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OS
Other Side of Forever
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Disclaimer: I received an e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Allie is that awkward girl in school with only a couple friends, trying to keep her head down and her nose clean and make it through each day without causing a scene. However, there's a secret she's been carrying for years, a secret not even her best friend knows, and that's how she wants it to stay. That is, until a new boy strolls into the shop where she works, and throws all her best-laid plans of staying off love's radar out the window.

I rather enjoyed this book right from the start, as I remember being one of those awkward high school kids. Although, it was never to the extent of Allie, as she has to hold her emotions in check due to her secret. Not too easy when you're being harassed by two older bullies just for accidentally pushing one down the stairs. But while the two girls are trashing the store where she works, Allie loses it, and now what does she do? They know there's something up with her, but not exactly what, and then this hot new guy shows up, and her day just keeps getting better. Although many people would love the gorgeous new kid to take a shine to them, Allie's the complete opposite, and it gnaws at her that she feels an electric attraction to him whenever he's around. The main characters really grabbed my attention, as Allie and Ethan are both hiding something, and I couldn't wait to get to the part where they finally opened up about their secrets. Ethan's is a little beyond what Allie could have imagined, but their bond is great, and he helps her cope with everything in her life.

My only issue is I felt the ending was rushed. It was a great story, don't get me wrong, but about 3/4 through, I was under the impression it would continue into a second book because of the issue with Ethan (I don't want to give too much away). However, only a couple of chapters later, it gets resolved in one of those "happened in the background" type ways, and it just didn't seem to flow with the pace of the story. I would love a continuation, to see how the characters cope with what happens in the end, but if that's the case, then I wish the last couple chapters of this one had been stretched into a sequel. Still, a very good read, and I'd recommend it to fans of the paranormal, paranormal romance, and YA.

4 stars
  
Pitching Tents (2017)
Pitching Tents (2017)
2017 |
6
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
If you have ever taken the time to listen to our Podcast you will have figured out that I am a big fan of Kevin Smith, John Hughes, Cameron Crowe dialogue heavy story driven movies. Throw one of those coming of age end of summer type movies and ill eat them up like a bowl of Shreddies (Other cereals are available I just happen to be eating a bowl as I write this).

Pitching Tents is exactly this type of movie. Its 1984 its the end of the school year and Danny (Micheal Grant) has very little clue what he is going to do with his life past High School, before he has to really worry about any of that he is having one last weekend at Trout Camp with his buddies. However before his weekend can really begin he is cornered by over zealous guidance counselor Mr. Mulligan (Jim Norton) who has pretty much guaranteed Danny a place at a good college. Obviously though things are never that simple because Danny’s dad (Eric Allan Kramer) has gone to the liberty of securing him a job at the local factory.

 

Torn between his passion for Art and his desire to please his father, Danny has a tough life choice ahead of him. Of course that can wait because a weekend of smoking weed, contemplating life, trying to get laid lies ahead of Danny and his closest friends. You know standard Dazed and Confused territory.

You could argue that there is not really anything original here and you would right, we have seen these movies before and often done better. However I personally felt the Tug of War between Danny, his father and the Counselor is an interesting spin of the teen coming of age drama. Add to this the supporting cast of friends all hugely believable and relate-able with good turns from Disney alumni BooBoo Stewart (Descendants) as Todd and everyone’s favorite child star Jonathan Lipnicki (who is all growed up nowadays) as Scott. Then there is the final third of the movie in which Danny is to make his choice and the movie shows a level of maturity rarely seen in this type of Flick. Props to director Jacob Cooney on this count.

This is a recommend if these movies take your fancy, I know they are not for everyone but personally it ticked a lot of my boxes, and its always good to see what Lipnicki is doing these days. Oh then theres the soundtrack, typical 80s movie soundtrack, but hey who doesnt love that.
  
