfulness, genuine caring, and private struggle to be his best self. We could even reflect on how a Brooklyn feminist has chosen this maddening, radicalizing, spine-pretzeling cultural moment to make a film about simply being good, and being good simply. But we would rather focus on her warm, disarming way of letting Rogers’ idiosyncrasies — like his snapping of personal photos or his silly puppet voices — first baffle us into a laugh, the way they did when we were smart-aleck adolescents, and then inspire us to grow up (or not!) and accept his loving embrace."

Source
  
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)
2019 | Drama

"When we were fourth-graders, Phil wrote and performed a parody of Mr. Rogers. It’s a common enough reaction for a budding culture vulture: to make fun of the sincerity of the gentle TV icon’s work. An approach so easy, a fourth-grader could do it. We first met Mari Heller 20 years ago, hanging out in our circle of similarly sarcastic comedians — and then, as now, she was interested in more than just undercutting earnestness. Her insightful, incisive, curious and, as always, confident new film makes us laugh, but it’s all part of the con. The laughs start with Rogers’ refusal to conform to the expectations of Lloyd, the flummoxed cynical guy who can’t believe Rogers is for real. We begin to laugh instead at Lloyd’s frustration, and before long we are left exposed, without an off-ramp, leading us irrevocably to getting what we secretly came for — to cry our eyes out. Fitting that her film about our fear of emotion is delivered with a fearless emotionality that moves us even as it mystifies. Where are the deflecting jokes that protect us from thinking too deeply about what scares us? Is she just going to like, let us cry? Is Tom Hanks just going to stare into my soul and make me grateful for my family? The least she could do is provide every audience member with tissues. We could write 10 paragraphs on her playful use of miniatures, how she always seems to bring out the best in her cinematographers, how she continually finds a way for the form of her film to surprise while never forgetting to reflect its purpose. We could compliment her knack for getting great actors to give some of their greatest performances, how under her care, Tom Hanks roams the movie with inspired playfulness, genuine caring, and private struggle to be his best self. We could even reflect on how a Brooklyn feminist has chosen this maddening, radicalizing, spine-pretzeling cultural moment to make a film about simply being good, and being good simply. But we would rather focus on her warm, disarming way of letting Rogers’ idiosyncrasies — like his snapping of personal photos or his silly puppet voices — first baffle us into a laugh, the way they did when we were smart-aleck adolescents, and then inspire us to grow up (or not!) and accept his loving embrace."

Source