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Awix (3310 KP) rated Tell It to the Bees (2019) in Movies

Jul 24, 2019 (Updated Jul 25, 2019)

Tell It to the Bees (2019)

2019 | Drama, Romance

6.5

(2 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Well-staged hats-and-ciggies period drama struggles to find anything new to say, or indeed to surprise or engage in any way. Much-put-upon single mum (Grainger) meets newly-arrived town doctor (Paquin) in a laborious cute-meet; what follows you can probably write for yourself, with the exception of a really weird climax involving bees (the bees are a sort of motif throughout, but it's still weird).

Reasonably good acting, although Paquin's attempt at a Scottish accent is not particularly easy on the ear. The problem is that the film is deeply predictable and not especially subtle (the girl-on-girl stuff is classily handled, though). I found it quite heavy going; the bit with the magic bees is a genuine 'You WHAT?' moment bafflingly at odds with the dour realism of much of the rest of the film.

Kudos

Eilidh G Clark (177 KP) rated Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in Books

Jul 2, 2019

An insight into the period (0 more)

Slow (0 more)

A good book for its time

It takes a while to get into this book mostly because of the narrative voice. It is the narrative voice that makes the book as good as it is. Written in 1st person, the unreliable narrator fools the reader into just how uneducated he is (he did write a book after all). Huck has bags of common sense but relies on Tom for silliness. There is however, a lot of innocence in Huckleberry and a huge desire for freedom but I do think he secretly wants to civilised. The last few chapters of the book are more like a children's adventure story showing the child like Huckleberry compared to the innocent and uncivilised boy at the start of the book. I liked this. I enjoyed the ending very much.

Kudos

David McK (3791 KP) rated Highwayman: War's End in Books

Mar 29, 2020

Highwayman: War's End

Michael Arnold | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics, Thriller

6.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

The third of the - so far - three Highwayman novellas, each following the escapades of Samson Lyle, the former Roundhead who is now a notorious Highwayman during the period of Cromwell's protectorate.

In this one, Lyle finds himself hunting down a stolen possession, in a bid to return it to its rightful owner who has taken hostage of the son of an old friend, with that owner believing that said son had stolen it (he hasn't).

With only - roughly - five chapters, each chapter is given over to one day in the week of Lyle's efforts to retrieve the item, culminating in a fight on Portsmouth Point and with key recurring players from the previous two novellas also getting an appearance.

Of necessity (because of the length), there's therefore not much room for plot in this one: It's a pretty straightforward tale of derring do!