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Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Boy Erased (2018) in Movies

Jun 22, 2019 (Updated Sep 25, 2019)  
Boy Erased (2018)
Boy Erased (2018)
2018 | Biography, Drama
This is a tough one to get into, not because of the subject matter but because the beginning is just so slow. I actually sat there wondering if this was the movie I had thought I was going to be seeing when I walked in.

Let's just start by saying that Nicole Kidman is genuinely the best thing about this film. You can feel her shame, and the love she feels for her son... and all of that through the horrendous wig. The wig people are definitely out to get her in these recent films.

Boy Erased certainly doesn't pull any punches. There are two scenes in particular that are brutal and quite shocking, but they hit on completely opposite ends of the scale for me. The first sees a relationship develop between Jared and his male friend at college, this leads to a rape scene that should have a massive impact on the film but it somehow didn't. The second is at the conversion program and we see one of the members getting beaten by his family, this one had some very powerful performances. Two shocking scenes that should surely hold similar impact and yet they don't.

There is a break in this film that takes it from bad to good, that divide comes when the conversion therapy enters the story. Before that point nothing seems to hold much weight. Had there been something at the beginning that alluded to the latter part of the film then that incredibly long set up could have been forgiven.

When it comes to the acting it's really all over the shop. As I said, Nicole Kidman knocked my socks off as the leading lady, but when it came to the leading men I was a little underwhelmed. Crowe's performance didn't make me feel anything about his character, possibly because most of his role appears in the beginning of the film where it feels like nothing happens. Until he was able to start developing Jared's character with his interactions with other group members Lucas Hedges' offering wasn't much to write home about either. I could probably go on for ages about the supporting cast but there's good, there's bad, and there's unnecessary, but I'm sure that all the characters are there for a reason.

The story is an important one and had the scope to be amazing but somewhere along the line some choices were made that meant momentum was lost very early on in the film.

What you should do

I think it's worth a watch, but do be aware that it takes a while to reach its stride.

Movie thing you wish you could take home

I think we could all do with Nancy's ability to realise her mistake and rectify it against such powerful opposition. "Shame on you, and shame on me!"
  
The Pink Bonnet: True Colors
The Pink Bonnet: True Colors
Liz Tolsma | 2019
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Cecile Dowd is a single mother, just trying to keep life together in 1933 for her and her three year old daughter Millie. Cecile is a widow and it's the great depression. Without her husband, it's difficult to always control Millie's behavior and make sure there is enough food on the table. Cecile decides she needs to get another job to help make things easier. While she goes out looking, she leaves Millie with a neighbor. When she returns to pick up Millie at the end of the day, Millie is gone. The neighbor says, that Cecile can't handle the child and has given her to someone who can help, Georgia Tann the head of the Tennessee Children's Home. They "help" parents find loving families for their children. But Cecile didn't ask for this and neither did a lot of other parents. Ms. Tann is taking children from parents she deems unfit and sending them to other families in the area. Ms. Tann has most of the Tennessee government in her back pocket and no matter who Cecile goes to for help, it's to no avail. Will she be able to find Millie before she's gone forever? With people trying to stop her at every turn, Cecile is determined, no matter what the cost.

Thank you to NetGalley and Barbour Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book is based on a true story. Georgia Tann was a real woman who really ran an adoption agency in Tennessee for over 25 years. During her tenure, it is believed that approximately 5,000 children were taken unwillingly from their parents and sold in adoptions to whoever would pay the highest price.

This book hit my heart hard. I can't imagine what I would do, if I left my child with a friend or neighbor for a little bit and then when I came back they had forged my name on documents to allow my child to be taken for adoption. Or if they were just snatched from the street on their way home from school. This was happening to hundreds of families during the depression. People were doing anything they could to make ends meet, but for Georgia Tann that didn't matter. One parent should be with the child at all times. That is the only way to show that you really love and are able to take care of the child.

I would love to read more about this lady. I hope there was a warm seat in hell waiting for her and all her cohorts when she passed away. Throughout the story, you can feel the love for Millie that Cecile has and she risks her life and the lives of those that are helping her in order to get to her daughter. No matter what she does, though it never seems like enough, Millie is always just beyond her grasp.

If you like historical, true crime fiction, you will enjoy this book.
  
