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Bob Mann (459 KP) rated The Hate U Give (2018) in Movies
Sep 28, 2021
It’s a turf war on a global scale.
I saw this as part of a “Secret Cinema” event by Cineworld cinemas in the UK. That’s where you go to see a pre-release movie without knowing what it is going to be. It’s an interesting litmus test for a) a movie’s upfront marketing appeal (how many people get up and walk out when the BBFC title appears) and b) the “grab ’em early” appeal of the movie itself (how many people get up and walk out during the first 20 minutes of so).
I’m afraid this movie didn’t do very well on either a) or b) at my showing: about 20 people left immediately, and more tellingly about another 20 people left in the first half hour. There’s a reason for that: the first half hour of this film is goddamn awful!
Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) is a sixteen year-old resident of Garden Heights, a black neighbourhood in a US city, where she lives with her younger brother and step-brother. Their parents Maverick (Russell Hornsby, “Fences“) and Lisa (Regina Hall) are devoting all of their energies to “break the cycle” and get their kids out of the neighbourhood and off to college and better futures. As such, the kids attend not the rough-house local school but a much more upper-class establishment: there Starr has to play a different role, with links to her origins being kept hidden even from her white boyfriend Chris (K.J. Apa).
But all that changes when her boyhood friend Khalil (Algee Smith) is shot and killed in a police stop-and-search. As the only witness, and with Khalil linked to local gang lord King (Anthony Mackie), Starr’s anonymous world is about to get a national focus shone onto it.
Man… I hate voiceovers in films and always have. So I really hated the start of this film which has Starr narrating ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING (“Blah, blah, blah..”): no audience discovery is required. It also starts with a sort of highschool romance vibe, but not one that’s well done with kissing (“Blah, blah, blah..”) while the local Mean Girls look on (“Blah, blah”) then with Starr’s friends trying to act street (“blah, blah”) while Starr tries not to be street, all to the constant droning of Starr’s voiceover (“Blah, blah, blah..”). (I never walk out of movies…. but I can kind of understand the rationale of those who did).
Fortunately the voiceover then largely recedes (it only pops up with occasional staccato “thoughts”, before storming back for a “blah, blah” finale). And with the shooting, the film takes on a much more interesting slant, giving Amandla Stenberg a chance to really shine.
I have commented on Ms Stenberg before: she was the only really good thing in the recent “The Darkest Minds“. Here she exhibits a tremendous range from the delighted (her smile is radiant and seems astonishingly unforced) to the heartbroken and furious. There’s also a really strong supporting cast with great turns from Hornsby, Hall, Mackie and Smith. Hornsby in particular I found great as the Dad desperately tutoring his kids in military (but loving) fashion to avoid his mistakes.
For me, this seemed to be a surprisingly atypical view of a black ghetto-living family. A scene set in a diner is genuinely touching at emphasising the loving and close-knit nature of the Carter family.
Where I will struggle here is in trying to interpret my overall feelings about the film. As a white, older male person I have three degrees of separation from Starr’s perspective. And these are undoubtedly difficult issues to juggle with. The riots that happened recently in towns like Ferguson ape the activities on screen uncomfortably. Your sympathies might lie to some degree with the unfortunate white police officer (Drew Starkey); sympathies supported by the views of Starr’s police officer uncle Carlos (Common): until Starr points out via a punchy question that you REALLY shouldn’t feel like that… and your views are brought up with a jolt.
Aside from the rights and wrongs of the incident, there’s a frustrating dichotomy at play in the film with black and white communities wanting to be treated equally but never wanting to be treated the same. “You don’t SEE me” wails Starr. “I see you” replies Chris (as if James Cameron was directing!) But does he really? Without colour, I do not consider myself to be remotely capable of fully understanding Starr’s perspective on life. It made me want to read the source novel by Angie Thomas to try to get better insight.
Directed by George Tillman Jr., it’s undoubtedly a mixed bag, but I came down in the end on the side of it being good rather than bad… it has certainly had me thinking for a couple of days. The clumsy voiceovers and story elements in the opening and closing scenes mask a number of parallel and interesting story strands that generate conflicting thoughts about the state of race relations in today’s America. Jackson sang “It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white”: and it really shouldn’t, but actually in some quarters, it clearly still does.
