David McK (3425 KP) rated Ready Player One in Books
Sep 19, 2021
Have also seen the movie mentioned below. It was just OK; not great.
<original 2016 review>
Prior to reading this, I'd heard good things about it, and was aware that - like seemingly nearly all of the current Young Adult Dystopian novels - there was a movie for it in the pipeline, by none other than Spielberg himself.
Set in the near-future, I found this to be like a cross between the Bruce Willis movie Surrogates (in that nearly everybody seems to live their life vicariously through other means), The Matrix (cyber reality) and maybe even a bit of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the MacGuffin that gets the plot rolling). it probably helps that - unlike the characters - I actually *was* a kid in the 80s, and so get plenty of the various pop-culture references made.
Plenty, but not all - this, remember, is set in America, so leans more towards the American or Japanese spectrum of popular culture than European.
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Marshall (2017) in Movies
Sep 25, 2019
I was enthralled by this film. It popped up on my listings and I went to it without knowing anything more than the fact it was a biopic. Just like Hidden Figures, this was an interesting, heart-breaking and moving tale.
Chadwick Boseman, who some of us will know as Black Panther in the Marvel Universe, was a brilliant lead. Josh Gad felt like such an odd choice, I've only ever seen him in comedy films or staring as our favourite feathered or Frozen friends, but the two of them together brought this powerful story to life on the screen.
There aren't many films where I come out knowing that I didn't miss a second of what happened, but this one had me on the edge of my seat. Not so much for the guy across the aisle though, I'm fairly certain that he was snoring at one point.
Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes
Book
Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes is the first major biography of the effervescent, scene-stealing...
From the Parade Child to the King of Chaos: The Complex Journey of William Doll, Teacher Educator
Book
From the Parade Child to the King of Chaos depicts the pedagogical life history of an extraordinary...
Running for My Life: One Lost Boy's Journey from the Killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games
Book
Running for My Life is not a story about Africa or track and field athletics. It is about outrunning...
Henry Miller
Book
This new critical biography takes an innovative look at the life and work of the notorious American...
Buccaneer: James Stuart Blackton and the Birth of American Movies
Book
This is an in-depth look at the life and career of James Stuart Blackton (1875-1941), the first...
Outside Podcast
Podcast
The Outside Podcast applies Outside's longstanding literary storytelling methods to the audio realm,...
Unbroken (2014)
Movie Watch
Academy Award® winner Angelina Jolie directs and produces this epic drama that follows the...
Final Portrait (2018)
Movie Watch
In Paris 1964, famed painter Alberto Giacometti bumps into his old friend James Lord, an American...