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Home Again (2017)
Home Again (2017)
2017 | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A single mother, living with her two daughters in the sunniest part of LA is swept of her feet into polysemic ties between love, anger, confusion and men.

Home Again tells the story of a coming out and embracement of nostalgia through storytelling and friendship. The movie takes the audience on a ride through the typical life of filmmakers and performers inside the entertainment industry and captures the real life context beautifully through intricate directions in realism.

Whereas this movie this movie hits ominous tones of sad context, there is just enough comedic relief to make it a perfect heartwarming date night movie.
  
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Suswatibasu (1701 KP) rated Swing Time in Books

Jul 24, 2017  
Swing Time
Swing Time
Zadie Smith | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Soul-moving realism
This is probably my favourite Zadie Smith novel, deeply touching with characters bursting to life out of the pages. Hitting on themes of racial identity and pop culture, it is a brilliant contemporary take on what young adults are currently experiencing. From cultural appropriation to the effects of globalisation all summed up in the relationship of one young woman and her peers.

Her relationship with her mother is one of generational divide while with her friend Tracy is one of class divide. The protagonist's character is the epitome of confusion and attempting to find a place in the world. Well worth the praise.
  
The 15:17 To Paris (2018)
The 15:17 To Paris (2018)
2018 | Drama, History, Thriller
This film started by showing the boys growing up, their mischief in school, their personalities forming and the relationships with their families. Not having heard of the incident or the people involved, because of their naughtiness at school I did wonder whether one of the main characters was going to turn out to be the terrorist at first!
I thought it was great that the heroes played themselves in this film. It gave it more realism- they were the ones who were there after all! How hard it must have been for them to relive what happened, especially Spencer Stone who was the out and out hero.
I was engrossed throughout.
  
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Blazing Minds (92 KP) rated The Monster Squad (1987) in Movies

Nov 1, 2021 (Updated Nov 3, 2021)  
The Monster Squad (1987)
The Monster Squad (1987)
1987 | Action, Comedy, Horror
The Monster Squad – Still Has NARDS!!
The Monster Squad is a movie that may be over 30 years old, damn I feel old now, but it still a brilliant watch, the makeup effects from Stan Winston Studios are amazing and even in today’s standard of overdosing with CGI, the movie has that feeling of realism.

The script from Fred Dekker and Shane Black is also something is directed on to the screen with pure style by Fred Dekker, the comedic elements still work now and I still find myself laughing loudly at many of the moments that the kids come out with some great one-liners.
  
The Exterminating Angel (1962)
The Exterminating Angel (1962)
1962 | Drama, Fantasy
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Buñuel’s work is very important to me because it made me understand how far you can go with imagination and still be so close to reality. For me, The Exterminating Angel is so real—maybe Buñuel wouldn’t be happy to hear me say that because he’s not famous for his realism. But even if it’s a surrealistic parable, I’ve been so many places where I felt like I was living inside the feeling of this movie. It’s like a documentary about society. When I was making my movie Happy as Lazzaro, I surveyed movies that all talk about how to be good, because Lazzaro is a good man. Viridiana came up as something to watch."

Source
  
Children of Paradise (1945)
Children of Paradise (1945)
1945 |
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"It seems I’ve been watching Children of Paradise all my life. I remember taking my son to see it when he was seven. When I was trying to convince Brando to play Garrett in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, he told me that, along with the master swordsman in Seven Samurai, the thief in Children of Paradise was the greatest performance on film. I came to Port of Shadows much later in my life, and the Criterion transfer really enhanced its beauty. Jean Gabin became a prototype for me of a kind of actor difficult to find today. And the dialogue inspired me to attempt to re-create its poetic realism."

Source
  
Port of Shadows (1938)
Port of Shadows (1938)
1938 | Crime, Drama, Romance
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"It seems I’ve been watching Children of Paradise all my life. I remember taking my son to see it when he was seven. When I was trying to convince Brando to play Garrett in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, he told me that, along with the master swordsman in Seven Samurai, the thief in Children of Paradise was the greatest performance on film. I came to Port of Shadows much later in my life, and the Criterion transfer really enhanced its beauty. Jean Gabin became a prototype for me of a kind of actor difficult to find today. And the dialogue inspired me to attempt to re-create its poetic realism."

Source
  
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Alice Rohrwacher recommended Viridiana (1961) in Movies (curated)

 
Viridiana (1961)
Viridiana (1961)
1961 | International, Comedy, Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Buñuel’s work is very important to me because it made me understand how far you can go with imagination and still be so close to reality. For me, The Exterminating Angel is so real—maybe Buñuel wouldn’t be happy to hear me say that because he’s not famous for his realism. But even if it’s a surrealistic parable, I’ve been so many places where I felt like I was living inside the feeling of this movie. It’s like a documentary about society. When I was making my movie Happy as Lazzaro, I surveyed movies that all talk about how to be good, because Lazzaro is a good man. Viridiana came up as something to watch."

Source
  
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Dana (24 KP) rated Beloved in Books

Mar 23, 2018  
Beloved
Beloved
A.S. Byatt, Toni Morrison | 2006 | Fiction & Poetry
8
6.9 (7 Ratings)
Book Rating
I had to read this book for my craft of fiction class. This was my first time reading it, but we were able to look at it as more than just plot, and more about how it was written and why it was written that way.

There are spoilers, so read at your own risk.

I very much enjoyed this book. I loved this view into a post slavery world filled of women who have to deal with the grief that has followed them throughout their lives. Sethe, though she has made her mistakes in her life, is still a sympathetic character who relies on her grief to survive through what she has done. Her daughters are strong women in their own rights. Beloved, being childlike and taking out her rage of her death on her mother and her family through stealing the attention and food for herself. She isolates, makes it so the others feel death hanging over themselves to understand her pain.

The format, being more stream of consciousness and not a cohesive, linear narrative, lends itself well to the magical realism of this book. This is nothing like a Harry Potter type of magical realism though. This is steeped in the tradition of former slaves, magical in their beliefs of the world and the afterlife. Not the people being able to control magic, but allowing it to be a real thing in their lives either way.

I really liked this book. If you want to understand why, check it out for yourself.
  
Cruel Beauty
Cruel Beauty
Rosamund Hodge | 2014 | Young Adult (YA)
10
8.5 (8 Ratings)
Book Rating
Romance (2 more)
Pacing
Strong Female Character
Character inconsistencies (0 more)
Love story
Nyx is honestly my favorite female book character. She has such a realism to her that I want to wrap around me. She isn't this hero who is going to her death great full for a chance to save her world, she is angry and full of poison and it's so refreshing. She isn't a perfect martyr. Not to mention the book takes its time and the time frame isn't a few days and Boom! She's in love. She has the opportunity to learn something about her husband and he has the opportunity to show he loves her for who she is. I reread the book constantly and I highly recommend it as a love story.