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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
2004 | Comedy, Drama, Romance

"This is one of my favourite films, and I’m going to almost insist that you say in this article that people must go and watch a song called Carol Brown, from the new series of Flight of the Conchords. It’s been directed by Michel Gondry, and it’s just so amazing; for the rest of the episode you can’t really see that it’s him, but up comes this dazzling thing. I just think for a movie with such a massive concept, that idea, that sort of fantasy, should be done by being completely realistic. In a way it’s like Let the Right One In – the office where they alter your mind feels like a ghastly dental surgery. So you’re in this weird mixture between something that feels terribly realistic, with Kirsten Dunst jumping up and down on a bed, absolutely normal, and yet it’s completely freakish and odd and had these spectacular special effects in it. I love the sort of downbeat-ness of the love story — the fact that, really, they’re sort of right for each other, but only because they’re not right for anyone else. I think it’s a genuinely great fantasy movie, a great love story, and Kate Winslet‘s hair is, after all, blue, so that’s obviously a good reason for seeing it. You’ve been on this massive ride, and it gets back to these people in a corridor, which I suppose is like — if you land on the moon, there’s just you on the moon, and I think there’s something profound about the whole thing."

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Saw (2004)
Saw (2004)
2004 | Horror
Now *this* is more like it. Cruel, grimy, and goofy in just about equal measure - I sorely underrated this deservedly revolutionary gem the first time I saw it. Uses aspects which are unfairly maligned by other horror/thriller filmmakers who claim to be 'above' them much to its advantage; you're going to sit there and tell me that sped-up series of 360 shots around the reverse bear trap wasn't totally fucking awesome? Elements like that tap so deeply into that primal survival instinct which few other films of the genre even dare to explore, let alone as well as this does. The acting gets a lot of shit but tbh Cary Elwes and - in particular - Leigh Whannell are stellar as these two clashing personalities that effortlessly carry the entire movie on their backs. The decision to play up these performances akin to a WWE episode (even confining them to a stage-like arena for weaponized melodrama) adds even further to its untouched singularity. Could you imagine the direction of Wan with the gore of the sequels? Goddamn what an A1 product that would be. Just a concoction of ideas that work beautifully together: from the memorable aesthetic to its dastardly smart premise it's about as engrossing as can be. The twist is still just as riveting as it was back then if only because of the sheer commitment to delve into such gonzo levels of outlandishness. The fact that 𝘚𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘭 turned this one's iconically atmospheric music into a cringe 21 Savage song tells you all you need to know about it.
  
Reluctant Billionaire (The Billionaire’s Playground #2)
Reluctant Billionaire (The Billionaire’s Playground #2)
JP Sayle | 2020 | Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I'm enjoying this series. I like that the billionaires aren't arrogant or big headed.
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

My review will be fairly short, I'm not in a good place right now!

This is book 2 in the Billionaire's Playground but its not necessary to have read book one, Property of a Billionaire. However, THAT book is where we first meet Nanna and you might want to get the full force of her nature :-)

I thoroughly enjoyed this second book, as much as, but not more than, the first book.

It's relatively low on the angst scale, but there is some, it's just not too much, you know? Just enough.

Both Brett and Guy have a say, in the first person.

I loved Nanna's meddling! While it was pure chance Brett and Guy ended up on the same holiday, everything that comes after is pure unadulterated Nanna-meddling and I loved it! She proper puts Brett's dad in his place. I liked how the reason Brett's dad was so . . . negative? maybe not quite the right word, but it fits now . . .towards him wasn't what you are first led to believe.

It's steamy, but again, not too much, and I really rather enjoyed that it was not too much, just like book one.

I'm enjoying this series. I like that the billionaires aren't arrogant or big headed. They are just regular guys with an obscene amount of money, is all! They will show that money off when needed though, but they don't shove it in anyone's face.

Keep them coming, please!

