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LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Café Society (2016) in Movies

Sep 20, 2020 (Updated Nov 30, 2020)  
Café Society (2016)
Café Society (2016)
2016 | Comedy, Romance
This is fine, hardly anything of substance but cute enough. Literally not sure at all what this has on 𝘐𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘔𝘢𝘯 apart from the lavish period visuals - which are splendid of course - but even those don't look quite as nice as those found in 𝘞𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘦𝘭, which is also the better movie coincidentally. Normally I'm averse to the Old Hollywood era aesthetic which at this point has been recycled into oblivion - but this makes it feel alive and homey and again, for what that's worth. Unfortunately that also seems to be the only thing keeping this afloat as this aggressive non-story leads to tiring predictability, listless dialogue, "eh, they've done better" sorts of performances, flat characters, and a romance that strains after the first half hour. Things just happen whenever they feel like, and nothing is truly given its due time so nothing feels worth the time we have to put into it. A nice little tonic but thank goodness it isn't longer.
  
Lincoln in the Bardo
Lincoln in the Bardo
George Saunders | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
6
8.3 (6 Ratings)
Book Rating
The parts of the story surrounding the graveyard characters (0 more)
Style over substance (0 more)
Contains spoilers, click to show
When this book first came out it seemed to be publicised everywhere so when I saw it on a daily deal I picked up a copy.
I'm not sure what I was expecting but it wasn't quite what I got. While the main thread of the story focusing on the death of Lincoln's son and the ghosts in the graveyard was interesting it felt like this was essentially a short story bulked out into a novel (given the author is far more famous for his short stories this probably isn't surprising). The use of historical quotations to tell the parts of the story taken from real life seemed more of a clever affectation than actually a useful plot device. While I finished the book and felt like I knew a little more about Lincoln the man afterwards overall I didn't think it lived up to the hype surrounding it