I’m afraid this movie didn’t do very well on either a) or b) at my showing: about 20 people left immediately, and more tellingly about another 20 people left in the first half hour. There’s a reason for that: the first half hour of this film is goddamn awful!
Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) is a sixteen year-old resident of Garden Heights, a black neighbourhood in a US city, where she lives with her younger brother and step-brother. Their parents Maverick (Russell Hornsby, “Fences“) and Lisa (Regina Hall) are devoting all of their energies to “break the cycle” and get their kids out of the neighbourhood and off to college and better futures. As such, the kids attend not the rough-house local school but a much more upper-class establishment: there Starr has to play a different role, with links to her origins being kept hidden even from her white boyfriend Chris (K.J. Apa).
But all that changes when her boyhood friend Khalil (Algee Smith) is shot and killed in a police stop-and-search. As the only witness, and with Khalil linked to local gang lord King (Anthony Mackie), Starr’s anonymous world is about to get a national focus shone onto it.
Man… I hate voiceovers in films and always have. So I really hated the start of this film which has Starr narrating ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING (“Blah, blah, blah..”): no audience discovery is required. It also starts with a sort of highschool romance vibe, but not one that’s well done with kissing (“Blah, blah, blah..”) while the local Mean Girls look on (“Blah, blah”) then with Starr’s friends trying to act street (“blah, blah”) while Starr tries not to be street, all to the constant droning of Starr’s voiceover (“Blah, blah, blah..”). (I never walk out of movies…. but I can kind of understand the rationale of those who did).
Fortunately the voiceover then largely recedes (it only pops up with occasional staccato “thoughts”, before storming back for a “blah, blah” finale). And with the shooting, the film takes on a much more interesting slant, giving Amandla Stenberg a chance to really shine.
I have commented on Ms Stenberg before: she was the only really good thing in the recent “The Darkest Minds“. Here she exhibits a tremendous range from the delighted (her smile is radiant and seems astonishingly unforced) to the heartbroken and furious. There’s also a really strong supporting cast with great turns from Hornsby, Hall, Mackie and Smith. Hornsby in particular I found great as the Dad desperately tutoring his kids in military (but loving) fashion to avoid his mistakes.
For me, this seemed to be a surprisingly atypical view of a black ghetto-living family. A scene set in a diner is genuinely touching at emphasising the loving and close-knit nature of the Carter family.
Where I will struggle here is in trying to interpret my overall feelings about the film. As a white, older male person I have three degrees of separation from Starr’s perspective. And these are undoubtedly difficult issues to juggle with. The riots that happened recently in towns like Ferguson ape the activities on screen uncomfortably. Your sympathies might lie to some degree with the unfortunate white police officer (Drew Starkey); sympathies supported by the views of Starr’s police officer uncle Carlos (Common): until Starr points out via a punchy question that you REALLY shouldn’t feel like that… and your views are brought up with a jolt.
Aside from the rights and wrongs of the incident, there’s a frustrating dichotomy at play in the film with black and white communities wanting to be treated equally but never wanting to be treated the same. “You don’t SEE me” wails Starr. “I see you” replies Chris (as if James Cameron was directing!) But does he really? Without colour, I do not consider myself to be remotely capable of fully understanding Starr’s perspective on life. It made me want to read the source novel by Angie Thomas to try to get better insight.
Directed by George Tillman Jr., it’s undoubtedly a mixed bag, but I came down in the end on the side of it being good rather than bad… it has certainly had me thinking for a couple of days. The clumsy voiceovers and story elements in the opening and closing scenes mask a number of parallel and interesting story strands that generate conflicting thoughts about the state of race relations in today’s America. Jackson sang “It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white”: and it really shouldn’t, but actually in some quarters, it clearly still does.