4 delightful stars

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
  
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Frank Carter recommended AM by Arctic Monkeys in Music (curated)

 
AM by Arctic Monkeys
AM by Arctic Monkeys
2013 | Alternative
8.8 (4 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"""AM is one of my favourite records of the last ten years. I've always liked the fact that Arctic Monkeys sidestepped the indie scene and reinvented themselves as a rock band. I think Alex Turner gets a lot of unfair flak but he's a phenomenal songwriter, one of the best of our generation, and this record in particular has some incredible songs on it. People like rockstars until they don't like rockstars, and then if you're a rockstar you'd better fucking duck. He's always just been himself, and luckily himself is just rock & roll through and through. I'm incredibly jealous of his mind, he's a great guitarist but as a lyricist it's incredibly frustrating to be alive at the same time as him. As a rockstar he just has it, and luckily he's not put too much of a foot wrong yet. As far as I'm concerned he can do no wrong, and I'm putting that all on his lyrics. It's mental that he can squeeze a line like ""She's got a Barbarella silver swimsuit"" into a song and make it relevant, make it just feel new, yet he's referencing things from such a long time ago, probably from before he was alive. He has an understanding of pop culture and is a master of manipulating it to do whatever he wants. As a lyricist myself it's quite amazing to see."""

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Jeff Nichols recommended Dreams (1990) in Movies (curated)

 
Dreams (1990)
Dreams (1990)
1990 | International, Drama, Sci-Fi
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Let’s tall about Kurosawa‘s Dreams. When Bravo first came on television, they were figuring out who they were as a cable network and would just play random foreign films. This was before the travesty of reality television permeated their station. I was at home alone in high school, I think I was a junior in high school and Dreams comes on by Kurosawa. I could not separate myself from it. I didn’t know who Kurosawa was — I didn’t care. I was just a kid absorbing things that flashed on the screen in front of him. I was immediately captivated by this thing that was at once beautiful — obviously surreal — but at the same time palpable enough to actually hit home emotionally. I think not many people would probably describe scenes in my movies as surreal, but there are some. Kind of this magical realism that exists in that film. Also it feels ancient; it feels like when this boy comes home having witnessed the wedding of foxes and his mother’s there and says he can’t enter the home because he spied on the foxes and then presents a dagger to him and says, “They want you to kill yourself. Run. Run and ask for forgiveness.” It feels like an ancient story, it feels like something — I’m not sure what. It feels like something that kind of bubbled up from our beginning. I was fascinated by that. Just go watch it. It’s all skits, it’s basically short films strewn together. Get’s real weird by the end, but the first three are three of the greatest films I’ve ever seen."

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Emma Watson recommended The Vagina Monologues in Books (curated)

 
The Vagina Monologues
The Vagina Monologues
Eve Ensler | 2001
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"This book isn’t strictly just a book – it’s a play that became a political movement that became a world-wide phenomenon. Just say the title The Vagina Monologues and, even now, twenty years after Eve Ensler first performed her ground-breaking show, the words feel radical…I’m so interested to see which monologues we all like best, and which ones still shock us. Has the world moved on in twenty years, or are there still aspects of women’s sexuality we can’t talk about, through our own fears or because others try to stop us? Do we think art can change the world?"

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Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009)
Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009)
2009 | Documentary, Drama, Music
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I’ve got one more? Oh man, my newest favorite movie is This Is It, the Michael Jackson movie. ‘Cause I went into it and I was like, “Eh, whatever, it’s just another Michael thing”, but I didn’t think I’d be that impressed by it. I was just going to kill an afternoon, but it was so good. And I walked out going, “He was so good; he was murdered.” Because he didn’t seem incoherent at all. He was such a genius. He could hear things that no one else in the world could hear musically. That’s one of my latest favorite movies."

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The Milagro Beanfield War (1988)
The Milagro Beanfield War (1988)
1988 | Comedy, Drama

"This was Robert Redford‘s follow up to Ordinary People. It’s just about a small South-Western town that is being taken over by moneyed interests. There’s this beautiful scene in the beginning where this obnoxious pig comes and wakes everybody up in the village out of bed, and everybody is like “Ergh, get away from me you pig.” But actually the pig is a force of great good; he’s just rousing everybody for the morning. There’s a certain poetry and stillness to the picture, and a magic that seems to emanate from the land and it casts a delicate spell."