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Eilidh G Clark (177 KP) rated Goblin in Books

Jul 2, 2019  
Goblin
Goblin
Ever Dundas | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Everything. This is a top class debut novel (0 more)
Nothing. (0 more)
Brilliant book, well wriiten, original
Winner of the Saltire Society first book of the year award 2017, Goblin, by Ever Dundas is a brilliant and brave first novel. Set in both London during WW2 and in Edinburgh in 2011, the story is told in flashback. For me, the first half of the novel is the best, we meet Goblin as a nine-year-old tomboy with a love for animals and a passion for storytelling - both of which the protagonist collects.
Goblin has a difficult family life; a mother who doesn’t want her, 'Goblin-runt born blue. Nothing can kill you. [...] You're like a cockroach,' (p.5) a father who mends radio’s and barely talks and a brother (David) who spends most of his time in his bedroom. Left to her own devices, the protagonist, her dog Devil, and her two friends Mac and Stevie roam the neighbourhood and hang around in an abandoned worksite. As a collector of stories, Goblin enthusiastically attends the local church with Mac, 'I loved the stories, turning them over in my head, weaving my own.' (p.24) before meeting The Crazy Pigeon Lady who tells her tales of Lizards people from the realm below. The childhood innocence in these chapters, mixed with magic realism, break down the walls of adult reasoning and creates a wonderful suspension of disbelief.
But without giving away the story plot, the suspension of disbelief serves another purpose; to divert the reader (as well as the adult protagonist) from the truth. So, while the adult Goblin searches amongst her tangled past, she takes the reader along for the ride. We meet multiple parents, live life on the road, come alive on the streets and in the circus, explore love, death, desire, and hate – and somewhere in the middle we meet an impressive collection of animals - Goblin has it all. And as far as strong female protagonists go, she’s right up there with Anais Hendricks from Jenni Fagan’s Panopticon, to Janie Ryan in Kerry Hudson’s Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice Cream Float Before He Stole My Ma, characters who are so real you might just walk by them on the street.
The only teeny tiny criticism about the novel is that the second half spans over a lengthy period of time and it felt a little rushed. However, there is so much to say about this novel, so many angles to discuss, from Queer Theory to Religion, from Myth to Realism, and as a graduate of English Literature I could have a field day studying this book but for now, as a lover of good books, I’ll give it a big thumbs up and a huge recommendation, it’ll be finding a space on my ‘keep’ book shelve.
Goblin, Ever Dundas (2017) published by Saraband
  
Coven Deception
Coven Deception
D. H. Davis | 2019 | Paranormal, Romance, Thriller
4
6.7 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
I enjoyed how Brooke found it in herself to stand up to her father and the Elders when she discovers they are hiding things from her. (0 more)
Honestly how similar this book was to Twilight was a definite downside to me. (0 more)
Honest Review for Free Copy of Book
Coven: Deception by D. H. Davis is very similar to Twilight by Stephenie Meyer in the fact that it is largely a supernatural teen romance. Add in the threat of the coven being under attack and exposed, and it becomes an interesting read.

 Brooke Lesley is in training to become the leader of her coven once she turns eighteen but it is not that easy. She must deal with an overbearing father, mastering incantations, and learning history from Elders who are hiding things from her. Being super stressed out Brooke decides to take a walk during lunch and ends up witnessing two men trying to rob an old lady. Brooke steps in to help her only to find Jessie, a boy from her school has the same idea. As it turns out he is a vampire which means that their friendship is forbidden.

 Soon strange things start happening all over town and an Elder from another coven is killed. The coven Brooke is from ignores all the signs and lets their long-standing hatred for vampires cloud their investigations. Brooke and her friends notice that not only is this unnamed threat an issue but also the Elders are hiding the truth about the feud with the vampires. It will take cunning and rule-breaking on their part but is up to Brooke and her friends to find out what really is going on, and to try to stop it.

 I enjoyed how Brooke found it in herself to stand up to her father and the Elders when she discovers they are hiding things from her. The fact that her mother encourages her to do what she must in order to make changes the coven desperately needs instead of following blindly behind her husband was also surprising considering the coven dynamics. Honestly how similar this book was to Twilight was a definite downside to me. The whole forbidden love with a vampire seems kind of overused and when the wolf attacked the school I was just waiting for Brooke to say it was a shapeshifter and start talking to it.

 Young adults and teens will enjoy this book the most. It might even be safe for most middle school students. Fans of the Twilight series will either love this book because of how similar it is or hate it, calling it a rip-off. I give this book a 2 out of 4 rating. I found it to be a good midrange young adult book. It might not have been the best supernatural teen romance but it was certainly far from the worst. I would recommend it to fans of the genre looking for a quick read.