The Fast and the Furious (2001)
The Fast and the Furious (2001)
2001 | Action, Drama
Contains spoilers, click to show
So this is the first time I've seen 'The Fast and the Furious' and the only other film in the franchise I've seen is 'Hobbs and Shaw', Which I knew was a (slightly) different beast but, with the new film out soon I thought I may as well start from the beginning.
First thoughts, 'The Fast and the Furious' is 'Point Brake' with cars instead of of surf boards. It's been a while since I've seen Point break but I'm sure the plots are very similar. Actually that's not quite true, my first thoughts were that it was a high school film with the races instead of the school. The first time we meet Dominic's Team they're acting like the typical 'Jock' or bully group who pick on the 'New kid' or weirdo, in this case Brian. Then we have the first race we see Brian at, when he looks around the track we see the different 'clicks', each one represented by a (slightly) different genre of music, all we needed was for one of the characters (probably Letty or Mia) to walk on and introduce the group's "Over here we have the goth's, there are the cheerleaders." etc.
 Then the film settles down to 'Point Break mode, the big revel (near the start of the film) that (Spoilers) Brian is a cop and we're introduced to the people he works with and, to be honest they would almost fit into an 80's U.K. police show (or 'Life on mars/Ashes to Ashes' for those of you are too young for the 80's).
We have lots of cars and almost no crime. Really most of the crime is just talked about or a red herring. Then the big race, but we don't see that because we now have the actual heist and the set up Brian's big decision (although it's pretty obvious which side he'll choose). Big action scene, betrayed (kind off), some one dies for character development (but, surprisingly, not a woman), another race, for reasons, character bonding. Cut to credits.
So a bit formulaic, but that ok, a bit of Macho one upping, but that's ok, lots of cars, of course and surprisingly no sex. All of which is good, it suits the film. Even the early revel that Brian is a cop is ok, you don't need to put much though into 'The Fast and the Furious' meaning that you can just sit back 1 hour 45 and enjoy a no brainer whilst turning off your brain.
  
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
1989 | Comedy, Drama

"Spike Lee’s third film. I had just started doing films in high school and Do the Right Thing came out, and there was just this burst of creativity in a drama, of creative energy, and also just the social commentary, and Spike being in it, and the music, and the color, the production design. Then I read the book on the making of it. I read the book that he wrote for She’s Gotta Have It. I really became, like, a Spike Lee connoisseur, you know? But again, just to kind of open my eyes, it took me from kind of like what we were talking about before, like the shiny effects, you know, that kid of shiny object interest of childhood, to movies that can really make you think, and make you talk, make you think about what is going on, and his social commentary really affected me. It really took me from kind of like a Spielberg/Lucas type of filmmaker toward a more socially conscious filmmaker. I actually did a film that was very inspired by Do the Right Thing called Gabriel’s Dream that never got distributed. But it was about these workers in a particularly hot summer in Maryland, and they were trying to get A/C in their factory, and that was basically the story. Like, workers’ rights. It kind of really took me in a direction that I never thought I would go in. And it never came out, it did some festivals, and we never got distribution for it, this was like early 1990s. But it definitely opened my eyes to the power of cinema as a social statement, as a social tool. And I wrote two or three scripts after that that were very much inspired by Do the Right Thing, kind of touching on social issues. I was really that kind of filmmaker when I was in film school. But then we came up with the idea for Blair Witch and all of a sudden, we became “horror filmmakers.” But still, I love the idea of always having a little bit of the deeper meaning in material. And some films are just for fun and made that way, but there are others where you want to dig a little deeper. If you can get one person coming out of the theater thinking about what happened in the movie, I think it’s great. And Do the Right Thing consumed me. It was such an important film in my upbringing, you know?"

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Twin Peaks Soundtrack by Angelo Badalamenti
Twin Peaks Soundtrack by Angelo Badalamenti
1990 | Rock, Soundtrack
7.4 (8 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This has a similar story to Pixies and Beastie Boys in that it came out when I was in high school and me and all our friends totally lost our mind over it. We'd watch it every week and then the next day at school we'd confer and talk about what happened. Which is funny because so many of my conversations with my friends now are so similar. Especially now that you can binge-watch all of these TV shows and TV is just so good right now that it dominates all of our conversations. Especially with a show like True Detective which is kind of like a mystery and you talk about all the weird stuff, you theorise and come up with all these conspiracies. So it was like that with Twin Peaks and that was the first time that I ever had that relationship with a TV show. Then after that there wasn't another TV show that I replaced it with. It was very specific to Twin Peaks. And it was filmed in the region I lived in, the Pacific Northwest, and me and all my friends connected with that and felt a little bit of ownership over that. The music is really pretty and haunting. I actually bought the songbook so that I could learn how to play them. And I really like Julee Cruise, I thought her voice was really pretty. [Nancy played 'Twin Peaks Theme' as an intro the LCD Soundsystem's 'New York I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down' at their final show in 2011] When we first started playing 'New York I Love You…', I was still trying to learn how to play it, and I don't think I've ever played it the same twice. Even for the recording there was no music written for it. But then as I got more comfortable playing it I started doing different things with it. There's this bit in the middle where it slows down, like the bridge, or the part before the big outro, where it slows down and I can hear other songs that could fit in there. The first song I played in that little interlude was 'Empire State Of Mind', then I got bored of that and started doing Brian Eno's 'By This River', then we would even sing the whole of that song before going back into 'New York I Love You…' but my favourite is when I did 'Twin Peaks'."

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