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Upgrade (2018)
Upgrade (2018)
2018 | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
I'd go classifying Upgrade as sci-fi action... for some reason it also has a genre of horror on IMDb. Sure it's a bit gory, but with everything that happens in it I wouldn't have lumped it in there as well. It briefly gave me pause to ponder where the lines of classification are... but that way madness lies!

This one isn't for the faint hearted. There's quite a lot of violence in it. There was only one bit that I thought "that was a bit much", but even then it was more that I reacted to it with an intake of breath and a slight wince before laughing... because it was a tad ridiculous. The guy in the row behind me did the same, but his girlfriend wasn't overly impressed.

I actually found Grey's reactions to his body doing violent things to be very well done, and a nice touch because you do forget that it's not actually him. Acting so that your face is doing something completely different to how your body is performing must be very challenging, but Marshall-Green did it really well. He had humour, and really brought out the conflict between his head and his body... wow, well there are just some things that you don't expect to say when reviewing films.

The main reason it's missing that last half star is purely personal preference. I like sci-fi, and I like mindless violence. What I don't like are the motion and camera quirks. But like I say, it's personal preference. Those tracking shots that put Grey centre of the frame and follow him round like it's a third person shooter game (third person?) did nothing for me, and made everything seem kind of jumpy. This was so you could get the contrast between him being in control and STEM being in control, and I understand that but it's a shame they couldn't find another way to do it. My only other bug was that when Grey is laying on the floor and STEM gets him up to standing he goes from horizontal to vertical like he's on a hinge. How is that even possible? STEM is still constrained by what the human body can do, right? And last time I checked I can't pivot from laying down to standing just on my heels.

What should you do?

Great lead, interesting story line... if you don't mind mindless violence then you should definitely go and see this.

Movie thing you wish you could take home

I'd quite like to take home STEM and have my body be that coordinated all the time... but that does have the whole killer robot issue. So perhaps I'll just go with the self driving car this time.
  
The Apparition (2012)
The Apparition (2012)
2012 | Horror, Mystery
Characters – Kelly is a trainee vet, she moves into one of her parent’s rental properties with her boyfriend where she starts experiencing the haunting events. Ben is the boyfriend of Kelly, he is a good handy man and searching for his career. It is his past that comes back to haunt them. Patrick is part of the team that did the experiment with Ben back in the college days and now he will help right the wrongs.

Performances – The performances, well this is fun and this is not just the actors performances that hold them back, the characters are written one dimension which gives the actors nothing to work with. If we look at the main three stars, they all struggle to make an impact and it shows through the film.

Story – The story here follows an experiment gone wrong and now there is an entity haunting the people who released it from whether it came from, it plays into the idea that you shouldn’t mess with the dead because they will come to haunt you. Anyway this story is simple enough, it is a survival horror against a ghost figure that doesn’t have too much going on about it. We have plenty of just dark sequences that seem to go nowhere or lead to false jump scares and before long it is over, I think. I can’t say the story offers too much for the horror fans or just film fans and it feels like it is flat by the end of the film

Horror/Thriller – The horror is mostly false scares which just frustrate throughout, you are now looking to be on the edge of your seats, well this doesn’t give you any of that.

Settings – The settings just feel like they went and grabbed the Poltergeist location and thought this will do, nothing makes sense for the entity and the hauntings though.

Special Effects – The effects look poor throughout, it all looks like CGI which is poor to see in a modern horror.


Scene of the Movie – Credits were good.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – Kelly criticising people who work in stores, these people work hard and deserve praise.

Final Thoughts – This is a poor lazy horror that just doesn’t do anything for the genre and becomes dull quickly.

 

Overall: Boring horror that has no scares.