Ross (3284 KP) rated The Ninth Rain in Books
Aug 27, 2018
The Ninth Rain takes place in a world with two main dominant races: humans and eborans. The latter used to derive strength from the sap of Ygserin, the life-giving god-tree. This tree also used to dispatch war-beasts when needed, following invasion from the "worm-people", an alien race who seem determined to destroy the land and its people. The story follows the adventures of Vintage and Tormalin (a human and her Eboran companion) as they try to research the worm people's motives and weaknesses, and Noon, a Fell-witch who can take someone's life force and turn it into a weapon of fire.
The plot is very well planned out and interwoven, with the history of the land and its people, and the main characters, being revealed over the course of the book as needed to fit in with the current timeline.
The characters are well crafted and develop in different ways over the course of the book.
For me, the middle third dragged a little as a fairly humdrum adventure across country unfolded and numerous incidents and conflicts occurred. There just didn't seem to be a great deal of direction and it was more that "things that need to happen will happen here" but it didn't really serve much purpose. The story before and after that was very strong, but this section was a chore.
I am always nervous when a character suddenly has a voice in their head telling them what to do, afraid of irritating deus ex machina. Here however that was not the case as the voice was a very important, and (eventually) well-grounded plot point.
Overall a very good story, set up nicely for the follow-up in the series.
The plot is very well planned out and interwoven, with the history of the land and its people, and the main characters, being revealed over the course of the book as needed to fit in with the current timeline.
The characters are well crafted and develop in different ways over the course of the book.
For me, the middle third dragged a little as a fairly humdrum adventure across country unfolded and numerous incidents and conflicts occurred. There just didn't seem to be a great deal of direction and it was more that "things that need to happen will happen here" but it didn't really serve much purpose. The story before and after that was very strong, but this section was a chore.
I am always nervous when a character suddenly has a voice in their head telling them what to do, afraid of irritating deus ex machina. Here however that was not the case as the voice was a very important, and (eventually) well-grounded plot point.
Overall a very good story, set up nicely for the follow-up in the series.
Vladimir Jabotinsky's Story of My Life
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Vladimir Jabotinsky is well remembered as a militant leader and father of the right-wing Revisionist...
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Building the Skyline: The Birth and Growth of Manhattan's Skyscrapers
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The Manhattan skyline is one of the great wonders of the modern world. But how and why did it form?...
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Susan Glaspell's Poetics and Politics of Rebellion
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A pioneer of American modern drama and founding member of the Provincetown Players, Susan Glaspell...
The Complete Peanuts 1971-1972: Volume 11
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Peanuts surges into the 1970s with Schulz at the peak of his powers and influence: a few jokes about...
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It's official: the zombie apocalypse is here! The living dead have been lurking in media and popular...
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Scanners (1981) in Movies
Sep 7, 2020
I'm Gonna Suck Your Brain Dry
Scanners- is anethor excellent film directed by Cronenberg. I love his style which is sci-fi mixed with horror. With disturbing, gory effects.
The plot: Scanners are men and women born with incredible telepathic and telekinetic powers. There are many who exercise the benefits of their special gifts in a safe and judicious manner. However, there is a group of renegade scanners who plan to create a race that will rule the world.
In the film, "scanners" are people with unusual telepathic and telekinetic powers. ConSec, a purveyor of weaponry and security systems, searches out scanners to use them for its own purposes. The film's plot concerns the attempt by Darryl Revok (Ironside), a renegade scanner, to wage a war against ConSec. Another scanner, Cameron Vale (Lack), is dispatched by ConSec to stop Revok.
Writer and director David Cronenberg has called Scanners one of his most difficult films to make, citing an incomplete script when the shooting schedule commenced, as well as a lack of constructed sets.
The iconic head explosion scene was the product of trial and error, eventually settling on a plaster skull and a gelatin exterior packed with "latex scraps, some wax, and just bits and bobs and a lot of stringy stuff that we figured would fly through the air a little better" as well as "leftover burgers." When other explosive techniques failed to give the desired effect, special effects supervisor Gary Zeller told the crew to roll cameras and get inside the trucks with doors and windows closed; he then lay down behind the dummy and shot it in the back of the head with a shotgun.
Michael Ironside is a excellent job as the villian.
