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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
2019 | Crime, Drama, Thriller
As real as a donut
once upon a timeinhollywood is slow paced, tight methodical, uplifting & intricately woven look into the life of a hollywood star in the late 60s. I have to say im not overly a big Tarantino fan (with Inglorious bastards & the hateful eight being my favourites of his) so I wasnt really that excited about seeing this but once I stopped being on edge waiting for something bad to happen & finally sat back letting the film pull me in I knew this wasnt the usual Tarantino movie & I found that strangely compelling. While slow 90% of the run time the film never drags or ever stops being interesting & fascinating. Characters just drip cool are all likeable well fleshed out & distinguishable with every performance absolutely killing it even people that arnt in it much. It just all feels very human, relatable, down to earth & real. Sets are crafted with such perfection & filled with so much painstaking detail that you would swear the film was actually shot in the 60s creating an atmosphere & believability like no other. Accompany that with a smooth soundtrack you have a movie that just pops with style constantly. While everyone does a fantastic job its brad pitt that owns the film, his character is so deep, inspirational & the true hero of the film. Overall I saw this film as a more chill ed out & about how every day life for us all most of the time is way more exciting, thrilling, full of drama & strange events day to day making our lives just as exciting & as watchable as going to the movies & if we all just stopped worrying/stressing for just a second about technology, love, being successful etc life would fall into place, be stress free, we would be healthier & happier. Masterfully filmed, inteligent, mature & well executed this is not only a true love letter to the art of film making but a tribute to movies & how inspiring they can be in general. So sit back enter the decade & relax it may all seem very anti violence at first but the violence does come with time & when it finally hits its shocking & nasty but it feels earned & perfectly timed.
  
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BookInspector (124 KP) rated The Rules in Books

Sep 24, 2020  
The Rules
The Rules
Tracy Darnton | 2020 | Thriller, Young Adult (YA)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The protagonist of this book is Amber, a sarcastic teenager, who lost her mother and had to travel from one foster house to another. When her father contacts her, she knows she has to run… I really liked Amber, she is an absolute kickass, but she explained how much she had to go through to become one… I really admire her resilience and intelligence, she is a true fighter, even though very emotionally traumatised one. I really liked the variety of characters chosen for this book. Amber is raised by a control freak, so control and order is her safety blanket. Her travel companion Josh, on the other hand, is a free spirit, not very worried about life in general. I think he was a true ray of sunshine in this novel.

I really enjoyed the narrative of this book. The story has a single perspective but dual timeline, the events from the past portray Amber’s life when she was trained for survival, and her present journey, while she is trying to run away from her obsessive and controlling father. I really liked this combo, and I was able to learn so much from Amber and her survival skills. There are a lot of sensitive topics discussed in this novel, such as emotional and physical violence, homelessness, prepper and survivalist communities and their work, many mental health issues, psychological trauma, and many more. I really enjoyed the way this story was told, it was like a runaway story, but it was an adventure nevertheless.

I really liked the writing style, it is visible that the author has done a great job with the research for this novel, it offers such a wide variety of lessons for survival in general, that our screen-addicted youth could learn from. I enjoyed the constantly changing set of this novel, I found it pretty entertaining. The chapters are pretty short, and the pages just flew by to me. Even though this book left some unanswered questions for me, I really liked the ending of this book, I think it rounded up this story well.

So, to conclude, this is a very thought-provoking novel, filled with rules, discipline and really interesting and complex characters, that are different. I really liked the narrative and it was a true page-turner for me. If you are looking for an adventurous YA psychological thriller, I think this book is for you.