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Captain Marvel (2019)
Captain Marvel (2019)
2019 | Action, Adventure
Brie Larson and Samuel Jackson had great chemistry on screen, Ben Mendelssohn totally stole the show and was my favorite character, really great cast of supporting characters. (0 more)
No the most engaging Marvel movie, a couple scenes felt forced, Nick Fury's eye, really ?!? Lol (0 more)
Hate It or Love It: Captain Marvel Has Arrived - 8/10
Captain Marvel is a 2019 superhero action/sci-fi movie based on the Marvel Comics character Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel. It was produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The movie was written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, with the screenplay also being contributed on by Geneva Robertson-Dworet. Starring Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jude Law.


On planet Hala, the capital of the Kree Empire, a female warrior named Vers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) suffers from nightmares involving a woman she doesn't recognize. She doesn't remember much from before her time on Hala. With assistance from her commander and mentor, Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), she's learning to control her powers and emotions during battle as is the Kree way. Her unit, Starforce, are given a mission to rescue an undercover Kree operative who might be compromised by enemies called the Skrull, a race of shape-shifting aliens. They must act quickly or the information the operative has will fall into the wrong hands. During the mission things don't go well and Vers/Captain Marvel is captured by the Skrulls who use a device to scour her memories which include the lady from her nightmares. She learns the woman's name is Dr. Wendy Lawson (Annette Bening), and that her memories from her past suggest that she has spent some time on Earth. She is escapes to Earth 1995, where she must find the woman and the secrets to her past.


 This movie was pretty awesome. I really liked it and enjoyed it very much. I thought it went by smoothly and the writers had a clear plot, but might not be the most engaging for some people. I know this movie got a lot of hate before it even came out but honestly I didn't see a lot to complain about. Yes it is empowering for females but I didn't feel like it was forced; save for maybe a couple of scenes. It was rated PG-13 so some of the themes might be beyond what children can fully understand but definitely a good fit for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I really like the chemistry between Captain Marvel and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). To me there was an exclusively entertaining character in the Skrull Talos (Ben Mendelsohn). He was a pleasant surprise and pretty funny. I thought the casting was very well too, even for the supporting characters like other Kree, Skrulls, and even Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers b.f.f. Movie was generally fun and pretty action-packed. I give it an 8/10.
  
En Concert A Paris by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
En Concert A Paris by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I think it was Mike [Harding] from Touch who first introduced this to me. He said, 'You'll love it, and it's an unbelievable price' which is quite a killer combination if you like collecting things. I bought it and he's absolutely right. It's a master: there's no ways about it, you're hearing virtuosity, ensemble playing to the highest degree. It knows itself inside-out, which means you get this feeling of how it stretches and breathes. Basically if I'm wanting to listen to something from it I close my eyes, fumble around and take one of the six discs out so it's a surprise. Otherwise you can find something for the morning, a raga, blah blah blah. But these are just the most extraordinary devotional love songs. It's from a tradition which has been going on for a very very long time. It's not a part-time job at all; these are people who are dedicated. It's fantastic. I think it's truly inspiring in the sense that it's through listening to that that I've come upon solutions to things that I've been working on myself. It's the peculiar thing: you wake up in the morning having gone to bed with a problem or you're working on something that you don't quite know what the solution to is, and when that marvellous thing happens that all the work gets done in your sleep, it's just the very best. I had an example of that happening with this record. When Dietmar Post and Lucia Palacios were making the Transatlantic Feedback film about The Monks, in order to get the editing done they asked people if they would contribute a cover version of a Monks track. From the proceeds of that they were able to finish the editing. I was working with a Swedish friend of mine who'd introduced me to The Monks so much later than everybody else. I said he had to choose the song, and he picked 'Oh, How To Do Now'. I listened to it over and over so it got into my head and my conclusion was that we certainly can't do it like that, because the narrator of the song is obviously a young man who has extremely sexual feelings for a young lady and I thought it'd be highly inappropriate for us to pursue that angle. How do you get an in? I woke up the next morning and thought, 'I know what to do'. I rewrote their text and took the emotion down, made it more devotional and I thought, 'Ah, that's it, it's like Ali Khan'; you change it into that, so in fact it has one phrase that's basically stretched over half the song, and the other part fell into place. It's either the love or the devotion but also the sense of melody, really stretching out lines. That's an example of it being inspiring and useful."

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