Its a excellent sci-fi body horror film.
The plot: Scanners are men and women born with incredible telepathic and telekinetic powers. There are many who exercise the benefits of their special gifts in a safe and judicious manner. However, there is a group of renegade scanners who plan to create a race that will rule the world.
In the film, "scanners" are people with unusual telepathic and telekinetic powers. ConSec, a purveyor of weaponry and security systems, searches out scanners to use them for its own purposes. The film's plot concerns the attempt by Darryl Revok (Ironside), a renegade scanner, to wage a war against ConSec. Another scanner, Cameron Vale (Lack), is dispatched by ConSec to stop Revok.
Writer and director David Cronenberg has called Scanners one of his most difficult films to make, citing an incomplete script when the shooting schedule commenced, as well as a lack of constructed sets.
The iconic head explosion scene was the product of trial and error, eventually settling on a plaster skull and a gelatin exterior packed with "latex scraps, some wax, and just bits and bobs and a lot of stringy stuff that we figured would fly through the air a little better" as well as "leftover burgers." When other explosive techniques failed to give the desired effect, special effects supervisor Gary Zeller told the crew to roll cameras and get inside the trucks with doors and windows closed; he then lay down behind the dummy and shot it in the back of the head with a shotgun.
Michael Ironside is a excellent job as the villian.
Its a excellent sci-fi body horror film.
Jesters_folly (230 KP) rated Guardians (2017) in Movies
Aug 31, 2020
Listed as Russia's Avengers, Guardians is a fun superhero film.
During the cold war a secret Russian organisation called Patriot performed a number of illegal experiments, with both machines and humans. Patriot was shut down due the actions of a rouge scientist who was trying to create module 1 a device that can control any vehicle remotely. Now, a number of experimental tanks have been stolen so Patriot is reopened and a number of the human experiments are found to combat their old creator.
4 hero's are found; Ler, who can control rocks and use them as weapons and armour, Khan, a super speed ninja, Kseniya, who can turn invisible (when wet) and doesn't feel temperature and Arsus, a were-bear with a Gatling gun.
Like many other hero's the hero's of Guardians have their own problems and their reasons for not wanting to be found but these are only touched upon as the film concentrates on bringing the team together and then fighting the enemy whilst showing off their powers and, lets face it, that's what most of us want from a super hero movie.
The plot is simple, the evil Avgust Kuratov wants to take over all the machines of the world and the Guardians are formed to stop him. The effects and CGI aren't bad and we even get a couple transformation scenes with the were-bear. There are funny moments and tragic back stories and action, really most things you would want in a super hero film.
There is a hint of a sequel, both at the end of the film and a scene during the credits which also promises more hero's but, unfortunately,I don't think it's been made.
During the cold war a secret Russian organisation called Patriot performed a number of illegal experiments, with both machines and humans. Patriot was shut down due the actions of a rouge scientist who was trying to create module 1 a device that can control any vehicle remotely. Now, a number of experimental tanks have been stolen so Patriot is reopened and a number of the human experiments are found to combat their old creator.
4 hero's are found; Ler, who can control rocks and use them as weapons and armour, Khan, a super speed ninja, Kseniya, who can turn invisible (when wet) and doesn't feel temperature and Arsus, a were-bear with a Gatling gun.
Like many other hero's the hero's of Guardians have their own problems and their reasons for not wanting to be found but these are only touched upon as the film concentrates on bringing the team together and then fighting the enemy whilst showing off their powers and, lets face it, that's what most of us want from a super hero movie.
The plot is simple, the evil Avgust Kuratov wants to take over all the machines of the world and the Guardians are formed to stop him. The effects and CGI aren't bad and we even get a couple transformation scenes with the were-bear. There are funny moments and tragic back stories and action, really most things you would want in a super hero film.
There is a hint of a sequel, both at the end of the film and a scene during the credits which also promises more hero's but, unfortunately,I don't think it's been made.
The Boy in the Attic (Wartime Holland Book 3)
7.0
Rate It
Book
Anna opened the letter with trembling hands. ‘My darling, if you’re reading this, I haven’t...